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Old 02-06-2020, 11:16 PM   #1
Septfox
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How bad of an idea is a DX Graphite these days?

Less "what should I buy" and more "should I buy in this day and age?".

I've been kinda-sorta wanting a reader for a while, but have neglected to buy one because I generally just use my phone with the Kindle app or ReadEra (recently, Moon+Reader), depending on the book source.

I have a pile of manga I've been putting off reading, though, and it's occurred to me that a large reader would be really, really nice to tackle them with, an additional benefit being my other books getting upgraded from a 6" screen to 9.7".
So I started looking into such...and found reasonably-priced offerings over 7" to be practically non-existent. $200+ is uh, not in the budget.

Which brings me around to the increasingly-ancient DX Graphite. Used ones can be found on ebay for <$100, which is quite nice for the ol' pocketbook.

Questions being, how much of a headache is such an old device going to give me? What hurdles do I face in the way of jailbreaking (assuming it's worth doing) or using Duokan that might not have been issues a few years back?

My usage is generally just epubs (which I understand Duokan can handle) and Amazon books, and will be converted manga as well. Not so much PDFs or other exotic formats.
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Old 02-07-2020, 03:57 AM   #2
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I've had or have a Kindle DXG, PW3, Kobo H2O original and Kobo Libra.
I have other eInk also as well as two kinds of 10" tablets.

1) The DXG is about 9.7" @ 150 dpi, I think (I thought 167dpi, but a search gives 150dpi). If it was true grey scale rather than "white", black and roughly 14 in between grey scales it could do PDFs better. Actually a 6" PW3 (300dpi) does PDFs better, though it's too small.

2) It's slow

3) Next generation eInk screens after that are a lot whiter.

4) It's too heavy to sit reading a novel for hours.

5) Obsolete. No-one knows how long Amazon will allow downloads for it.

6) No touch.

7) No front light, though I don't often use a front light.

8) Terrible for collections and annotations compared to any Kobo from Touch onwards. No collections without registering.

9) A S/H model might be blacklisted or have wrong FW to connect to Amazon or register.

10) Not much storage, which can't be expanded externally.

11) I bought it for PDFs, it's useless for most of the PDFs I have. I now use a 10" Android LCD tablet for letter/magazine/A4 size scanned PDFs and the Kobo Libra for smaller PDFs. I use GIMP ->mng file -> imagemagick to crop PDF margins, resize, brightness, contrast & bit depth.

A 7" Kobo Libra is about €100 cheaper than a 8" Kobo Forma here. It's the fastest eReader I've used yet. Similar "white" to a paperWhite 3 and both are better white than the PW4 I borrowed. Both are slightly less white / bright with no light than the Kobo H2O original which with light off, which is about 6.8" @ 266dpi, it's long gone.

The Libra is far better than DXG, manages larger page size PDFs, has page turn buttons.
I use my Kindle simply to buy occasionally from Amazon, using "Download to PC & USB transfer option". Then backup and convert to epub2 with Calibre. You may need a plug in from Apprentice Alf to do this.

I check Smashwords & Gutenberg before Amazon, download ePub from Smashwords, but mobi from Gutenberg and convert with rules to epub to fix their style concept.

Last edited by Quoth; 02-07-2020 at 04:01 AM.
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Old 02-07-2020, 01:44 PM   #3
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I still use Kindle DXG pdf for reading A5 and A4 pdf & djvu books and documents as well as comics outdoors during the sunny days, together with Kobo Aura One that I also use indoors.

You must install KPV reader thereon though, because without KPV viewer DX doesn't have half the necessary pdf reading functions, can't read epubs and is slower.

Jailbreaking and installing KPV takes just a few minutes after you collect all the necessary files, you just transfer the files to DX and restart it few times.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ght=kpv+viewer

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ght=kpv+viewer

Last edited by Marinolino; 02-07-2020 at 02:14 PM.
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Old 02-07-2020, 02:10 PM   #4
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Buying a DX these days is a waste of money. FrustratedReader gave a lot of good reasons not to get a DX.

If you want a better Reader, get a Kobo Forma with an 8" screen. It's much better then a DX ever will or can be (no matter how much hacking is done).
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Old 02-07-2020, 02:43 PM   #5
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I agree.

There is also a probable issue of battery age. Any much used device will be in need of a new battery soon and I don't know if it is possible or practical to do battery surgery
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Old 02-07-2020, 05:22 PM   #6
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Yes, I forgot the battery will likely need replaced, and no g'tee a "new" one isn't ancient stock. They get used up with number of complete cycles (i.e. 2 x 50% uses = 1) AND ALSO decline with age.

The DXG can be opened easily enough, as can the the Kindle Keyboard. I just have doubts as to how good replacement cells are unless made less than 2 years ago.

Libra, if you can't afford a Forma, or don't need 8".
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Old 02-07-2020, 05:32 PM   #7
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The main problem with the DX is that it was too much ahead of it's time. If Amazon was to make a 9.7" Kindle now with modern equipment, it might sell. But given how obsolete the electronics are of the DX, I'd say no way.
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Old 02-11-2020, 06:42 PM   #8
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I still have multiple DX units, both white and DXG. One is from the last batch Amazon offered, a couple of years after the original discontinuing of the DXG. I still like the large format screen, even for regular book reading which is why I also have the 7" Oasis and the 7.8" and 8" screen Kobo readers. Not too heavy for me and I have not used it for PDFs. Not too sure how long it can continue to communicate with Amazon via 3G phone communication and it does not offer wifi. As others state, it is old technology but I like my units. As I recall the DXG had a eink Pearl screen which had a whiter background than the earlier ones and was used for years on the Kindle Basic which still uses a 168 DPI screen, barely higher resolution than the 150 DPI DXG. My batteries still hold a charge for a reasonable time.
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Old 02-11-2020, 09:48 PM   #9
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I still have multiple DX units, both white and DXG. One is from the last batch Amazon offered, a couple of years after the original discontinuing of the DXG. I still like the large format screen, even for regular book reading which is why I also have the 7" Oasis and the 7.8" and 8" screen Kobo readers. Not too heavy for me and I have not used it for PDFs. Not too sure how long it can continue to communicate with Amazon via 3G phone communication and it does not offer wifi. As others state, it is old technology but I like my units. As I recall the DXG had a eink Pearl screen which had a whiter background than the earlier ones and was used for years on the Kindle Basic which still uses a 168 DPI screen, barely higher resolution than the 150 DPI DXG. My batteries still hold a charge for a reasonable time.
Battery can be replaced relatively easily following the instructions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SoQZ0kD5Zk

