MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The Kindle DX

Gideon · 06-13-2009, 08:46 PM

After a few days

Well, I've spent a few days with the Kindle DX now and feel like I've given it a good run through. Since I've had a Kindle since the first one, I'm familiar with the tech so I can give this a bit of a better shake than we've been seeing on most tech blogs, etc.

On Reading:

This is, after all, its primary purpose. It does this very well. The screen is clear, the text is very readable. I was a bit worried about reading on a bigger screen but it is actually a better experience than the earlier Kindles.

Books:

Books work the same way as previous Kindles and most ebooks. It does a great job.

Periodicals:

Despite the new, bigger screen, we're still getting the old Kindle media screen - we're not seeing the actual cover of the NY Times or anything else like that. It works the same way, but bigger.

PDFs:

It gets a bit dodgy here. For the most part, it does a great job. 90% of what I threw at it, it handled admirably. It cuts off the white edges pretty well (fails at this sometimes in landscape mode), and as long as the text you're looking at isn't too small you're generally in good shape.

There are some drawbacks:

No table of contents. This is an enormous, enormous pain in the butt. I don't have the foggiest idea why the Kindle does not have this very rudimentary and necessary feature for PDF viewing.
It can be slow. Not always, but often it is.
Metadata is... who knows? Sometimes it is right, sometimes it is wrong. Mostly it's some variation of wrong.
Dictionary support doesn't seem to work in PDF texts - again - stupid and a problem. You also can't highlight, annotate, etc.

Ergonomics:

It is lighter than I thought it'd be and not at all difficult to manage from that standpoint. The leather case does add some weight, but this is offset by also adding some protection.

I really, really dislike the absence of buttons on the left side and would strongly advocate for buttons on the top and maybe even bottom. There is no good way to handle the device in landscape mode. It is an intensely unpleasant way to read.

The keyboard is... well, quite frankly, it is the single worst keyboard I've ever used on a device and this includes the abomination that was my Treo 600. The buttons are incredibly small, and because of the size of the device, actually using them is very difficult (as you are trying to hold the device and push buttons on the very edge of it). It is also spaced badly, so that you can't really use your thumbs and have to hen-peck the keys. This has, single handedly, pretty much removed any usefulness involving annotation. I also don't want to have to search (which combined with the lack of table of contents in PDFs this is even worse!)

Extras:

I never use the music function, so I can't speak to that.

The voice function is a bit... I found that the controls were often not very fast and usually somewhat unresponsive. Once it gets going it is what you'd expect.

Websites look much better than they did on the K2, and it seems to load a BIT faster but generally it is still so slow that you'd not want to do much with it except look up the occasional thing.

Conclusion:
I really like the device as a whole but some of the design was very bad. If I really didn't need a PDF viewer (and didn't hate reading on an LCD) I would probably return it and wait it out for a better product.

06-13-2009, 08:46 PM	#1
Gideon Wearer of Pants Posts: 1,050 Karma: 7634 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norman, OK Device: Amazon Kindle DX / iPhone	The Kindle DX - A Review a Few Days In After a few days Well, I've spent a few days with the Kindle DX now and feel like I've given it a good run through. Since I've had a Kindle since the first one, I'm familiar with the tech so I can give this a bit of a better shake than we've been seeing on most tech blogs, etc. On Reading: This is, after all, its primary purpose. It does this very well. The screen is clear, the text is very readable. I was a bit worried about reading on a bigger screen but it is actually a better experience than the earlier Kindles. Books: Books work the same way as previous Kindles and most ebooks. It does a great job. Periodicals: Despite the new, bigger screen, we're still getting the old Kindle media screen - we're not seeing the actual cover of the NY Times or anything else like that. It works the same way, but bigger. PDFs: It gets a bit dodgy here. For the most part, it does a great job. 90% of what I threw at it, it handled admirably. It cuts off the white edges pretty well (fails at this sometimes in landscape mode), and as long as the text you're looking at isn't too small you're generally in good shape. There are some drawbacks: No table of contents. This is an enormous, enormous pain in the butt. I don't have the foggiest idea why the Kindle does not have this very rudimentary and necessary feature for PDF viewing. It can be slow. Not always, but often it is. Metadata is... who knows? Sometimes it is right, sometimes it is wrong. Mostly it's some variation of wrong. Dictionary support doesn't seem to work in PDF texts - again - stupid and a problem. You also can't highlight, annotate, etc. Ergonomics: It is lighter than I thought it'd be and not at all difficult to manage from that standpoint. The leather case does add some weight, but this is offset by also adding some protection. I really, really dislike the absence of buttons on the left side and would strongly advocate for buttons on the top and maybe even bottom. There is no good way to handle the device in landscape mode. It is an intensely unpleasant way to read. The keyboard is... well, quite frankly, it is the single worst keyboard I've ever used on a device and this includes the abomination that was my Treo 600. The buttons are incredibly small, and because of the size of the device, actually using them is very difficult (as you are trying to hold the device and push buttons on the very edge of it). It is also spaced badly, so that you can't really use your thumbs and have to hen-peck the keys. This has, single handedly, pretty much removed any usefulness involving annotation. I also don't want to have to search (which combined with the lack of table of contents in PDFs this is even worse!) Extras: I never use the music function, so I can't speak to that. The voice function is a bit... I found that the controls were often not very fast and usually somewhat unresponsive. Once it gets going it is what you'd expect. Websites look much better than they did on the K2, and it seems to load a BIT faster but generally it is still so slow that you'd not want to do much with it except look up the occasional thing. Conclusion: I really like the device as a whole but some of the design was very bad. If I really didn't need a PDF viewer (and didn't hate reading on an LCD) I would probably return it and wait it out for a better product.