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In my opinion, the Kindle DX had the potential of being the ideal choice as an e-reader for academic reading. But there are too many things missing. The PDF viewer is very basic, even in the graphite edition. The content management interface is very poor, the web browser is sluggish to the point of being unusable most of the time. The most important thing for academic reading in an e-reader is a good PDF reader and the Kindle DX fails in this category. I have 34 research documents in PDF that don't display on the Kindle DX. A white background is shown instead. I have 9 research documents in PDF that load on the Kindle DX but the device becomes frozen constantly as a I turn the pages. These documents are handled perfectly by the iPad without a glitch.
In my view, the Kindle DX has the following advantages for the average reader but not necessarily for the technical reader (scientific and engineering publications)
1. The large selection of the Amazon Kindle bookstore.
2. The wireless delivery of ebooks.
3. The built-in cellular connection.
4. The larger size of the display makes some documents more accessible and easier to read.
5. eInk causes less eye strain when reading for long periods of time.
For academics, the selection of books is much smaller. Not all textbooks are available in the Kindle format. For academics, the most important thing is the native support for multiple formats, especially PDF, which is still the standard format for technical papers. The Kindle DX is not a good choice here based on my experience. And I did try very hard to like the Kindle DX.
The iPad also has its range of problems but I have found it to be the best device so far to read technical PDFs. After reading on the iPad, I find it impossible to go back and read on the Kindle DX. The only thing that makes me think of the Kindle DX is the eInk display, which is easier on the eyes during extended reading.
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