Is the Kindle DX Worth the Money?

An anonymous reader writes "Now that some little time has passed, and the hype has died down a bit, I'm wondering if anyone has taken the $500 plunge and gotten a Kindle DX. From the academic-paper-reading-geek perspective, is it worth the money? How well does it work with PDFs, and is it easy to get them on and off? I haven't been able to find any good reviews on the interweb that address its usability as I would like to use it."

Skip until cheaper/better

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really - the screen is only a bit bigger than the regular Kindle, doesn't handle PDF's very well (i.e. keeps all of the white space around the edge of docs) and offers no ability to annotate. I am waiting for ePaper products to get considerably cheaper and get something with specs similar to the iRex Digital Reader 1000S. I also find that for just fiction reading, I tend to do better with a smaller, narrower screen rather than a large screen with small font.

See new screens from OLPC's Mary Lou

[dowdle]

Have you seen the videos on oplc.tv [www.oplc.tv] of the new screen technology coming? Much cheaper and better... no special materials or new manufacturing facilities needed.

Maybe

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a kindle DX as a gift, and i absolutely love it. PDFs can be transferred to/from it extremely easy, just plug it in via usb and drag and drop. My biggest gripe about the PDF support is that you have no control over the font size, as you do with the books you purchase through Amazon, nor can you use the search function or the inline dictionary. But PDFs are still easy to read on the device, and I much prefer it to reading them on my computer screen.

I am a poor college student though, so if it weren't a gift I probably would have bought a netbook and saved myself some money.

Math PDFs

[Elote]

It worked beautifully for the 2-3 higher mathematics PDFs I tried it with. All ot the little set theory symbols were displayed crystal clear. I don't think the screen is as readable as the PRS505's, however it's still good.

Kindle review

[mr100percent]

I trust David Pogue, and he reviewed it this week [nytimes.com]

This question sounds like it deserves the LMGTFY [lmgtfy.com] treatment though.

Re:See new screens from OLPC's Mary Lou

[TheSHAD0W]

I think you mean olpc.tv [olpc.tv].

I don't think that device is coming any time soon, unfortunately.

Reviewed by Linux Journal

[rm_-fr_*]

Here:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10257 [linuxjournal.com]

Depends

[Spy Handler]

If the textbooks you require are available at Amazon, you can save money (ebooks cost less than paper)... if you need to buy lots of them then you might even save enough to offset the Kindle purchase price.

If not, there are other readers that handle PDF better (*ony makes one)

Kindle DX and PDFs

[proxima]

I seriously considered getting a Kindle DX, but after a little digging I found that it's not quite there yet for my use. So while I don't have personal experience with one, I did spend some time looking into it.

I'd love to eliminate the need to print PDF documents (like journal articles) for comfortable reading away from my computer. Once I heard that the Kindle DX supports PDF natively and has a large screen, I thought it might be perfect. Before prices were announced, I actually expected it to launch for $600 (comparable to the iRex Iliad). To my surprise, the price was cheaper.

As an added bonus, the free Whispernet (Sprint network) Wikipedia access has been expanded to include a rudimentary web browser. It would be unwise to buy a Kindle expecting this feature to remain free, though.

What's not made clear is that the PDF support has drawbacks. It cannot zoom, except to turn the device into landscape mode, which provides a small magnification. Fortunately, the software does automatically eliminate margins, making the screen about the right size for most documents. What's worse is that all of the annotation features available for ebooks and other documents do not work with PDFs; no highlighting, no note-taking, etc. I think it supports bookmarking, but that's it. For me, this is a deal breaker (at least until the price drops much further). I'm hoping that since this is a software limitation, it might be fixed with an update. I've learned not to count on feature additions in firmware until I see them, though, so I'm holding off on the purchase. Hopefully the price will drop before the end of the year anyway.

More strange is the method of firmware update. Apparently the Kindle 2 gets an update automatically if you leave Whispernet on long enough (usually overnight). I realize Amazon is doing this because they don't want users to need a computer and want to make things as simple as possible, but I would still strongly prefer user pull to Amazon push of content like software updates. Perhaps this behavior is configurable, I'm not sure.

