How does Kindle DX "Graphite" compare to my other Kindles:
As an unexpected lateral move in my search to find the perfect Kindle e-ink reading experience (earlier in this thread I've looked at Kindle PW, 5, 4, 3 and 2, see above and my signature), I bit when Amazon.com lowered their Kindle DX "Graphite" pricing to $189 (down from previous $239 and original $379) and the leather cover to $9.99 (down from $49.99). Here are my impressions.
Kindle DX "Graphite" is in many ways an odd creature. Living in the twilight of Kindle generations long gone - remaining (now on fire sale, perhaps for the last time) only for the lack of a similar-sized replacement or slow sales, probably both. But it was odd already the day it was born, sort of a member of the third-generation Kindle family, but then again not. In many ways, the Kindle DX, still on sale during the sixth (!) Kindle generation, is a second-generation Kindle. That's almost four generations separating it from the latest Paperwhite 2 and yet, there they still are, sold side by side on Amazon.com.
Kindle DX in the middle (inside cover in the top picture), Kindle 2 (left) and Kindle 3 on the sides:
Bigger picture:
http://imageshack.us/a/img844/9132/t90k.jpg
Bigger picture:
http://imageshack.us/a/img713/2751/dp6g.jpgHardware:
This age difference becomes obvious when you open the packaging (which is, by the way, exactly like those larger, boxier second and third-generation Kindle packages were). Initially Kindle DX looks like a giant Kindle 3 Keyboard (Kindle DX has a 9.7" screen compared to regular 6"), but holding it in your hand it actually feels like a giant Kindle 2.
The back is the obvious giveaway: it is metallic like on Kindle 2, not rubbery plastic like on Kindle 3 Keyboard. The shade of the metal is darker to match the graphite front (which, by the way, is the same color as the darker Kindle 3), but the feel in your hand is very Kindle 2 - also, it feels quite heavy, almost a monster next to the diminutive latest $69 Kindle 5. To perfect the nostalgy trip to simpler Kindle times, the button layout is nearly identical to Kindle 2, down to the little 5-way joystick (now only in graphite) and menu, home and back keys lining the right-side page change keys. To make the confusion complete, it uses the same font as Kindle 3, printed on a Kindle 2 button layout. (Unlike any other button-Kindle, the Kindle DX does not have page change keys on the left side, which is rather unfortunate in my use.)
Interior hardware of Kindle DX "Graphite" is also a mix and match of the second and third-generation Kindles. It has a version of the third-generation "pearl" e-ink screen (resolution 824 x 1200 vs. 600 x 800 normally), but only the same amount of RAM as Kindle 2 (half that of Kindle 3), so it runs a version of the Kindle 2 software (2.5.8 was pre-installed). And just like Kindle 2, there is no Wi-Fi. This global version of Kindle DX "Graphite" comes only with 3G, which does work very well of course. Then again, Kindle DX has the Kindle 3 storage capacity of 4 GB - twice that of Kindle 2, $79 Kindle 4/$69 Kindle 5 and Kindle PW1/PW2.
There is of course the keyboard too, shaped a little differently than on Kindle 2, but otherwise the same. I do like the fact that relatively the keyboard on the Kindle DX seems to take less space than on a Kindle 2 - those flat keys actually take up less vertical space than the Kindle 2 keyboard does. Finally as an unique touch, Kindle DX has an accelerometer and an auto-rotate option in the "Aa" menu, in addition to the usual manual rotation modes. (All of this applies to both the older white and newer graphite Kindle DX from 2009 and 2010 respectively, the only different is the screen, case color and the U.S./3G wireless variants.)
As a small reminder of years past, Kindle DX also comes standard with a (U.S.) charger, in addition to the USB cable - just like the first Kindle generations did.
Screen:
The big thing, literally the big thing, about Kindle DX is of course the screen. It has grown 3.7" from the regular Kindle and by 224 x 400 in pixels to 824 x 1200 pixels (beating even the PW, which is 758 x 1024). The pixels haven't increased quite as much as the screen-size has, though, so PPI is down from 167 ppi on regular non-PW Kindles to 150 ppi on the Kindle DX. Indeed, Kindle DX has the worst pixels-per-inch of any Kindle. The PPI isn't bad, but it is noticeably more pixellated than the average Kindle. It isn't really visible once you get to reading though, but on broader inspection it isn't hard to see.
Looking at the Kindle DX screen and my old Kindle 3 Keyboard side by side, they are definitely of the same breed. Text blackness is pretty much equal, meaning blacker text than Kindle 2 or my Kindle PW, but less black than on my $79 Kindle 4 and $69 Kindle 5. All in all, the contrast is perfectly fine. I'd call it good, even.
