Hands-On With the Amazon Kindle DX

Shortly after Amazon unveiled its Kindle DX this morning, we got some solid hands-on time with the larger display e-book reader. Check out our initial impressions, large photo gallery and hands-on video below.

The 10.4 x 7.2 x 0.38- inch Kindle DX is incredibly slim, though .02 inches thicker than the Kindle 2. The all-white device has an an aluminum back and felt incredibly comfortable and smooth in our hands. It is heavier than the Kindle 2, but isn’t overly heavy.

The device uses the same navigation buttons and toggles as the Kindle 2, however they only line the right side of the device. There is a Home, Previous Page, Next Page buttons from the top to bottom and between the Menu and Back buttons is the same five-way controller found on the Kindle 2. Two stereo speakers sit on the rear of the device and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top. A new QWERTY keyboard with oval shaped  keys fits below the display. The Tylenol-capsule-shaped keys were comfortable though the keyboard has been shrunk to accommodate the larger screen.

And it is that larger 9.7-inch display which is the real difference between the Kindle DX (standing for deluxe) and earlier Kindles. While we didn’t  get to spend much time reading on the device, it has the same sharp and more detailed e-Ink display as the Kindle 2 which added 16 levels of gray scale to the original Kindle.  Pages turned in less than a second and we were able to quickly flip through a New York Times article.

Beyond the bigger display, Amazon also added an accelerometer which auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device. The device adjusted within 2 to 3 seconds more times than not, however a few times we had to adjust the device a second time to get it to fully rotate.

The Kindle DX also includes the same 3G wireless as other Kindles for over the air downloads of books and content and  the Read-to-Me feature that will read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you. With 3.3GB of on-board storage, the DX can hold up to 3,500 books and documents. It also now has native PDF support through a built in reader.

The Kindle DX left us impressed in our short hands on time, but then we were reminded of its $489 price tag. Is the larger e-Book reader worth almost half a grand and $130 more than the Kindle, which admittedly has a screen that is half the size? While some schools will be subsiding the DX for students and newspapers will do the same in exchange for long-term subscriptions for those that live in areas  where there is no local delivery, most others will have to pay full price for the device and then pay full price for the content on it. The Kindle DX is a strong piece of hardware we just really wish it was cheaper. Stay tuned, however, for our full review and more complete verdict.