Kindle DX Pros, Cons, LiveBlogging

Posted on June 11, 2009 by switch11

Adding in all the vital pieces of information found in each kindle dx review currently online, and also a section for the liveblogging kindle dx review and question and answer session going on at the official kindle forums.

Kindle DX Review – Pros, Cons from owners

The list below is my pros and cons found as I go through all user reviews (also thanks to Brent Newhall and Jeffrey Ritholtz for liveblogging their experience) -

Top Kindle DX Review Pros

  1. PDFs look great.
  2. Screen is better (from kindle owner reviews at Amazon) -

    the screen is also sharper and crisper than my Kindle 2 in a side-by-side comparison: the text is darker, and the contrast is much better, making for better visibility overall.

  3. More of the screen’s surface is devoted to the screen and borders seem to be smaller.
  4. Landscape Mode.
  5. Really big largest Font Size making it great for low vision people.

    At the largest font size, a capital letter is 3/16″ tall (just under 1/4″). Full character height–from the bottom of a “g” to the top of a “d”–is 1/4″.

  6. Big enough to read comics and manga. 
  7. Browsing web in landscape mode is great. 
  8. PDFs have page numbers. 
  9. PDF search will highlight the found term on the page.
  10. More uses i.e. reviewers are talking about transferring knitting patterns, cello music, and that poetry can be read easily on the bigger screen. Probably cookbooks too.

Top Kindle DX Review Cons

  1. Its pretty expensive.
  2. No Folders – can’t believe Amazon still don’t have this.
  3. TTS does not work for PDFs. 
  4. No SD card for extra storage.
  5. Lack of Color. I  wish people would stop beating this dead horse and just accept that eInk does NOT support color at the moment. Its not in Amazon’s hands.
  6. Dictionary and 5 way controller navigation doesn’t work in PDFs.
  7. No annotations or highlighting in PDFs.
  8. PDF page turns in portrait mode are really slow. They are however fast in Landscape mode. 
  9. No Table of contents in PDFs. 
  10. Keyboard is getting a lot of flack. Keys too small. Having to use shift keys for the numbers. 
  11. Kindle DX is noticeably heavier.
  12. Navigation only on the right side hampers one handed reading.
  13. WhisperNet seems slower on Kindle DX, although it might be due to everyone trying it out now. 
  14. Easy to accidentally switch viewing modes – However you can lock into a mode.

Kindle DX Review LiveBlogging courtesy Brent Newhall

At the Official Amazon Kindle Forums, Brent Newhall is live-blogging a Kindle DX Review (definitely check it out). Some good points -

The biggest font size is MASSIVE. Larger than any large-print book I’ve ever seen.

I can foresee buying a *lot* of B&W comics for the Kindle.
The screen refreshes a little faster when typing, I think.

And it worked! I was able to tweet from my DX.

Man. Switch the DX to landscape mode and browse the web…and the experience is slick. Feels like a netbook. It just works.

While the K1′s screen is a mass-market paperback, the DX’s screen is a large hardback.

Aaaaaaand, PDFs have page numbers! That is *so* weird. Right down at the bottom of the page. Lower left displays your percentage way through the book, the middle your current page, and the right number of pages total. So, it’s:

1% . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 . . . . . . . . . (4 of 322)

What an excellent idea to live-blog a kindle dx review and answer people’s questions on the go. Hope Brent does it for every kindle release.

Filed under: kindle dx, reviews | Tagged: ,

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12 Responses

  1. method, on June 12, 2009 at 4:16 am Said:

    Hallelujah for the higher contrast text! :)

    Reply
  2. The Kindle Chronicles - 47 Len Edgerly on the DX, on June 12, 2009 at 3:12 pm Said:

    [...] – The Kindle DX arrives.  Some good reviews here, here, here, and here.  and a Kindle DX Textbook store may open on about July [...]

    Reply
  3. Blair in West HollyWeird, on June 13, 2009 at 12:55 pm Said:

    ive seen some dark fonts on the Kindle 2, so why not fix it font wise on the Kindle 2 since obviously they figured out how to fix it on the DX model… due to screen or font use.

    Reply
  4. switch11, on June 13, 2009 at 1:04 pm Said:

    Blair, you make a good point. If its just a anti-aliasing software issue, they really ought to fix it on the Kindle 2.
    In fact, they shouldn’t even be averse to using the darker font hack and creating something that can apply to Kindle 2 users in general.
    That and bold text by default.

    don’t know when/if they’ll do it though.