The screen is surprisingly nice. It does take some getting used to, reading from such a large e-ink screen, but it is surprisingly appealing. I like this Kindle DX, I really do. There is some of that magic there that made me fall in love with the earliest Kindle generations. It's just a really nice no-compromises, if anything a little classical flare, regular e-ink reader with a big screen.
Software:
The software is, basically, Kindle 2. About the only thing extra is the above-mentioned automatic screen rotation which works as advertised, but I turned it off from the "Aa" menu because I can't see myself using it much. The larger screen and resolution means more text fits onto the screen and the software makes good use of this. Compared to modern Kindles, it does seem pretty slow though, and there is no option for partial screen refreshes - although the 2.5 softare update has some things like Facebook integration, popular highlights and PDF pan & zoom. As the latter suggests, you can also read PDFs on it (transfer via USB cable or email), which I will get back to in a moment.
Something maybe forgotten in this day an age of glossy black, small Kindles are some of the features Kindle DX has, that Kindle Paperwhites or $69 Kindle 5 do not have. The most important thing is the audio, not only are there speakers on the bottom, there is also a standard 3.5" headphone jack on the top. The headphone placement is a bit odd, but if you need it, it is there (again, it is the same place as in Kindle 2 reminding us of that heritage). What this enables in software, then, are text-to-speech, audio book support and "experimental" MP3 player, which modern e-ink Kindles do not have.
PDFs on Kindle DX:
Logically PDFs sound like a really good potential use of the big screen, but the reality was rumoured to be rather tedious. To quickly test, I loaded four PDFs onto the Kindle DX:
- the Kindle user guide PDF (2.6 MB, 145 pages,
https://kindle.s3.amazonaws.com/Kindle%20User%27s%20Guide,%204A%20Ed.%20-%20English.pdf), just as an example what reading a book-like basic PDF would feel like
- an an issue of Engadget Distro e-zine (14.8 MB, 110 pages,
http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/engadget/distro/072613_DISTRO_book.pdf), full-pictured magazine-like content, but still meant for tablet-sized viewing
- an European Space Agency ESA white paper (12.5 MB, 202 pages,
http://www.esa.int/esapub/br/br250/br250.pdf), a landscape PDF with two magazine pages on each page
- another ESA white paper (5,1 MB, 48 pages,
http://www.esa.int/esapub/br/br176/br176.pdf), this time in portrait A4 pages
What I noticed with the PDFs is: When they work, they actually work really well, if you don't have to pan and zoom, because that's a pain (you press Aa, then choose from fit-to-screen, 150%, 200%, 300% or actual size - and the use the joystick to move around the screen) and you can't reflow a PDF. But if you do just fit-to-screen, and thanks to the size of the Kindle DX there is plenty of screen, reading is no easier or harder than reading any Kindle book. For example, the Kindle user guide PDF works really well, I'd even go as far as to say it works better than the included Kindle book version.
Engadget Distro works really well too, it opens up snappily - only some pages with larger pictures tend to load maybe a second or so, other pages load immediately. The font size on Engadget Distro is fine, after all it is sized for iPad viewing which is similarly sized. I do wish Amazon added a 110% option to the size options (or a custom percentage), though, because the Distro has quite wide margins and enlarging the page just a little would enlargen the fonts just so. Color pictures display perfectly adequately in grey and the PDF layout is reproduced faithfully. All in all, if you are just going to read page by page (and not expect going on a fast page-browsing session) from beginning to end, reading Engadget Distro on Kindle DX is very possible. (Too bad Engadget cancelled the magazine itself.)
The biggest challenge was always going to be the "A4 paper" test. An A4 paper, the standard paper size on Europe, is somewhat larger than the entire surface area of Kindle DX - and much larger than its 9.7" screen. The ESA paper is roughly "A3" size, which means two A4 papers side to side. This was a good test to see if the landscape mode helps any and how to pan and zoom such large pages... Well, it wasn't too promising, it actually just crashes the Kindle and reboots automatically. It shows the first page, but no matter what I do, crash is the end-result. Reading online this is something that sometimes happens on e-ink readers, most probably the reader runs out of memory. I'm fairly certain editing the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to smaller size, splitting it or maybe a different version would do the trick - but one needs to be aware of this.
