The New Kindle DX

It arrived last friday. And my impressions are far better than the last time with the first international edition Kindle.

Small things first, when ordering it from Amazon.com, the description stated clear the international version was offered without a power supply, only with a USB cable. Fair enough. I added the EU power supply to the order and there was no disappointment.

I decided to order the DX model for a reason. Or actually for two reasons. The first - I found out after a firmware upgrade, the Web browser built into the Kindle works quite well for text Web pages, including JavaScript. What surprises me though, at the moment Amazon offers 3G Internet connectivity at no cost. Worldwide. I've browsed the agreements and terms and conditions of the service and have not found any specific information. They say they may charge for data usage. They say they will charge for over-the-air delivery of personal documents to the device at $0.99 per MB. But the Web just works (remember, I am in Poland and the Kindle has an AT&T SIM card in it, so this is no doubt a mobile data roaming scenario), and no charges have shown on my account. If this behavior is intentional, then Amazon must have negotiated quite a good deals for the (now global) Whispernet. Anyway, so far I am very happy, I can read my GMail and watch my stock portfolios and browse some forums I participate in, all on the Kindle. So the reason behind the DX was the screen size. Web pages render way better on the DX, compared to the standard Kindle.

The second reason for getting the DX have been PDFs. I read a lot of reports and other documentation in PDF form. And in summertime it is really great to read them outdoor. Unfortunately, before the Kindle DX, none of my gadgets allowed for comfortable PDF reading in sunlight. Neither a laptop nor an iPad, both with standard (albeit high quality) LCD displays, is able to deliver a decent reading experience. Both are too heavy and not really visible when the Sun shines. My standard Kindle proved to be the right direction, at least when it comes to display contrast and overall visibility. Unfortunately the small Kindle is too small for PDFs. Unlike eBooks, where you can adjust the font size and the displayed text reflows to match the screen, PDFs contain strict formatting with multiple columns and graphics. The best way to view them is in a fit-to-screen mode, which results in a very small, virtually unreadable text, when a typical PDF page is resized to a 6-inch display. So you have to zoom and then pan the screen. On the other hand reading PDFs on the DX is a joy, as pages simply fit the screen.

The contrast of the display is almost unreal. Better than laser - printed paper. It can be read in really dim light at night and it can be read in full direct sunshine. There is no color, but the shades of gray are very good. The device is much lighter than the iPad, so holding it in one hand is not a problem. I surely miss the touch screen option and the CPU is really slow. But when you know what the Kindle is good for (reading: ebooks, PDFs and static Web), you easily accept it is not an iPad. From a perspective of the last couple of days I can say I definitely spend more time with the Kindle than with the iPad. The threat form the iPad has been greatly exaggerated.

That is why I see Kindles playing into the coming strength of Amazon. The AMZN stock has been beaten lately, but looking at the business, they are very well positioned. Have just introduced two new low cost Kindles (WiFi and 3G+WiFi). At $139 there is not much thinking before buying one. And the 3G/WiFi version is just $50 more. Compare that with the magical and revolutionary $130 extra for the 3G option in the iPad. Plus Kindles are contract free. And work probably Worldwide at no extra charge. At the same time, the blades for these razors (using Gillette paradigm) sell extremely well. The Millennium Trillogy has just been the first ebook sold in over 1M copies. No transport and distribution costs. No paper to waste. One-click and start reading instantly.