Kindle DX Graphite first look and macro shots of text

[MobileTechReview]

I wouldn't say the KDXG rivals a printed book just yet, but it is marked improvement over the KDX and any other e-ink reader on the market (even the legendary Sony PRS-505). Blacks are much blacker and the e-ink is very clean. I've posted a short first look and some 100% macro crop photos of the KDXG and nook and IREX DR800SG here: http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbt...p?Number=37751 .

I really, really don't need another eReader, but this is tempting .

[Anarel]

I found this youtube link that someone review the GKDX and I think it gives a pretty fair look at the contrast on the screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbk5SM3tHRE

[Pushka]

I have seen a couple of new DX previews on youtube, one of which compares it with the original kindle which is not a valid comparison at all. Perhaps it is hard to capture the difference between the old and new DX's, because I am not seeing it in the pictures so far.

I have a 6 month old K2I, and a brand new K2I (well, that one is hubby's) and the difference between the quality of those two kindles is very surprising. The new one doesnt need the font hack at all. And I can read it on a small size font.

[MobileTechReview]

It is very hard to capture the difference between displays on video. It takes perfect lighting, a sharp zoom and other niceties found on +$2,000 video cameras that are out of the reach of most blogs. In our work, we're finding that a high end dSLR comes closest to capturing the difference but it's still not as striking as seeing units in person.

The new display is indeed a significant improvement. I tend to read in low light environments and what was once hard on the eyes is now sharp. It's fantastic to finally see an improvement in e-ink technology that most everyone can see (at least in person) and enjoy.

[PaulGuy]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

It is very hard to capture the difference between displays on video. It takes perfect lighting, a sharp zoom and other niceties found on +$2,000 video cameras that are out of the reach of most blogs. In our work, we're finding that a high end dSLR comes closest to capturing the difference but it's still not as striking as seeing units in person.

The new display is indeed a significant improvement. I tend to read in low light environments and what was once hard on the eyes is now sharp. It's fantastic to finally see an improvement in e-ink technology that most everyone can see (at least in person) and enjoy.

I totally agree. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this screen really was after being disappointed by previous incarnations. But totally unexpected was the incredible difference in low lighting situations which I discovered by accident as the sun was going down and my living room got increasingly darker. My original DX would have been unreadable at similar lighting levels. Very impressive unit. Well done.

[Pushka]

It is interesting that someone in the Amazon forum is returning the new DX for a few reasons, including that the grey surround becomes very tiring when reading for a prolonged period coupled with reading a bold face font. Perhaps a user issue.

[bob1xxx]

Hmmm promising..... right now I doing a extended test drive with a target purchase Kindle 2 and I am truly amazed at the quality read experience the current generation kindle 2. The battery life is also insane (coming form a libre pro) I bought the kindle 06/26/10 gave it a full charge and so far I have read three 300 page plus books and two of Sherlock Holmes novels, three more SH short stories and have use wireless 3g for about 20 minutes to download a couple of amazon books and test features and I still have over 50% of my battery life left!!! Amazing! I like the DX but I like the portability of K2 , honestly I wish the came out with a keyboard less version so it would have the go everywhere portability of my libre pro. I might exhange the k2 for the k3 if the screen is significantly better hopefully they announce the K3 soon

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

It is very hard to capture the difference between displays on video. It takes perfect lighting, a sharp zoom and other niceties found on +$2,000 video cameras that are out of the reach of most blogs. In our work, we're finding that a high end dSLR comes closest to capturing the difference but it's still not as striking as seeing units in person.

You needed a high-end DSLR to take the photos you got? The problem isn't with your equipment.

[MobileTechReview]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

You needed a high-end DSLR to take the photos you got? The problem isn't with your equipment.

Sorry, don't understand what you're getting at? You don't like the macro crops or just trying to flame me? I was saying that video doesn't work as well as a good quality SLR for capturing these displays.

[Sylver]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

Sorry, don't understand what you're getting at? You don't like the macro crops or just trying to flame me? I was saying that video doesn't work as well as a good quality SLR for capturing these displays.

Thank you for posting that. However, not sure if it's just me, the text on the new DX screen crop looks blurry (out of focus) as compared to the text on the older devices, the background gray looks even darker than that of the nook on your crops. Based on these photos, I am much less excited about the new DX, but I still think there is a good chance that it's only the issue with these photos, not the new DX itself (they say Pearl has 50% better contrast - I can barely see 20% improvement here).

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

Sorry, don't understand what you're getting at? You don't like the macro crops or just trying to flame me? I was saying that video doesn't work as well as a good quality SLR for capturing these displays.

No, it wasn't a direct flame. The pictures were pretty poor, and I had assumed by your previous post that you were using a high-end DSLR for them, when superior photos could be acquired from most inexpensive point and shoot cameras.

If you were in a rush to take these pictures with a video camera, then I guess I can understand the poor quality. My assumption was that you were using an SLR for them. Apologies if I misread.

[MobileTechReview]

Yes, to my eyes, the background is every so slightly lighter on the nook. The text is much darker though. Illustrations, especially photos, look much better as a result of the added black levels. The background, at least on my DXG, isn't improved, it's just that the blacks are deeper.

At 100% crop with macro, you can see imperfections in the rendering of text (what you described as blur). This is like those comparison macros you might have seen in iPhone 4 reviews, where non-retina displays look terrible under macro, though they look fine to the naked eye. Imperfections in the text are readily apparent under macro. There is "noise" around the characters on the nook, but it's not as dark given the lower contrast and is thus harder to see. Increasing contrast, increases everything, not just the parts we want, so it's easier to see the "noise" around characters on the KDXG under macro. Though with the naked eye, I can't see it and the Kindle's text is much easier to read than the nook's. The IREX DR800SG has more "noise" than the nook or KDXG. It's particularly noticeable around the 3 letter p's in the word pepper, just as it would be with ink printing.

For the full review, I'll include non-macro side-by-side shots and that might be more useful for most folks.

[MarbleMadness]

Actually the pictures really helped me see the contrasty screen on the new Kindle DX graphite. Macro photos are like putting something under a microscope, I didn't expect the text would look perfectly sharp.

Thanks for posting these photos! Please don't stop!

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by MarbleMadness

Actually the pictures really helped me see the contrasty screen on the new Kindle DX graphite. Macro photos are like putting something under a microscope, I didn't expect the text would look perfectly sharp.

Thanks for posting these photos! Please don't stop!

Under higher magnification, the text does not simply look fuzzy.

Here is what E-Ink looks like when viewed at slightly higher magnification, such as in a decent macro photo. Camera used was a cheap point and shoot I bought for a bit under $200 in 2007. Font was Minion Pro Medium, somewhere around 13-14pt on a PRS-505. Chose a bigger text size since the smaller text sizes look quite bad up-close.

Something more like this is what I was expecting when I read "macro".

[MobileTechReview]

That is certainly high magnification and the text looks very fuzzy to me. Given our difference interpretations of the same image, we might have to agree to disagree.