No secret that I’m a huge fan of Amazon’s Kindle electronic book reader. I’ve had one since Day 1 and read dozens of books and hundreds of shorter articles on it. Its crystal clear e-ink screen works even in bright sunlight. The battery life is phenomenal. And the free wireless connection makes it a breeze to buy new books from almost anywhere in the United States, surf text-heavy and mobile-formatted web sites and stay up-to-date with favorite magazines and blogs on the fly. Amazon’s Kindle store has, by far, the best selection of ebooks you’d actually want to read and at the lowest prices in nearly every case.
In fact, I’ve been so satisfied that I skipped the Kindle2 upgrade opportunity. The improvements sounded fine, but not enough to justify re-upping when my Kindle1 still worked brilliantly.
The larger screen and enhanced PDF capability of the Kindle DX grabbed my attention, however. I have to read a lot of PDF files for work and the DX’s native ability to display even complicated files in Adobe’s popular format appealed greatly. I pre-ordered ASAP and so have been using the DX since it arrived in June. In two months plus since, I’ve found it to be much like the original only better. The price tag is undeniably high at $489, so I’ll leave it to each reader to determine whether a DX purchase is justified based on their personal economic situation.
The DX is considerably larger and heavier than my original Kindle, obviously. But I’ve found that if I hold the DX just so, with one hand gripping towards the middle of the device, the weight balances nicely and it doesn’t feel heavy. Displaying far more text on the 9.7″ screen means less pressing of buttons and changing pages, which has noticeably sped up my reading. The bigger screen is also great for reading magazine articles and offline blog posts, which I’ve been more likely to sign up for since getting the DX.
The DX also shares all the cool new improvements from the Kindle2. Pay attention to the improved abilities of the font-changing button, for example. The little key carrying a picture of a bold capital letter A next to a small A does more than just change font sizes now. It can also change the screen orientation 90, 180 or 270 degrees (or lock in a particular orientation to prevent the DX’s hair-trigger sensor from doing it for you). It can also change the width of the margins, a handy feature to accelerate reading (narrow columns are easier to speed read). And it’s the place to go to activate the new read-aloud feature (which I don’t really ever use and is often disabled by greedy publishers).
The improved PDF feature works as advertised. Using drag & drop or email, you can throw PDFs onto your Kindle and open them immediately — no translation required. There’s not much you can do to alter a file’s appearance, though if you switch from portrait to landscape mode, you effectively zoom in maybe 33% or so. Pictures and charts show up fine unless they include tiny, intricate details. There’s no color but the Kindle’s 16 shades of grey simulate as best they can.
While I mostly approve of the design changes from the original, two sort of rankle. The new keyboard is harder to use with its smaller, roundish buttons than my old Kindle’s keyboard. And the five-way rocker switch — or whatever they’re calling it — is useful, but it’s much, much slower to move around on a page than the old rolly button with its silver sentinel. In the unaddressed previous flaws category, there’s still no good way to organize your ebooks on the Kindle and book sorting options remain limited. And still no real page numbers, either.
We seem to be entering a golden age of electronic book readers. Since Amazon introduced the DX, Sony has debuted three new readers, including FINALLY one with wireless service, Barnes & Noble has announced all kinds of partners and a host of smaller players have hit the scene. Maybe someday soon Apple’s rumored tablet device will arrive, as well. And through it all, the Kindle DX remains a great device for reading and obtaining books and magazines. It will serve me well as I wait to see what new delights await in the future.
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