I found it interesting that (at least some) newspaper subscriptions were made cheaper with the DX. If you save $4/mo on two subscriptions each, in about 18 months that will pay for the price difference between the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX. Since neither unit is sold retail, I don't have a very good sense of how comfortable they are to read from, or how annoying I would find the screen wipes (as the eink screens refresh the content). The good news is that the return policy from Amazon seems pretty reasonable, and you can return an opened unit within a few weeks for a full refund. If it supported annotations (and zooming might be important on some documents), that's how I would try it out. Until that's supported, or the price drops substantially, I'll just wait.

Definitely pricey, but enjoying it so far

[esw]

I'm not sure if it's worth the money for most, but I've been really enjoying mine so far.

The PDF reader works great for things like academic papers as long as moderately small fonts aren't a problem. Large PDF books don't work quite as well because links don't work on PDF in the current version. Some PDF slide decks work well, depending on the formatting - colored text on black background doesn't render well.

The built-in browser is OK. It's a nice novelty to be able to read wikipedia on this form factor of device.

Re:Why not a laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

Laptops don't have e-ink displays and are cumbersome. Laptop batteries are measured in hours, the average being 2-3 hours for a brand new battery, whereas ebook readers have a battery life measured in weeks or even months (try reading a 500 or even 300 page book in 2 hours). Breaking out a small ebook reader while cozied up in a chair is much easier than breaking out the laptop and trying to hold it in one hand.

Books take a lot of physical space and the contents are not quickly accessible. You can fit the contents of an entire bookstore on an ebook reader and you can perform text searches upon those ebooks with results returned in seconds. If I want to lend someone an ebook I simply email it to them. This means I can lend any book to anyone I know, anywhere in the world within seconds.

Pleased DX Owner

[Doofus]

I own a DX - my mom and wife went in together on a Kindle 2 for my birthday, several days later Amazon announced the DX. Returned the K2 and got the DX a couple of weeks back. I have used it every day since receiving it, and have thoroughly enjoyed using it. Excellent reading device and experience. The DX simply allows me to read, without getting in the way.

Loading PDFs using USB is trivially easy; once, too rushed to plug the DX into my work laptop, I emailed a work-related PDF document to my kindle email address; $0.15 saved me a few minutes. Amazon will convert some documents to Kindle format via email if you cannot convert to PDF on your own. One downside on PDFs: have not figured out how to magnify other than rotating the DX. I cannot testify to complicated graphics, as I have not loaded any technical PDFs on my DX.

A few technical reviews I've found that you may find helpful:

http://www.matthewdavidwilliams.com/2009/06/12/technical-document-pdfs-on-the-kindle-dx/ [matthewdavidwilliams.com]

CNET Review [cnet.com]

Gizmodo Review [gizmodo.com]

Hope this helps. There are other reviews out there.

Re:Why not a laptop?

[JamesTheBoilermaker]

You could buy a laptop and download thousands of free books from Gutenberg.org or wherever, and spend the rest on used books and have more than you can ever hope to read.

Alternatively, you can spend $350-$500 on one of these Amazon gadgets and then have to pay to read books on it.

Or, you can buy a Kindle and download thousands of free books from Gutenberg.org or wherever. The Kindle doesn't lock you in to only reading Amazon books. I've probably read about as many project Gutenberg books on my Kindle as I have books I bought from Amazon.

Re:Why not a laptop?

[MyDixieWrecked]

Disclaimer: I own a KindleDX and am incredibly happy with it.

you have a lot of good points, but there are some things that you fail to recognize:

For one, the size and weight of books. For a casual reader, the KindleDX is overkill. It's large, expensive and the benefits don't outweigh the hassles (recharging, fragility, etc). For those of us that have large libraries of tech books, the KindleDX allows us to store our entire bookshelf on a single device that takes up less room and weighs significantly less than a single book.

This brings me to my second point: The Kindles (an ebook readers in general) have better displays for reading large quantities of text. It's easier on the eyes than a laptop. Also, for those of us that use mass transit to commute and don't always have a seat, a laptop is not an option. Have you ever tried to stand up in a crowded subway and use a laptop? Even sitting down and using the laptop is a pain. Laptop battery life is also significantly worse than the Kindle's--my kindle hasn't needed to be charged a single time since I got it nearly 3 weeks ago. It also beats out the laptop because you can travel light with it; you don't need to carry a laptop bag. All you need is the device, and since it doesn't require frequent charging, you don't even need to bring the charger (USB cable) with it.

Third point: When using ebooks for reference (or following a tutorial in the book) while you're doing work on the laptop, it's nice to have a separate device. This was one reason why I stuck to buying physical books rather than purchasing PDFs exclusively.

