It was two months ago today that my new Kindle DX arrived, and I’m just as excited about it now as I was then. The interface isn’t perfect, but overall it’s easy to use. The screen is amazing. The fact that it’s reflective instead of being back lit makes it easy to read, and I have yet to have a problem with glare. I’m also very happy I got the large screen version, given the technical books I read. It would be virtually impossible to read them on the standard version. On the other hand, if I mainly read paperbacks and best sellers then I would want the smaller version because it’s easier to hold and operate one handed (like I do when I read paperbacks).
There are a couple of bad things about the Kindle, though. First, it’s way too easy to buy books. You would think this is a good thing, and it is. But it also means it’s too easy to buy things impulsively. What is nice is once you buy a book, you don’t have to wait for it to show up in the mail to start reading it. It arrives in a minute or two, and you’re done. I’ve been reading business books lately, and that instant gratification of “I want to read this, and now I am” is nice. You can also download a preview of a book before you buy it, which is not something you can do with a paper book. So no only can you start reading a book now instead of waiting, you can also read the introduction and possibly first chapter of the book now, and for free.
The other bad thing about the Kindle DX is actually bad. I have a nice collection of gamer books on PDF, and one of the reasons I wanted a Kindle DX was it’s ability to view PDF files without having to convert them first (which is what you have to do for the Kindle 2). For a number of PDFs this works just fine, and you can flip through them easily. For others, rendering each page can take several minutes, so flipping through them is not so easy, or the PDF cannot be read and appears as a single blank page. I’ve also tried to read PDFs that cause my Kindle DX to freeze up completely, which is compounded by the fact that the reset button is a software reset and not a hardware one. So when a PDF crashes my device I hit the reset and then put it down for a half hour to forty-five minutes while it tries to come back. This could have been solved with a hardware reset, which the other Kindle’s have. Hopefully the next generation large screen Kindle will as well.
Overall I love my device. It is a rare day that I don’t wake it up and try to read something. I really want to get a Kindle 2 for Raelene, I think she would love it as well. Maybe she’ll let me buy her a refurbished one. 🙂