วันอาทิตย์ที่ 11 ตุลาคม พ.ศ. 2552

Amazon Kindle DX - Review

You can get the Kindle DX at Amazon for $489 (preorders – DX ships in the summer). Here’s my Kindle DX review based on information currently available. Do leave a comment if you have questions.

The Kindle DX is great if you’re -

  1. In college – its perfect for textbooks and has in-built PDF support.
  2. At school – again, DX is great for textbooks. Its light and you no longer have to carry a ton of books.
  3. A frequent traveller and/or a daily commuter. Do note that the Kindle 2 is more compact, and consider the trade-off between larger screen, PDF support and better newspaper readability VS compact size and lower price.

The Kindle DX is a good choice for –

  1. Reading newspapers.
  2. A Professional who wants a way to carry around documents and books. No more printing sheets of paper and printing out emails.
  3. Reading books. (If you prefer a compact screen, consider the Kindle 2).

The DX is just 0.38″ thin (which is a nice contrast to the 9.7″ screen) and looks good

Kindle DX with 9.7″ screen and PDF Support

The DX has a shiny metallic back (the lower 3/4ths).

Kindle DX Review – Top 5 Features

The 5 best features of the DX, in my opinion, are -

  1. Large, Readable eInk Screen – The 9.7″ Kindle DX Screen is great for reading textbooks and newspapers. The eInk screen is easy on the eyes. Kindle DX’s Screen has 2.5 times the surface area of 6″ eReaders (Kindle 2, Sony Reader).
  2. PDF Support – The first Kindle with official Adobe PDF support. Transfer your PDF documents via WhisperNet, synchronize between your Kindle DX and your iPhone/iTouch. Amazon has licensed Adobe technology and reflows PDFs – However, panning, zooming and scrolling are not supported.
  3. Free Wireless Internet - Theres’ a browser and free Internet Access so you can use it for reference.
  4. Cheap Textbooks Delivered Wirelessly in 60 seconds – There’ll be good prices (Amazon Kindle Editions of books usually are $9.99 instead of $24.99). Amazon is claiming 60% of textbooks will be covered initially.
  5. Convenience – Carry as many texbooks as you like. Buy books and textbooks instantly, anytime. Changeable font sizes, changeable words per line, and more.

Kindle DX Review – What DX Looks Like

Amazon Kindle DX product page has a good video. My DX should arrive in a couple months (they ship in summer) and I’ll add a Kindle DX video review. Here’s an image showing Kindle DX reading PDF -

Kindle DX with PDF support

Kindle DX Review – Pros

Top 11 Pros

  1. PDF Support - Official Adobe PDF support so your PDF documents look great. You can get PDFs onto your DX wirelessly (15 cents per MB for wireless, or free from your computer).
  2. Cheaper Textbooks. 60% of textbooks will be available as 3 of the large publishers are signed up.
  3. Kindle for iPhone and WhisperSync – You can read a document or textbook across your Kindle DX, iPhone and iTouch. Your annotations, bookmarks and the page you’re on are synchronized wirelessly.
  4. Large Screen – The 9.7″ screen is a great size for textbooks, newspapers, and even books. It roughly translates to a little smaller than A4 size.
  5. eInk Screen - This is a very readable screen that causes next to zero eye strain. Much, much closer to reading a book than a computer screen.
  6. Auto-rotate – looks to be a good, solid feature.
  7. Read To Me - Provided publishers don’t turn it off for their books, books can be read out to you by the Kindle DX while you drive, cook, etc.
  8. Change Font Sizes and change the number of words per line.
  9. Long Battery Life – Kindle DX lasts 4 days with wireless on, and 2 weeks with wireless off.
  10. Large Storage – The 3.3GB of available storage (out of 4 GB overall) gives you a lot of space. Amazon says 3,500 books.
  11. Free Wireless Internet – WhisperNet is available wherever Sprint wireless coverage exists.

More Pros

  1. In-Built Dictionary and Wikipedia access.
  2. Light and Thin – The Kindle DX is just 0.38″ thick. Its also light at 18.9 ounces.
  3. Cloud Storage – Any books you buy are stored in the Amazon cloud and you can download them anytime.
  4. Good Screen Resolution – 1200 by 824 with 16 shades of grey.
  5. Normal books are much cheaper in their Kindle Edition. Books usually retail for $9.99.
  6. More than 275,000 books.
  7. 60% coverage of textbooks as 3 of the big textbook publishers are on-board. Addison Wiley, Pearson, Prentice Hall, Longman and many more.

Kindle DX Review – Cons

  1. Price – The price is definitely high and mostly a function of the fact that eInk technology is still evolving. If $489 is too high for you consider the Kindle 2which is $359. Do look at my post on Kindle 2 VS Kindle DX.
  2. No Color – eInk will not have color technology till 2011. There might be other technologies that come out with a reading-friendly screen in color before that. DX definitely does not have color.
  3. No TouchScreen.
  4. Note-taking is going to be painful.
  5. Lack of a full keyboard.
  6. Screen Refresh Speed – Screen takes a fraction of a second to refresh. Do look at the Kindle 2 videos – screen technology is going to be the same i.e. how it looks, how it refreshes. Screen is 2.5 tims bigger though.
  7. The user interface is not very refined. This is because eInk takes some time to refresh. This rules out video and quicker, faster user interfaces.
  8. Only available in white.
  9. Lack of Folders and a way to organize books and documents elegantly. Unless Amazon updates on this will assume it’s still missing.

Kindle DX Recommendation

The Kindle DX is a very good choice if you spend a lot of time reading textbooks, reading books or carrying around documents. The price of $489 is very reasonable for a 9.7″ screen (for comparison the iRex Illiad with a comparable screen retails for $859). With lower textbook and book prices you’ll make it back (figuratively, not literally) in 1.5 to 2 years.

  1. My recommendation for you if you’re in school or college is to definitely get a Kindle DX if you can afford it.
  2. If you’re a frequent traveller or commuter, again the DX is great – contrast withthe Kindle 2 and get the one that better suits your needs (its basically Kindle 2’s lower price, compactness Vs Kindle DX’s larger screen, PDF support, and auto-rotate).
  3. If you’re looking for a Kindle DX for work, it’s really useful for carrying around documents. Getting it expensed would be cool too.
  4. If you’re looking for a newspaper reader, I’d say Kindle DX is a good choice. The Kindle’s UI and general functionality is better suited to long form reading.

Two things to keep in mind -

  1. NYTimes, Boston Globe and Wahington Post will offer a lower price Kindle DX to people outside their delivery areas.
  2. 6 universities, including Princeton, are going to run trials with Kindle DX in the Fall semster.

Finally, hope the Kindle DX review helped you – next up is a kindle dx review series looking at it from the perspectives of textbook reader, travel/commute gadget, book reader, business document reader, and newspaper reader. My gut tells me the DX will review well for the first three and so-so for the last 2.

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