Kindle DX Review: A High Price to Pay for a Bigger Screen

The Kindle DX was initially released before the upgrade to E Ink Pearl on all Kindle devices. The screen had much higher contrast and made for even easier reading and comfort. Add to that the much larger screen and the Kindle DX seemed like a real upgrade. Unfortunately, today’s less expensive Kindle’s all have improved E Ink technology and you can get 3G on the Kindle Keyboard or Kindle Touch. Additionally, the Kindle DX doesn’t have WiFi as well as 3G, and a lot of users don’t realize that until they get the product home. Overall, Amazon is asking you to pay almost $400 for an eReader that is almost the same as their other models, but bigger.

And for some people, the size of the Kindle DX is what they want. The entire device is 10.4 inches by 7.2 inches and just over a third of an inch thick. The screen is 9.7 inches diagonally, versus the 6 inch screens of the cheaper Kindle models. The Kindle DX allows more text per page, which means less page turning, especially if you need to zoom or increase the text size. If you purchase large print books, you may find the Kindle DX to be the only option worth using as an eReader. However, the price difference between the smaller Kindles and the Kindle DX still feels inflated.

With that larger size also comes an incredible increase in weight. The Kindle DX weights just under 19 ounces, more than double the weight of the smaller Kindles. Many users find that holding the Kindle DX upright for long periods of time can become uncomfortable. The keyboard is also shortened by one row, adding the numbers to the QWERTY row instead of up above. Typing while holding the Kindle DX upright can be very difficult, and many users say that they put the device down flat to use the keyboard. Page turning arrows are also now on one side of the device only, the right side. If you are left-handed, this might just turn you off completely.

Click here to visit the Kindle DX page

The bigger screen doesn't justify the $379 price tag.

On the other hand the Kindle DX is a slight upgrade in overall performance. The web browser is slightly faster, although still sluggish, than on older models of the Kindle. Page turning is slightly faster, and most features that it shares with the other Kindles are at least as good if not just slightly improved. Plus the DX has two features that other Kindle’s, besides the new Kindle Fire, do not have. First, the screen rotates automatically, with a slight increase in size when you view the content horizontally. Second, the PDF viewer. PDF viewing has been an ongoing issue for the Kindle products. The Kindle DX has a dedicated PDF viewer and you can zoom and view your documents much more conveniently. However, remember that the Kindle DX only has 3.3GB of space for user content, so if you are often looking at PDFs with graphics and diagrams, you may have trouble. Additionally, the graphics do not render well with the zoom features, and overall the viewer is still a very minimally useful tool.

The Kindle DX does not outperform other Kindle products that can be purchased at a much cheaper price. Additionally, with the size and weight and price, you could be using a tablet. If you want a tablet computer, this is not a good option. If you want an eReader, there are better deals out there. If you want an eReader that has a bigger screen, the Kindle DX is your option, but it comes at a strangely high price. You could get a $199 tablet ereader and a $99 basic model for less.  I don’t really understand the price point on this model.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Kindle DX Technical Specs

-
Price	$379
-
Design
-
Touch Screen	No
-
Screen Size	9.7”
-
Screen Type	E Ink
-
Resolution	1200 x 824
-
Overall Size	10.4″ x 7.2″ x .38″
-
Weight	18.9 ounces
-
Content
-
EBooks	2.6 million
-
Magazines	368
-
Newspapers	131
-
Memory & Battery
-
Memory	4GB for 3,500 books
-
Battery Life	3 weeks