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The Amazon Kindle DX: Bigger Size, But Is It Really a Big Difference?

Our team over at Apartment Therapy New York was bubbling with anticipation with today's announcement about the updated, larger Amazon Kindle DX. Perhaps it's because we live in a city with a newspaper on life support while the NY Times remains popularly and culturally relevant, but we weren't as excited as our Gotham team despite harbouring a curiosity about a device that aims to transition the public from book buying over to book downloading, all with a much larger screen...

 
 

An updated 9.7" screen with landscape rotation, 3.3GB storage and the ability to display PDFs makes the Amazon Kindle DX a tempting device for those who read on their commute (not while driving please, we already dread the streets thanks to cell phone drivers) or like to read during their lunch breaks. But the $489 price tag and the inherent ties to traditional content makes this less of a revolutionary device rather than an evolutionary one for the demographic who loves newspapers (we'd argue book lovers may harbour mixed feelings about something that is technologically impressive, but omits the tactile love affair of hands upon pages).

Amazon is aiming to hit the college set hard with the Kindle DX, but in our opinion Amazon needs to hand these over to new media content creators to produce unexpected uses for this sort of device, redefining the case the Kindle is not an expensive solution during times when cost is an important issue for consumers, and offers something significantly enticing compared to traditional print. Yes, we still love the Kindle's always-on 3G wireless access, the impressive 275,000 books to choose from, the 60 second download...we're always on the cusp of wanting to throw in our hard earned cash at giving it a try. The hardware is getting more beautiful to look at too from an aesthete's standpoint. We can smell that Amazon is onto something with the Kindle. But is it enough right now, at the right time, at the right price?

Tags

Surveys, information accessory, Amazon, Kindle, Kindle DX, eBooks

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Comments (2)

The new size doesn't do anything for me. What makes me happy is that they FINALLY dropped the freaking huge keyboard. It never made any sense to have it be as big as it is on the kindle 1 and 2.

posted by peshue on May 6th 2009 at 10:35pm
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as a children's librarian, i am both horrified and enthralled by the kindle, at any size. replacing books? no! getting kids to read? yes!

as a person living in less then 100 square feet, whose books are all currently in storage, i adore the idea of a kindle.
but along with the small living space, is also a small paycheck. so, I'll be waiting on purchasing a kindle any time soon.

posted by mdevans on May 7th 2009 at 11:44am
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