    Reply
  5. xyzzy.plugh, on September 5, 2009 at 5:16 am Said:

    Sorry, but I simply can NOT get over the proprietary operating system, Amazon (or whoever) has total control and can delete things remotely without your consent. Recently, in July, Amazon deleted copies of “Animal Farm” and “1984″ from every kindle because of a rights issue. The customers ALL lost the copies they had paid for and Amazon did NOT offer any refund or any other reimbursement of any kind until NOW, September 2009 with $30 credit or some such. Still, the fact they can delete things AND that you can not easily add anything of your OWN makes this thing a BAD deal, no matter HOW good the text looks in black and white!

    I am really curious to know what exactly you all see in a closed operating system as this device has. You are at the mercy of the publisher and you are PAYING big money to be in that position, which makes NO sense to me… YMMV…

    One last thing, how do you back up the data? Last I heard, like anything electronic that is battery powered, it isn’t IF, but WHEN it fails…

    Reply
    • switch11, on September 5, 2009 at 10:31 am Said:

      growing pains. there are always issues as new technology evolves. the boundary has been set.

      also in terms of how to do backups –
      Books and notes are stored in an archive in the cloud (amazon’s servers). Notes are accessible online. You can also back them and books up on your computer.
      Personal documents are not archived online so you have to be extra careful about them.

      Reply
  6. xyzzy.plugh, on September 9, 2009 at 4:02 am Said:

    Switch11… backups on THEIR servers? Does that not STILL leave you and your data at THEIR mercy? I am bothered that they can reach into your device and wipe your data as they did with “1984″ and “Animal Farm”. I have a Pocket PC with Microsoft reader installed. I read ebooks routinely. Microsoft can NOT reach into my pocket PC and delete files. (At least, not so far as I know, anyway) I can drag and drop as I please between my desktop and PPC. The screen is a little small, displaying only about as much text as 1/4th the typical paperback. page, and really is poor compared to a Kindle I saw in person, but still simply having a better display of text is not enough to overcome the cons of the operating system and control the powers that be actually HAVE over a device you OWN. That is equally as bad as Microsofts “Genuine Advantage” crap which phones home and “validates” the legality of your copy of Windoze and makes a mistake in about 1 in 4 installations even with a genuine legal copy. At least with my PPC, I can assemble my own LIT format books from text or HTML files, for free using a free add-on to MS Word or one of several other freeware utilities. And there are other utility programs to take LIT files apart so you can add or edit and then reassemble them again. Again, all for free. Project Gutenberg has a LOT of text in the public domain and I am one by one, working my way through the classics I should have read long ago… I have to admit ONE thing though, the display on a Kindle is fantastic even though it does not have color, and I wish my lowly PPC had something as good. I really LIKE the concept of the Kindle (It reminds me of the “tablets” they have had on the various versions of Star Trek.), I’m just disappointed in the implementation. And it wouldn’t hurt to drop the price to something reasonable, like $40-$50… YMMV… Is it really true that half the cost of a Kindle, about $100 worth, is the LCD display panel all by itself?

    Reply
  7. Kate Jones, on September 14, 2009 at 8:23 am Said:

    After careful comparison – I just bought a DX (but haven’t got it yet) I think I would have very much regretted a smaller screen had I gotten a Kindle 2. Using sheetmusic is a big PRO for me as well.

    The only thing I couldn’t find in any reviews was if you can read in the dark? Is there some kind of backlight?

    I’ve got all my books on my harddisk in different formats, but mostly in PDF.
    Am I wrong in understanding I can sync them through USB without Amazon interference?

    I think pretty much everything can be converted to PDF one way or the other, nad from PDF to mobi or prc or whatever it is, so if I don’t mind conversion time I should be able to have every book I have in full functional mode with dictionary/note/TTS support etc?

    Also, with the “cons”- – would the “navigation keys on one side only” not be easily solved by holding it upside down?
    I guess I’ve got the advantage of this being my first eReader, so I’ve got nothing to compare it to.

    Reply
  8. switch11, on September 14, 2009 at 11:11 am Said:

    Kate, there is no backlight.
    You can sync PDF files via USB on the DX.

    Yes, you would have to convert PDFs to prc format, and then you would get TTS and notetaking abilities etc.

    yes you can hold the kindle dx upside down – not a very elegant solution. however, it works.

    haha – the last line is priceless. if you compare the kindle dx to a book the convenience makes the dx look very good.

    Reply
  9. Gretchen, on December 11, 2009 at 9:32 am Said:

    Do you know how large the print size can go on the DX?

    Reply
    • switch11, on December 11, 2009 at 2:31 pm Said:

      Here is the Kindle DX Font Size information (courtesy Brent Newhall) –

      At the largest font size, a capital letter is 3/16″ tall (just under 1/4″). Full character height–from the bottom of a “g” to the top of a “d”–is 1/4″.

      Reply

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