Amazon Kindle DX
After being indecisive for a few months now, I decided to buy my first e-book reader last month. I went with Amazon KindleDX – the model prior to the newly released Kindle Wi-Fi (which got released a few weeks after I bought KindleDX). I didn’t go with Apple iPad – it doesn’t have an e-ink and is so not easy on the eye, is heavier than KindleDX (iPad is 700 grams and KindleDX is 535 Grams) and is a first-generation device compared to KindleDX. I didn’t go with the competition like Nook or the Sony Reader because of my loyalty to Amazon – I am always impressed by their excellent customer service, world-class self-service website and above all, I believe they will surely survive and continue to grow in the expected churn in this industry. Above all, an e-book reader is all about the choice of titles and ease of purchase. And I am not a fan of reading long chapters on any LCD/LED displays.
I ordered the device from the Amazon website with my India Credit Card and had it shipped to my Chennai address. I got the device on July 13th (the 3rd business day from 8th July when I ordered)) – unbelievable. I was charged in total US$530.70 (Device was US$379, Shipping US$13.49, Import Fees Deposit US$138.21) for the device & shipping.
My observations of using the device for the last few weeks:
- Out of the box, the device came preconfigured with my Profile (username and password) stored. So nice of the Amazon team. I am sure no other OEM does this, even though they know everything about us when we order it on their site. The device came in a minimalist eco-friendly, easy-to-open packaging
- Amazon has published clear and easy-to-understand instructions for customers from the outside USA, including India. Every other American e-commerce firm I know of is focused only on the USA and for them, customers from the outside USA will be treated as “Aliens”
- The Text to Speech feature where by it reads out a book – though I was sceptical of it, I found it to be very usable
- The in-built dictionary (Oxford English) is a great feature. Many a time, I am lazy to pick up a dictionary (Even though my firm LIFCO publishes one for the last 50 years) and refer to the word I didn’t understand. With Kindle, I just need to move my cursor to any word and the full meaning is shown at the bottom of the screen.
- The device, the feel of it and the ease of reading are better than I imagined. I wish the device had touched, the buttons were Car Friendly (especially Text to Speech Pause/Play, Volume), and a little bit lighter. I didn’t miss the Colour display as the sharpness of the e-ink was as good as printed paper
- The auto-sync feature with the other devices for my account. I got the Kindle App for PC and iPhone installed and I was thrilled by the feature where the pages I have read are automatically synchronized between the devices
- The other day I was in a local book store and I liked a book, I could easily browse the same on my iPhone Kindle App (we won’t be carrying our Kindle device everywhere). Then I bought it from iPhone and had it shipped with one 1-click to my Kindle device at home. Before I reached home, using Whispernet I found the book already downloaded and ready on the Kindle Device
- Newspapers and magazines are priced too high for an Indian customer. The selection of Indian Authors and titles is currently very limited
- Ability to backload (copy) any PDF file from your PC to Kindle using USB. I loaded all my unread issues of IEEE Spectrum and actually read a few of them over the weeks
- No native support (Especially in a Web browser) for Indian Languages. Indic Unicode displays fine in files saved as PDF (Adobe Acrobat)
- Nil charges for Whispernet Data Transfer for browsing the catalogue, buying and downloading books in 100 countries including India
- KindleDX doesn’t have a Wi-Fi connection, having it would have made downloading of books and casual browsing faster when I am in a Wi-Fi zone like my office or home (The newly announced model has a Wi-Fi feature, but a smaller display)
- The device charges through its MicroUSB Port using any standard USB charger
[ 9/Sep/2010 ]
I was pleasantly surprised today to receive a refund of US$41.38 out of the US$138.21 paid as Import Fees Deposit. With this cost for Customs Duty to import my KindleDX to India is about INR 4551. Amazon, you are impressing me continuously!
33 Comments
Shubham Roy
Respected Sir,
I’m also interested in buying one but there are some worry eating me up like the import policy,custom verification and all,means after ordering it for around 20,000,if I don’t get the product,due to any reasons like verification of documents or anything of such type,and so i want to clear it from you,as you are an experienced person,so please do reply,thanking you.
venkatarangan
you can conveniently buy from Amazon.in, they have it already imported. there is nothing for you to worry. otherwise you can also buy it from local electronic stores like cromoa who sell amazon kindle devices now.
dhananjay jaygude
Dear Mr. venkatarangan,
As on date – i.e. July2013, when there is option of other readers and also Kindle paper white 3g, what will be your recommendation for e-reader?
I want to buy ebook reader. I do not want to go for smaller one as it leads to strain after some reading also you can have access/visibility of entire page in one go. You have to scroll horizontally and vertically.
