Finally got Kindle DXG - first impressions

zetareticuli · 08-03-2010, 07:51 PM

My Kindle DXG was finally delivered today and I have been using it for 5 hours. Below are some of my first impressions. I am sure most have already been mentioned many times before. A bit background about myself so that you guys can understand the usage of the DXG as it applies to me. I am a scientist with graduate degrees in Physics and Computer Science. The primary use of the DXG is to read technical documents, publications, and books (all PDF). For the time being, I will not be purchasing any books in Kindle format but as more technical material becomes available in Kindle form, I will in the future.

1. The DXG is lighter than I expected. I don't have a problem carrying it around or reading on it for hours. Of course, it is heavier than a 6" device.

2. I just finished reading a technical paper (PDF) on Relativistic Quantum Physics. This paper is 70% equations, graphs, and tables. No problem there. It looked very good on the DXG. No complaints. Not every document looks the same way. Some documents look better than others but overall I am satisfied with how PDFs are displayed. Significantly better than on the 6" devices I was accustomed to. (I should mention here that the iPad still displays better PDF). Rotating to landscape mode makes most PDFs perfectly readable.

3. PDFs features that do not exist currently that would be very useful: Table of content, text reflow, better zooming capabilities, annotations, links. Searches are available but they are slow. Not very usable when the document is very large. Bookmarks are available and work well.

4. Internet: It appears there are no problems with reception where I live. I was surprised at how fast some pages loaded. The experimental browser is slow but good enough if you are reading mostly text-only. I will be using this a lot.

5. Navigating through menus in the device: Very responsive. The most responsive eInk device I have used to date.

6. Quality of display: I am satisfied with the quality of the display. The best I have seen in an eInk device to date.

7. Quality of build: The device is sturdy and it has a solid build quality. However, the nature of the device makes it very fragile.

8. Interaction with computer: Excellent. Plug and Play on my Windows Workstation (7) and on my laptop running Ubuntu. I did have to manually mount it on Debian but it worked very well.

There is still much work to be done on the DXG but it is definitely an improvement. My overall satisfaction level with the DXG (on a scale of 0% satisfied to 100% satisfied) is 75%. I am sure I will have more to report later as I use it more and more. I will be keeping the DXG. I won't be returning it. It's not 100% what I need but it is the closest it gets at the present time.

dimas_xp · 08-05-2010, 04:31 PM

I am going to use device for reading hard pdf - scanned journals (all pages are pictures, no ocr). The size of such pdf is about 100Mb. Can Kindle DX operate with sich hard files, how it's comfortable?
how does text look, when it's above picture or some coloured frame? Is it acceptable for reading in this case?

zetareticuli · 08-05-2010, 08:26 PM

Ok, to answer your question... The larger the file, the longer it takes for the PDF to load. If the file contains graphics such as images or artwork, the time it takes to load is even longer. Navigating through pages takes longer as well as it is to be expected. As an example, I just opened a 200 MB PDF document that is mostly images and charts and the initial time to open took 32 seconds. Navigating through the pages of this PDF (page turns) takes 3 - 4 seconds on average. It is usable in my opinion but not comparable to the speed of a desktop or even the iPad.

As far as the looks of the text, quite readable in my opinion. I have been very satisfied with the quality of most PDFs I have tried on it.

08-03-2010, 07:51 PM	#1
zetareticuli Addict Posts: 367 Karma: 228 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Aztak Mentor	Finally got Kindle DXG - first impressions My Kindle DXG was finally delivered today and I have been using it for 5 hours. Below are some of my first impressions. I am sure most have already been mentioned many times before. A bit background about myself so that you guys can understand the usage of the DXG as it applies to me. I am a scientist with graduate degrees in Physics and Computer Science. The primary use of the DXG is to read technical documents, publications, and books (all PDF). For the time being, I will not be purchasing any books in Kindle format but as more technical material becomes available in Kindle form, I will in the future. 1. The DXG is lighter than I expected. I don't have a problem carrying it around or reading on it for hours. Of course, it is heavier than a 6" device. 2. I just finished reading a technical paper (PDF) on Relativistic Quantum Physics. This paper is 70% equations, graphs, and tables. No problem there. It looked very good on the DXG. No complaints. Not every document looks the same way. Some documents look better than others but overall I am satisfied with how PDFs are displayed. Significantly better than on the 6" devices I was accustomed to. (I should mention here that the iPad still displays better PDF). Rotating to landscape mode makes most PDFs perfectly readable. 3. PDFs features that do not exist currently that would be very useful: Table of content, text reflow, better zooming capabilities, annotations, links. Searches are available but they are slow. Not very usable when the document is very large. Bookmarks are available and work well. 4. Internet: It appears there are no problems with reception where I live. I was surprised at how fast some pages loaded. The experimental browser is slow but good enough if you are reading mostly text-only. I will be using this a lot. 5. Navigating through menus in the device: Very responsive. The most responsive eInk device I have used to date. 6. Quality of display: I am satisfied with the quality of the display. The best I have seen in an eInk device to date. 7. Quality of build: The device is sturdy and it has a solid build quality. However, the nature of the device makes it very fragile. 8. Interaction with computer: Excellent. Plug and Play on my Windows Workstation (7) and on my laptop running Ubuntu. I did have to manually mount it on Debian but it worked very well. There is still much work to be done on the DXG but it is definitely an improvement. My overall satisfaction level with the DXG (on a scale of 0% satisfied to 100% satisfied) is 75%. I am sure I will have more to report later as I use it more and more. I will be keeping the DXG. I won't be returning it. It's not 100% what I need but it is the closest it gets at the present time.

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08-05-2010, 04:31 PM	#2
dimas_xp Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: not yet	I am going to use device for reading hard pdf - scanned journals (all pages are pictures, no ocr). The size of such pdf is about 100Mb. Can Kindle DX operate with sich hard files, how it's comfortable? how does text look, when it's above picture or some coloured frame? Is it acceptable for reading in this case?

08-05-2010, 08:26 PM	#3
zetareticuli Addict Posts: 367 Karma: 228 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Aztak Mentor	Ok, to answer your question... The larger the file, the longer it takes for the PDF to load. If the file contains graphics such as images or artwork, the time it takes to load is even longer. Navigating through pages takes longer as well as it is to be expected. As an example, I just opened a 200 MB PDF document that is mostly images and charts and the initial time to open took 32 seconds. Navigating through the pages of this PDF (page turns) takes 3 - 4 seconds on average. It is usable in my opinion but not comparable to the speed of a desktop or even the iPad. As far as the looks of the text, quite readable in my opinion. I have been very satisfied with the quality of most PDFs I have tried on it.

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