Daves Personal Blog

The Kindle DX: First Looks

Okay, I’ve had my Kindle for over 48 hours now.  I’ve done lots of downloading and such to get some open source and sample chapters on the reader.

Here’s my quick and dirty review of the DX after about 48 hours of use.

First, let’s talk about the screen.  The screen is awesome, the 9.5″ screen really isn’t as big as you thing, it seems really natural to me.. I don’t think I could do the 6″ screen.  The battery is doing very well, on a normal CELL phone it would be “one tick” down.  The wireless coverage is actually pretty good, but as is the cell phone 3G coverage.  However, I have found that I use the USB more than the wireless features of the device.

Kindle in ScreenSaver Mode

The screen is pure awesomeness.  It’s big, it’s crisp and works wonderfully portrait or landscape mode.  The keyboard takes some getting used to.  It’s like typing on tick tacks, but it becomes natural after a little while.

Next, PDF Support.  PDF’s seem to work very very well on this device, as in comparison to the Sony 700.  The one thing I found that I really did NOT like about the PDF support is the fact that you can NOT add annotations to PDF files.  Bookmarks, yes.  Notes, no.. and this is one of my MAJOR things when looking for a eReader.

The Text-to-speech is about what you would expect from a computer.  But it’s not overly bad.  On the other token, the text-sizing is wonderful.  My parents, who both have bifocal+, loved this feature.

I did find, after reading  a few chapters here and there, that I do honestly miss having a hardcover book in my hand.  I am sure this is some sort of nostalgia, but I really do miss having that book in my hand, I’m sure this puts me in that weird “old foggy” section of tech geeks.  I love the ultra-shiny aspect of the device, and the fact it can hold all the books I can think of, and it REALLY does look like a book, but not having that paper in my hands.. I miss it already.. and I don’t really read all that often, but having the kindle in my hands has sparked my interest in reading again.

One thing I did find annoying is that, I have a reading disorder.  I don’t really remember what it is, but it takes me FOREVER to read a page, and I found that in my reading of a page, the screen saver would kick in and I’d have to turn the device back on.

So, now I’m in that “on the fence” moment of sending the DX back, and going out and buying a few books and saving the money for something else.. or keeping it and getting over my nostalgia.

Decisions….comments are always welcome.