So, while $700 (KindleDX + tax + shipping + 2 year warranty + sleeve) is quite a steep price to pay, for those of us that will use it a lot, it's worth the price. If I wasn't in such need for the solution, I would have held off a year or so and waited for it to come down in price or for a cheaper solution to be released.

My coworker picked up the Sony PRS-700 a couple months ago and he's mostly very satisfied. It was around $375 + tax, but has a significantly smaller screen. Although it's got a touchscreen, the touchiness is kinda flakey and it's got some weird glare because of the touch surface. Also, PDF support in the thing is mediocre--the zoom sucks and it really needs a larger screen.

I was going to hold out for the PlasticLogic (http://www.plasticlogic.com/) but I was hoping for something that I could get real books on, too. Since I really liked the Kindle (my dad picked one up last year) and the features that come with it (cellular websurfing/wikipedia/wireless book delivery and books that you can buy FROM the device), I opted for the DX.

Like I said, the DX isn't for everyone. It's pretty big and it's expensive, but I feel that I'm definitely getting my money's worth.

three words: flat file system

[stevenj]

As pointed out in this review [computatio...lexity.org]:

You can move whole directories but the Kindle flattens them out listing every file (by file name) separately on the main home page.

You can't organize PDFs into directories on the Kindle, which makes accessing a large number of PDFs a serious problem. It's like 1984.

(The lack of PDF annotation capability is also a headache.)

Re:Why not a laptop?

[Tuidjy]

For years now I have been reading Gutenberg/Baen Library/what-have-you books
on my Samsung I730 (PPC/phone), and while the screen is small, landscape mode
is perfectly usable. Now this requires both a tiny bit of technical knowledge
(converting files, installing Cyrilics) and it may be a strain for some people's
eyes, but on the other hand, the phone's with me everywhere, and the battery has
easily lasted through a dozen of trans-Atlantic flights. And when I fail to
properly prepare for a trip, I can still seek&download a .txt file from the Internet.

If I were to look for a more user-friendly alternative, or seek to impress those
around me with a polished device, I would splurge for the Kindle. A laptop, as far
as I concerned, is too middle of the road. Almost as uncool as my Samsung , and
almost as expensive as the Kindle (the phone is more expensive, but I carry it anyway)

By the way my sister recently bought some Sony/Ericson phone/PocketPC with a much nicer
screen, and on that one, even .pdf look damn good. What can I say, I believe in
multifunctional devices and in keeping DRM off them.

Re:$500 is way too much no matter how good it is

[N7DR]

Even less fathomable is why publishers are letting the ebook market degenerate into competing formats, proprietary readers and possible market dominance by Amazon. One would think it is in their interest to come up with and dictate a single book format, one which all readers can implement, one which all stores can sell books with. It sounds obvious but a single format would level the playing field and catapult ebooks into the mainstream.

While one hears a lot about the Kindle (most US people who are even aware of the existence of e-book readers generally believe that the Kindle is the only one on the market), but once one digs through the hype to try to see what's actually happening in the industry, the situation is very different.

All the entities with interests in the classical publishing industry (meaning, mostly, authors, agents, and "classical" publishers) are thoroughly unsure how best to prepare for the tidal wave that is now in its early stages. There are lots of ways it could go, and most of the players are trying to cover as many possible outcomes as possible; no one that I know of is betting the farm on any particular outcome. So you'll see entities supporting the Kindle (if they're willing to agree to Amazon's (draconian, IMHO) contract) but they are generally aware of the dangers of turning Amazon into a monopoly; so you'll also see support for other readers (personally, I'm a fan of the Sony so far, but if they implement some kind of "publishers must pay to list a book on our store" policy, they will struggle to be more than a bit player eventually).

There are plenty of other possibilities too. Maybe we'll see more publishers creating their own online stores. Maybe more authors will do the same thing (depending on what contracts the authors are willing to sign anent digital rights). Maybe e-books will simply not take off (unlikely, I suspect, at least for some kinds of books). The whole "how does the author get paid if the marginal cost to generate a copy is zero" issue is the elephant in the room. Again, there are several possible answers, but which one(s) will prevail is anyone's guess at the moment.

In short, it's all in huge flux, and everyone right now is just trying to survive until things begin to be a bit clearer.

