Any first hand experience with the Kindle DX?

[TwistedPair]

I am seriously considering getting a Kindle DX to read my technical manuals and textbooks on. The plan is to load the PDF files of the books unto the kindle so can carry the books around. I don't need anything more than an Ebook reader and my eyes get fatigued reading from monitors for extended periods. I have never seen an e-ink screen so I'm curious to know if it lives up to the hype.

[fishrule]

E-ink screens work very well, but the Kindle DX has some issues with some types of PDFs. If there is TONS of little text crammed onto on large page (some electronic textbooks are guilty of this) the DX can choke and give a nearly unreadable page. The other thing with the Kindle DX is you are literally within a few dollars of an Android Honeycomb tablet, which offer MUCH more functional PDF reading experiences. Of course the trade-off is less readability outdoors with a much shorter battery life. It's a toss-up, but a Toshiba thrive 16gb is 399, only 20 dollars more than the DX at 379. The strength of the smaller Kindle is readability, long battery life, low cost. The Kindle DX is a pretty strange duck that doesn't quite fit in with anything.

On a sidenote, the Android tablet is more versatile. There are tons of VERY useful academic apps on Android like Wolfram Alpha, something the Kindle DX does not offer.

Sidenote: The eyestrain thing is a little subjective in my opinion, I only notice it on a tablet if I am in a very bright area. If its between a Kindle with a lamp or my tablet, its pretty much the same for me.

[fishrule]

Also, what formats are your textbooks in other than PDF? The Kindle can only read a pretty limited selection of formats.

[Rx]

I have a kindle 3 and yes the e-ink does live up to the hype, esp the new generation with the 50% improved contrast.

[nder]

I agree with fishrule's comments. eInk is great - high contrast, as good as reading a printed page. However, PDF reading on the Kindle is wrought with difficulties. They are tools that can help you mitigate the issues. Take a look at this one: Calibre E-Book Management. It allows you to convert between ebook formats. I owned a Kindle 3, but haven't never used the DX. I do know of people who have bought the DX for the very same reason you want to - to read technical manuals. It works, and works well, but not all the time - some PDFs are just poorly formatted. I'd say go for it though.

[TwistedPair]

Thanks for the feedback I ordered the Kindle DX Monday. Should get it by next week. Calibre going to come in handy because I have a chm file I want to read on it as well. I will let you guys know my thoughts.

[zerodeth]

my main concern with ebook readers is that they have no backlight so reading in the dark is a no-no

[TwistedPair]

Got the kindle yesterday, been playing with it and loading on my books. First thing I noticed was that the screen was a bit narrower than I thought it would be, so to make the most of the screen real estate I used this app called BRISS to crop the PDF's. I used Calibre to convert a chm file to kindle format with mixed results and was able to download a book from amazon in seconds over whispernet. PDF support is usable but could be better, like not being able to set a custom zoom percentage or use the table of contents. The kindle book I bought tho really showed why this product is so great, reading that book was a breeze resizing and re flowing the text having the kindle read to you, visiting the external sites linked to in the book etc. That takes me too whispernet, this is amazons free wireless service, often times it indicates 3G speeds and as soon as I fire up the browser it drops down to edge, can't argue with free though.