I did not own a Kindle before the DX but owned an iLiad Book Edition. I can confidently say that the Kindle is, in *most* respects, a more practical and more useful e-reading device than the iLiad BE. The biggest thing that bothered me about the iLiad was the lack of a sleep mode coupled with the horrendous battery life. That is certainly not a concern with the Kindle family of devices. I get access to the Amazon Kindle store right on the device while getting books on to the iLiad was a bit more work. I also greatly appreciate the larger screen as I can comfortably read most of my journal articles in portrait mode with the white spaces trimmed. I do miss the select-and-zoom mode from the iLiad and being able to write on the PDFs but not as much. The Kindle definitely feels like a much more solidly built device with a much better case than the iLiad BE.
In all, I am really happy and will be selling off my iLiad BE soon. I do hope that Amazon adds more features to the PDF reader in subsequent updates but even if they don't, I am quite satisfied and enjoying my purchase
