Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 9.7" Display, Graphite, 3G Works Globally – Latest Generation

2010-07-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

@ Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 9.7" Display, Graphite, 3G Works Globally – Latest Generation . Say Hello to the Newest Kindle DX All New, High Contrast E-Ink Screen: Our graphite Kindle DX uses our all new, improved electronic ink display, with 50% better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images Beautiful Large Display: The 9.7" diagonal E-ink screen is ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs Read in Sunlight with No Glare: Unlike backlit computer or LCD screens, Kindle DX's display looks and reads like real paper, with no glare. Read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines Books In Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds; no PC required Free 3G Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle DX; no monthly fees, no annual contracts. Enjoy 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries. Long Battery Life: Read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for up to two weeks. Carry Your Library: Holds up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents Built-In PDF Reader: Carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go. Now with Zoom capability to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics Auto-Rotating Screen: Display auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device so you can view full-width maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages Large Selection: Over 600,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are available to read on Kindle. For non-U.S. customers, content availability and pricing will vary. Low Book Prices and Free Book Samples: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases from $9.99. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy

cheapest to buy Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 9.7" Display, Graphite, 3G Works Globally

"Night and Day"
I've had my new DX for one day, but I cannot imagine going back to the Kindle 2 at this point. The difference in contrast between the two is dramatic - literally, as the title says: night and day.

I have owned a Kindle since November of 2007, and loved my original Kindle. The Kindle 2 was never quite right for me; I felt the contrast was much too light, but I liked so many of the other features that I kept it and have read on it for the past year and a half. After one day with the new Graphite DX, I don't know how I managed! The text is so clear and crisp and dark and the background so light that my daughter's first comment on seeing the new screen was that it appeared backlit! I love having more text on the page, meaning fewer page clicks, though the buttons on the DX are totally silent when pushed. They have a great response and the perfect resistance as well. The graphite is quite handsome, though I always liked the white just fine. I know many people have written that the darker bezel may aid in the improved screen appearance, but to my eyes, the screen is just that much better on its own. I even covered the graphite bezel with the white bezel of my old Kindle to check and it really is a dramatic improvement over my K2(US version).

I am getting used to the larger size and weight faster than I thought I would. Though I thought I would originally read the DX sans cover because of its size, I have already ordered and received the red Amazon cover and prefer reading the DX that way. It just feels safer and more secure to me, and I don't worry about getting my fingers all over that vast screen surface while carrying it. I have also discovered through trial and error that I like the fewest words per line option, giving a nice margin to the page. With the text so clear and dark, I'm able to read at a smaller font in low light, so even with the fewest words chosen, I still get plenty of text on every page.

I do miss the next page button on the left hand side, but as I use the DX more, I'm sure I'll reach for it less and less. I'm not sure why Amazon chose not to give us that option on the DX; I know some have suggested it might have been to keep the weight down. Whatever the reason, I do miss it. Another small quibble is the fact that you are not able to change the line spacing on a page of text as you can on the Kindle 2. With experimentation, I found that choosing fewer words per line gave me almost the same effect, but it would be nice to have that choice as well. These are minor complaints, and far, far outweighed by the superior reading experience.

The unit I have has a solid, quality, and well-built feel. The buttons are quiet, the keyboard responsive. Page turns are fast, especially considering the much larger amount of text per page compared to the K2. Overall, I am thrilled with this purchase.

If you are on the fence, wondering if the Graphite DX really is that much better, I have to say, unequivocally, it is.

"I love this thing!"
I love this reading machine. Page flips are fast, text contrast is great, screen size is perfect. ANNDDDD its light enough to take to bed, or read on a lawnchair. My previous reading device was a Sony PRS505 (which I am sad to see fall to neglect, the 505 really re-kindled my love of reading).

I enjoy reading the newspapers on it.

I'll be buying a tonne of books once Amazon gets rid of the DRM (until then I'll be buying from non-drm places).

"Graphite Kindle DX is awesome!"
I am a 1st generation Kindle owner (K1), one of the early adopters. Didn't see much reason to upgrade to the Kindle 2, the original DX was too expensive... but the new graphite DX (DXG) was announced with a pretty significant price drop so I decided to give it a go... and I am glad I did! I think it's finally time to retire the original kindle.

There are countless reviews that cover the DX at this point... so I won't go into too much detail on the features. The one new thing is the screen. WOW, it is nice. The background is whiter and the text is crisper. It's just more pleasing to read. I never had an issue with reading on my kindle 1, but when comparing it side by side with the new DX, the new DX is a significant improvement.

Stuff I like about the Graphite Kindle DX:

- The quality of the screen is incredible.

- The size of the screen. It feels luxurious. I like not having to turn pages so often.

- PDF support is great, even for viewing graphs/charts/etc. I use PDF's a lot for work as I read a lot of technical manuals. The DX handles them like a champ and I feel like I can stop using paper copies of them now.

