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As a student...
We're all dragging laptops around all the time... much more fragile than a Kindle (I generally have both.) As things stand, that's not an issue. If the KindleDX is super fragile - well, that might be. We've all got laptops, iphones/ipod touches, nintendoDSs, etc... we're used to having somewhat fragile tech with us.
Second - whether this is cost effective depends on your major. I'm a Religious Studies major - the original Kindle isn't even cost effective for me (though most of my books would be fine on it.) We use tons of small books. But any of the sciences use enormously expensive books, even used. And gen-ed books are also often very expensive (government, history, psychology, etc). I generally spend 300-600 a semester on books. My ex-girlfriend who was a physics major was often in the 600-800 range. Book prices come into play here, but if you're looking at a discount of 10% a book (assuming 10 semesters at around $600) you'll pay for the KindleDX. That's assuming your books are available.
Third - Those same books weigh a TON. My girlfriend had severe problems just getting them hauled around... her math book was like 10 lbs and so was her physics book (and she was only about 100lbs). For students in these disciplines that alone might make the KindleDX useful. Long hours on campus + needing lots of giant texts + hauling them around all day = worth spending money on.
Fourth - Most of us are drowning in PDFs that can't be converted that well. This is actually where it'd help me - I have an enormous amount of PDF's that I can't convert to my Kindle 2 in any reasonable way. And I don't want to print them all out, and I don't want to read them on my computer.
But all that being said... it probably won't be a success. Zeitgeist changes take time, and the first product on the market really aimed at them isn't going to get the job done. All the practical issues regarding usability, etc... all come into play. Tech's a bit immature and alien.
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