The A4 sized ESA white paper fared better technically and seems to work perfectly, layout-wise. Pragmatically, there are problems. At portrait fit-to-screen, the text becomes quite small. Not impossible to read small, you can still read it, but still a little zooming would do good. If you push the zooming to the lowest level, 150%, it divides the page into roughly four segments that you have to switch between using the joystick. Quite tedious to read a single line and have to pan (rather slowly as you can imagine from e-ink) right just to read the end of the line and then back left to read the next line. Again, having a 110% or 120% zoom options would help because the document has quite large margins and there would be room to zoom a little to make the fonts larger, but 150% is just too much.
How about that landscape mode, then? Well the auto-rotate works quite nicely, it takes a while to react but that's better than suffering from random rotations. This mode does make the use of page turning buttons a little awkward, they are, on the bottom (or if you flip, they are on the top but their direction isn't reversed so arrow "up" actually means "go down" - originally Kindle DX had the less ambiguous NEXT/PREV PAGE printed here like Kindle 2, the "Graphite" version mimicking Kindle 3 has confused this functionality). The good news, though, is that in landscape mode the page is fit to fill the screen sideways and pressing next or previous page takes you to the next or previous segment of the page, so you don't have to pan using the joystick. If you get comfortable with the orientation, this way any regular-sized PDF is probably quite readable. I just wish there were page turning buttons on the shorter edges for this otherwise very useful orientation! Letting the user change to next page with the space bar would be an easy fix, because it is suitably located.
Leather cover and weight:
As the Kindle DX is based on the second-generation Kindle (and probably for practical considerations due to its size), it doesn't have the third-generation Kindle support for lighted covers. Amazon does still sell the regular official leather cover for Kindle DX, though, with the diminutive price sticker mentioned at the start of my post. Judging by Internet posts, this is a revised version of the cover for the "Graphite" generation: The original Kindle DX cover from 2009 has the metallic Amazon Kindle badge on front and no rubber band to close it, similar to the official Kindle 2 leather cover - the older DX cover does apparently use magnets for closing though and is heavier. The leather cover I received is like the Kindle 3 Keyboard non-lit leather cover, with a rubber band with its attached leather Amazon Kindle badge and no metallic badges.
So, this cover belongs to the third Kindle generation and just like the second and third-generation Kindles, the cover attaches to the Kindle via two metallic prongs, the bottom one you first slide the Kindle into and then pull to top one down to fit into the Kindle and lock it into place (to remove, just reverse the process). Once in the case, the Kindle is protected quite well, because the open sides of the case protrude significantly over the edges of the device itself - and you can keep the whole thing closed using the rubber band. When reading, the front of the cover turns to the back of the reader, although it seems a little stiff at least at first.
I do have to say, in and out of the cover, and especially in, Kindle DX is pretty hefty. Without the (non-lighted) cover it weighs 536 grams and with it, 900 grams. In comparison, $69 Kindle 5 is 168 grams naked and 313 grams in its lighted cover, Kindle Paperwhite 3G is 220 grams and 355 grams in its non-lighted cover (all numbers as measured by me on the same scale). So to read, it is probably easiest to rest it onto a pillow or at least on your legs when reading sitting up. Just for comparison, an iPad 4 weighs 650 grams, so Kindle DX is in the same ballpark, less than that without a cover. That said, this doesn't seem to be any kind of a show stopper, but it is something to understand.
Summary:
In the context of my search for the perfect Kindle reading experience, Kindle DX is definitely the odd one out. I wanted to get in on this classic action before the chance is gone. Who knows when we'll see anything of the sort from Amazon, if ever. I do have to say, I wish it was this easy to like the latest Kindles. It really is easy to appreciate the pure, no issues e-ink experience on the Kindle DX and the full host of controls and features of a classic e-ink reading device. The only gripe, really: I wish they hadn't lost the left-side page changing buttons and had better buttons for landscape reading. I get it that it may be too heavy to hold one-handed, and those buttons would have lessened the holding area, but still I do miss them.
Anyway, adding a third-party clip-on light onto the cover could make this a serious contender. Then again, I don't read newspapers or scientific papers on Kindle, and the DX is a bit large for just getting lost into fiction, so there's that... But nevertheless, the first impression is I do like it a lot. Makes for a potentially very useful machine for reading PDF manuals that have larger pages than can be comfortably read on a regular Kindle.
Funny thing. There were moments when I held the Kindle DX in my hands and got the distinct impression I was looking at an enlarged Kindle 3 - the leather cover hides the difference of the back and looking from an angle even the keyboard down there looks pretty similar. It felt almost comical, like the device was a mockup of sort, a joke.
But it's a good joke.