Just my opinion, of course. But I am a writer and publisher. On the other hand, I inhabit slashdot, so you know how much that means my opinion is worth.

Sorry I wandered a bit off topic.

I am happy with the DX, but it isn't for everyone

[volsung]

I picked up the Kindle DX on release day (much to my amazement, as I figured the initial stock would go entirely to preorders) and then took it on a 2 week trip. I'm quite pleased with it, although I definitely believe that it will only appeal to a narrow market.

Pros:

• The e-ink display really needs to be seen to understand the benefit. Over time, more and more of my reading material has become electronic, and I had not appreciated how much reading long documents on my backlit laptop LCD was leading to eye-fatigue. The result was that I tended to read on my laptop in short bursts, taking frequent breaks and losing focus. With a passive display like this, I find that I naturally read for longer intervals. Contrast is not as good as paper, but being able to read in direct light really changes your reading behavior.
• The form factor is perfect for full page document reading. A netbook or small laptop, while useful for other things, is a horrible document reader. The clamshell form factor is the wrong orientation for reading pages, and if you try to turn it to read in portrait mode, you have a keyboard sticking out the side for no reason. I tried reading with a sideways 12" laptop on the bus as a graduate student, and it was pretty annoying. Anyone suggesting a real computer as an alternative to the Kindle DX should at least begin with a tablet PC.
• As a reader, the software mostly gets out of your way. The power switch just puts the system to sleep, so you can pick up the DX and be reading where you were last in about 4 seconds. Your last location is remembered in all documents, as you would expect. More sophisticated controls would be nice, but aren't a deal-breaker.
• The built-in cellular data link is not spectacular, but gets the job done. I really enjoy being able to read something, then if I encounter an unfamiliar concept, I can just start typing a phrase and hit "wikipedia". xkcd's comment about the Kindle being our manifestation of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is very true.
• The browser is definitely limited, but very convenient when you are traveling. I don't have a fancy phone, so this is the only device I own which provides nearly universal Internet access. (Yeah, I'm late to the party.) Not having a stupid cell contract to use the web browser is a huge plus.
• Battery life and weight are good. I tend to leave the wireless radio on, but even with that extra drain, I normally have to recharge every few days. At 1 lb., it is the weight of a thin hardback. You won't read it for long periods by holding it out in front of your face (see "gorilla arms"), but it doesn't take much support to a corner or an elbow to comfortably hold it.
• Being able to read the first chapter of books free is kind of neat. I don't usually buy books for the Kindle with the store, because I consider DRM-crippled data to be disposable. It is a great way to find new books to buy in dead-tree format, though.
• PDF rendering works fine. I have encountered one image in one PDF that rendered strange, but otherwise viewing PDFs has met my expectations.

Cons:

• Some people say other readers have a better e-ink display. This is my first e-ink device, so I can't comment on that.
• If you are used to reading on an LCD, it will take you a little bit to adjust. The first thing I noticed when I got the DX is that I have very poor lighting in my apartment for reading. With a backlit display, I never noticed. However, the DX needs external light, just like paper. :)
• This is not a speedy device, nor a speedy internet connection. The browser is very slow, especially on complex websites.
• The economics of the cellular link are worrying. Since it is effectively pre-paid in the cost of the device itself, Amazon does not have a strong financial incentive to improve the built-in browser. More web use means more money they have to pay to Sprint on your behalf. You see the effects of this in o

Re:Kindle DX and PDFs

[Doofus]

A couple of comments, from a "pleased DX owner" -

1) Amazon indicates that the Whispernet service is free. You make a good point that Amazon or Sprint may at some time in the future choose to charge for web browsing, but using the service to buy/sync/transfer documents will remain free. Nothing I've seen from Amazon indicates that they *will* charge for browsing, though.

2) In reading other posters' comments, it appears that PDFs - even those of the technical genus - render quite nicely. There are PDF capabilities missing from the DX that are standard on a computer - as you and others have pointed out, a software update may enhance these.

3) The DX is comfortable for *me* to read with. The screen "wipes" are no more disorienting than turning a page in a dead-tree book or changing pages in a web-based document, and in my experience take less than half a second. Reading e-ink is far more pleasant an experience than reading text on an LCD screen, and the bulk of one's time is spent reading, not refreshing, the screen.

If you know anyone with a Kindle (2 or DX), ask them if you can play with it for a short while. You may be surprised at how thoroughly you enjoy the reading experience.