The Amazon Kindle DX: A video review

The new Amazon Kindle DX is a worthy addition to the Kindle family of e-book readers, as I thought when I used it briefly a few weeks ago. But having used the DX a little more (see the video at right), I've concluded that its heavier weight, higher price, and ergonomic shortcomings make the smaller Kindle 2 the better choice for most people.

But here's who might consider newest and biggest of Kindles, which began shipping on Wednesday at a price of $489 (compared with $359 for the Kindle 2). I've included some caveats:

Students. The DX's 9.7-inch screen, measured diagonally, allows more content to be shown at a time than on the Kindle 2, with its 6-inch screen. Textbook pages are among the reading fare that can most benefit from the extra real estate; charts, diagrams, and their associated explanations will be less likely to be broken among multiple pages. Amazon says it will soon have many more textbooks available for Kindle later this year.
Caveat: For now, though, you can by no means rely on getting any textbook for the device; check availability at the Kindle Store.

Newspaper and magazine readers. Amazon hopes to use the DX to sell more Kindle subscriptions to newspapers (for $5.99 to $14.99 a month) or magazines ($1.25 to $8.99 a month). And you certainly can see more of a story from these periodicals on the DX's supersized screen.
Caveat: Despite the larger size of the DX, Kindle editions of these periodicals still don't generally appear in the same layout and presentation as on paper—for example, you can't see and scan the entire front page of a newspaper as it is laid out in print.

The visually-impaired. The bigger screen of the DX makes its largest type size notably larger than the biggest type on the Kindle DX; the DX sizing is more like that found in the big-print editions of books or newspapers. You can also vary the length of each line of text, which might also help those with vision problems.

I could not find any caveats for a visually-impaired person who was considering buying a DX. However, I haven't been able to have such a reader use the device—and would love to hear comments from any who have.

A final consideration might be the relative availability of these models. A DX ordered today would ship next Wednesday, according to Amazon. The Kindle 2 is available for immediate shipment. —Paul Reynolds.

Comments

[Frank Terrill]

Well I see that there are others that are having difficulties publishing e-books for the Kinle.

I've been writing a technical book for the last 6 months hoping that Amazon would improve their tech support and allow more lattitude in formatting for publishing. Such as uploading a PDF file to the DTP site without alteration.

How different this is. I can transfeer a PDF to my DX by just dragging and dropping a PDF file to the DX folder on my computer and it will automatically appear on my Kindle DX menu.

It is perfecttly formatted the way it was originally created an displays accordingly on the DX. This also includes 35 photos and drawings.

I have even discovered that, for a price, you can subscribe to Adobie and make your hyperlinks and bookmarks from a Word document conversion to a PDF actually work. I don't know however if this will actually work on the Kindle but I will probably try.

So your contention is absolutely correct in that the DX will accurately display a PDF but in no way will you be able to expect the same by uploading and 'converting' it to an AZW file for publication. Until this is resolved the small publisher can in no way compete with large publishers that seem to publish to the Kindle without this problem. Why is that?

How sad.

[bmcdeepak]

I have now had the DX for 4 weeks. I have so far bought ONLY one book from the Kindle Store (one on how to format your own documents for the Kindle). It was incomplete and not what I was looking for but not necessarily due to author's fault...the technical information (not) supplied by Amazon.com for formatting your own documents for the Kindle is TERRIBLE and NOT OPEN.

In other words, when it comes to writing your own books/periodicals for the Kindle, IT IS A CLOSED BOOK.

First, formatting for eBooks on the Kindle is a terrible process, requiring either zero control (if you use their "free automated service") or you have to use a third-party software (from a company that is now owned by amazon.com).

Second, a small subset of HTML 1.0 is what is available to format your books. This means your are back in 1993...which is equivalent to atleast 2 ice ages in the digital time scale.

Third, the way you are allowed to format eBooks is different from the way ePeriodicals (NYTimes, The Atlantic, The Economist, etc...available for a high monthly subscription) are formatted. ePeriodicals have a nice look and feel on the Kindle...with running headers, and Previous/Next/Contents menu all available from the same 5-point button. Amazon.com does not allow you to format your own content to use these features of the Kindle. Imagine if you bought a toaster that only toasted Wonderbread and nothing else.

Fourth, and this makes it worse, there is no documentation provided for formatting ePeriodicals...that is, all the so called 'fancy' features (see above), are being kept secret.

Fifth, there is a web browser integrated but its functionality is seriously limited. Some sites will load fine, others are randomly blocked from loading (without any error messages whatsoever)...so it is quite useless.

Sixth, you are not allowed to copy/paste or print any of the content you bought. There is a rudimentary "clip" facility that allows you to clip an article and then copy it on your computer in plain text...now we're almost at the "big bang".

Seventh (and not the last but I will stop here for now), you can read PDF documents on the DX but you do not get any navigation built into the document...i.e. it is hardly close to an Acrobat Reader. You cannot enlarge fonts. For most technical documents you will need to view them in landscape mode...which only shows you a third of a printed page at a time making it a very hard read.

From a writer's perspective, therefore, I would give it a "big black dot".

Amazon.com is gearing up for trials to use the DX in college courses starting this fall. This device is NOT meant to browse or read 300+ page textbooks, especially if they are technical. While the technology available in it has tremendous potential, it is being kept hidden and controlled so all of it cannot be exploited at the same time.

[Gary]

What I want to know is, where can I "kick the tires"? I'd like to see if I like the fonts, the type size, etc. for myself and not have to rely solely on reviews and word of mouth

[Brandon]

Great Review, thanks

[Independent Publisher]

I really think Amazon which dominated internet books sales by ensuring that ALL books were available at Amazon.com is missing the boat on the Kindle by not giving more publishing assistance to make more titles available in Kindle format. Just as a quick example, have you looked for a John Grisham novel on the Kindle? Well, don't bother, you won't find any.

You will find some Stephen King novels... but only a fraction of what he has written. Why? Because it's not easy to convert to Kindle format.

The DX seems to have a lot more potential to me because it handles PDF files and it is easy to produce a book in PDF format.

[KT]

The caveat for the visually impared: the menus and home screen do not enlarge along with the type of a book. At least, that's how it was on the K1 and K2. Does the DX do this?