We should rather spend 10-15 $ more on a good battery instead of buying a cheap 5-10 $ battery but probably with only 10% capacity left.

I don't use 3G on Kindle DX but I still use WiFi transfer, by connecting DX over USB port to my WiFi HDD enclosure and using enclosure's app on my smartphone or tablet to transfer ebooks wirelessly between HDD/DX and Tablet/Phone (no need for PC or wifi network because enclosure creates its own wifi network).

We can also use any other wifi memory like wifi HDD, wifi dongles etc. with usb host port thereon.

Last edited by Marinolino; 02-11-2020 at 10:18 PM.
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Old 03-09-2020, 01:08 AM   #10
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I have a DX and have had zero issues with it. I bought it when Amazon re-released them in 2014 so its almost 6 years old.

The battery lasts for weeks on standby and even wit heavy usage it lasts days ??

I don't know how fast the newer ones are but again it changes pages quickly that it doesn't bother me when reading.

Its heavier than the new ones but to me the tradeoff for the lager screen is worth it. like a paperback vs a hardback.

It has a headphone jack and speakers along with a full keyboard. and even with only 4gb of memory it holds a ton of books and how many do you really need?

it hasn't gotten any firmware updates but are you missing anything you cant live without?

I cant see amazon dropping the ability to send books to it. The whispernet has never worked were I live so even if it went away its no great loss.

It has page turn buttons...To me much better than swiping.

It doesn't have a lit screen....This is a tossup. After reading all the issues with the lighting on the larger models its probably a good thing.


Its never been good for pdfs or comics, if thats your thing get a tablet.
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Old 03-09-2020, 02:21 AM   #11
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...

Its never been good for pdfs or comics, if thats your thing get a tablet.
That is exactly what I've been using DXG gladly for almost a decade now (outdoors only), for the plain reading (without highlighting) of b/w pdf & djvu A5 scanned books (in portraite mode), b/w pdf A4 documents (in landscape mode without any margins) and b/w comics (converted into cbz), always using KPV reader app, never its very rudimentary native pdf reader.

Majority of my scanned material (acquired or created) has been additionally OCR-ed using Adobe Acrobat's Clearscan, though, so that even those problematic and slow pdfs are relatively fast (about 1.2-1.5 sec.) to turn the next page.

Outdoors during the sunny day I'd still rather read A4 b/w pdf document on my DXG (landscape fit-to-screen mode without margins) than by using iPad or some 8" 300dpi eink with frontlight, because KPV has got all the functions I need and with DXG i can usually get 10-15 % magnification of the text (compared with A4 paper original) unlike with 8" reader, and also because I don't usually need the speed of a tablet when I read my pdf books and documents (I'm not student anymore).

I don't use reflow mode with scanned pdfs, because I want 100% accuracy of every letter and symbol therein and the original pdf page layout.

Indoors or for any kind of colored material it is usually iPad, or when I want to highlight and annotate pdf directly.

Last edited by Marinolino; 04-05-2020 at 01:27 PM.
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Old 03-09-2020, 07:19 AM   #12
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This thread is dead as the OP has not been back for over a month since the post was made. So don't bother to keep this thread alive.
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Old 03-13-2020, 01:25 PM   #13
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This thread is dead as the OP has not been back for over a month since the post was made. So don't bother to keep this thread alive.
Just because I haven't replied, doesn't mean I'm not watching.

I haven't bought anything yet, so the DX is still on my shortlist. The alternatives are a tablet with TFT screen - which I don't especially want to do, reading on a backlit screen isn't great - or a modern reader that's both smaller and many times more expensive.
An OLED tablet would also be an option, and there are a couple of (relatively) inexpensive ones available. Still several times more expensive than a DX.

So again, still weighing my options, and I'm happy to see more DX owners chipping in first-hand information.

-

Regarding batteries: my previous phone was a Motorola xt1254 "Turbo". Original batteries for it are 7 years old now, "new" batteries are at least 5, all have degraded by unacceptably large amounts.
The only real option for a replacement is to get a similar-dimension battery from a newer phone and solder the xt1254's battery protection board to its tabs --- which I did to get a bit more life out of the phone before treating myself to a used V30.

I'd probably do something similar with the DX if I were to get one; just find a modern phone battery and adapt it.
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Old 03-28-2020, 06:53 PM   #14
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I use a Dx regular for pdfs.

I have scripts to use either Willus's k2pdfopt or Ghostscript to pre-process pdfs for it. Some pdfs fail for various reasons.

I have neurological issues and can't use bright screens or touch devices, so I am not aware of anything else which can replace the Dx. I know some Onyx Boox devices have large e-ink screens, and the Kindle Oasis has a moderate-sized e-ink screen, but they're very expensive and I'm not sure if they've solved the touchscreen accessibility issues.
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Old 03-28-2020, 07:19 PM   #15
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A DX is a waste of money.
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