- Periodicals. WOW. The Kindle 1 was horrible for viewing newspapers. The DX is incredible. It is SO easy to navigate between articles/sections. I would never, ever have considered ditching newspapers if I had to view them on the original kindle, but the DX really handles them beautifully.

- Pictures. My old kindle did a pretty poor job with pictures. On the graphite DX, pictures look fantastic.

- Fast page turning. Compared it side by side with the original kindle, it turns pages about twice as fast.

Stuff I don't like about the Graphite Kindle DX:

- It's heavier than I would like. I don't feel that it is overly heavy, just that it could be lighter. It definitely has some heft to it.

- Does not have a removable battery. Do not like this at all, as I have memories of my original Kindle's battery no longer holding a charge and having to be replaced... which I was able to do myself.

- Mixed feelings on the little joystick nub used for navigating. I like the navigation method on the original kindle quite a bit. New kindle - you use the joystick to cycle through each individual word on a page until you find the one you want a meaning of, old kindle - you use a wheel to quickly select the line that the word is on, and it provides the definitions of every word on that line (much quicker overall).

If you were deciding between this and the Kindle 2, here are my thoughts on who should buy the graphite DX -- someone who has a little extra $$ to spend, uses PDF's and/or wants a more luxurious reading experience and doesn't mind the larger size / decreased portability.

I rated it 4 out of 5 stars just because it isn't perfect, but I really am thrilled with my purchase and feel that it is a significant improvement over the original Kindle.

"Kindle DX (white) is great, and the new Graphite is even better!"
Comparison of Kindle DX White to DX (Graphite). The black images are sharper, and you can immediately see the difference. The ink looks richer, darker and more like an actual book. The graphite body color does make the "page" background appear whiter, along with the improved contrast.

Form Factor: Very nicely balanced, light weight, but solidly build. Keys have a nice tactile touch when depressed.

Screen: Good readability in moderate light, but fantastic readability in direct light. Excellent indoors usage when using a "Daylight" compact fluorescent lamp. Screen has a matte finish, which will show some glare from light bulbs, but you just tilt the device slightly to eliminate it.

Latest version 2.5 update: Best feature was the addition of categories. You create custom categories, and then assign books and PDFs. With 80 or so books and subscriptions, I used to have about 5 pages of items to scroll thru. Now with 4 categories, I have less than one page of items, and my "home/first page" is now like a "main menu". Much easier to find stuff.

Comparing the Kindle DX to the iPad: I stopped by the Apple store and compared the DX to the iPad. The iPad had too much glare and harsh contrast when compared to the Kindle. Also, the fonts were crisper and easier to read on the Kindle.

PDF reading: My personal preference is to have larger fonts, so having a PDF document shrunk down to the 9.7 inch screen was not something I found useful. There is zoom functionality for PDF files, but it's a little cumbersome maneuvering the zoom outline box around with the small joy stick button.

"Perfect in my airplane"
There has been a lot of talk about the IPAD for in flight use by pilots, but the thought kept coming back to me, "What the hell do I need yet another moving map for?" I have 4 in my cockpit (Avidyne MFD with CMAX, two Garmin 430s and a Garmin 396) all loaded to the gills with more data than I could ever want for. I already have Voyager 4 for flight planning, I like it a lot and I do not need or want another planner.

What I really wanted was a cockpit tool. A plate reader that could hold every approach plate in the country with free updates, an AFD reader with free updates and something to hold the SR20 POH so I would have one less 3lb. book to carry. I wanted something that would be totally readable in sunlight. I wanted a solution that would hold the manuals for the all avionics, checklists, the FAR AIM book, educational stuff, phone numbers, etc. It needed to be light and I didn't want the battery to die on me without the need to recharge it all the time between flights.

The new Amazon Kindle DX Graphite (first deliveries were yesterday, got mine yesterday!) has all of that. Its screen is the same size as the IPAD (9.7 inches). Its screen is new, with upgraded incredible resolution that is honestly easier to read than paper in sunlight. No glare. It was $379 with free delivery ($100 cheaper than the last Kindle DX version, about $500 cheaper than the IPAD I would have bought) and worked right out of the box. I had it loaded with 1.8 GB organized in 8 folders in no time flat. I can access the plates faster with it than I can with the paper versions. The plates are free from www.pdfplates.com (I gave them a donation of 10 bucks anyway, but it was not mandatory). The FAA download center provided a lot of the other PDFs I have in it. I have random stuff like a passenger tutorial for newbie passengers. The FAR AIM manual was downloaded by 3G from the Amazon books site in maybe one minute ($9.99 but I could have downloaded it chapter by chapter for free from the internet). I ran out of stuff to cram in it and I have another 2.2 GB to go. With the wireless off this device uses practically no battery life. The screen only uses energy when a page is redrawn. It recharges from its USB cable so in a pinch I could maybe plug it into the Avidyne MFD (I think, but I'm not going to be the first one to try it in the air!!!!!)

Anyway, different strokes for different folks, but this thing is perfect for me.