Now Kindle DX ia once again available on AMAZON. Should i go for kindle DX or is there any other option? ( i am asking for laptop but asking for any other e book reader?)
regards,
Dhananjay
venkatarangan
I will anyday opt for a e-ink reader. Having owned KindleDX and iPad3, for reading books I go for KindleDX which saves me from constant distraction of FaceBook/Mail, etc. My complaint with KindleDX is lack of Touch and bulky. The new Kindle Paperwhite is awesome and lightweight. If you are buying new, just go for it, you won’t regret it.
Lastly if you want just one device, then consider iPad Mini. Its lovely, lightweight.
For reading books in my experience, most important is the weight. Since you will be holding the same for hours on a stretch if its a good book.
Swaminathan
Hi Venkat: I have been using Kindle and have managed to flawlessly convert some of the Project Madurai books to Kindle. The trick lies in using some of the free tools that Kindle has released. Download Unicode HTML files from Project Madurai website (say Ponniyin Selvan). Use Kindlegen (utility supplied by Amazon) to convert HTML to Mobi. You can preview on your computer by using Amazon’s Kindle Previewer. Converted books can then be transferred to and read on Kindle. My problem is now in embedded fonts (Read PDFs). I am hunting for a solution.
venkatarangan
Thanks for this useful information.
Navin
Hi Venkat,
I’m planning to buy Kindle DX latest version.
Wanted to check out if one can browse to a couple of mobile sites..
for example I’m subscribed to safari bookshelf and use ‘http://m.safaribooksonline.com/hd/home’ frequently on my Tab.., will I be able to browse it on Kindle DX ( I believe it only has a 3G connection and no wi-fi).
Regards,
Navin.
Nandhu
I am extremely thankful to you for the help you have provided. Now I realize that Kindle is not so apt for my purposes, but I might be benefited if you could try the links. Take your time.
Nandhu
http://archive.org/details/mattermotion00maxwiala.
Please try the PDF format,the EPUB and Kindle formats don’t
display the mathematical expressions( the files are basically
poorly OCRed) correctly.
venkatarangan
I tried the Kindle format, as you said they don’t show the formulas or diagrams. I tried the PDF and B/W PDF, for some reason both don’t work in Kindle DX that I have. All the pages comes just blank – all white page with message saying “Some elements in the page can’t be displayed”. A quick search in Google, showed these pages which contains some solutions, I am yet to try them.
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-141086.html
http://mat.tepper.cmu.edu/blog/?p=595
Nandhu
Hello Venkatarangan,
I am really impressed by this wonderful service you provide to us.
I am planning to buy a Kindle-4 6″ in the near future and want to know whether it
supports image PDF files (ie, scanned non-OCRed PDF files) with lots of mathematical
expressions like those physics book available at http://www.archive.org.
venkatarangan
Give me an example URL I will check in my old Kindle DX. My guess it should work if the PDF is just scanned as you say.
Shashi Bhal
Hi Mr. Venkatarangan,
I just got Kindle touch wi fi, and noticed that it is supporting Hindi (devanagari) very well in .TXT (unicode utf 8), but you have to do a trick through Calibre E-Book Mangement( I mean send .txt file from computer to Kindle through Calibre not direct drag and drop), It will be better for your Kindle if you convert .TXT (unicode utf 8)to .MOBI, the Unicode font support for devanagari not so good quality but all glyphs and conjuncts rendering proper ( I think given font is Arial Unicode, It will be better if Kokila from Microsoft or Cdac DV OTYogesh Font).This process is applicable same for ePub conversion for all Indic Languages.
mainak
thanx for hte excellent review..i am a medical student and wish to carry all my books with me..and kindle dx would just suite me…but i have a few questions..
1: most of my books are in HTML HELP format of microsoft…will those book open??
2: will there be any problem in future if i ask my friend in US to buy it for me…as it would be cheaper..
Venkatarangan TNC
[To Mayank Sharma, who asked where he can buy a Kindle DX and do I recommend this model still. Below is my reply]
I believe Amazon.COM sells Kindle devices and ships them to India. I do keep seeing offers and deals for Kindle in India from http://shopping.indiatimes.com, check them out and compare it before you make a buy.
No, I will not recommend Kindle DX (the model I have). Over long usage it feels quite heavy and since I use iPhone/iPad and got used to touch, I miss it. Few months back I bought from US the new Kindle 6” devices for my friend – it is unbelievably light and comfortable. Currently my Amazon wish list has Kindle Touch (http://amzn.com/B005890G8Y)
Overall, I still prefer reading books with Kindle than with iPad as it is easier on the eye.
Jack Smith
the commenting here was quite knowledgeable and got to know a more about kindle, I have been researching a lot on kindle as I hold on my own books to publish making a kindle conversion by me own a difficult task at last got it done from http://www.ebookconversion.com/ that gave me a sigh of relief and left me worrisome all of the care taken by them
Rajkumar
Hello guys
I’m a Kindle wi-fi user. I found a useful hack for Kindle devices, which can make our Tamil kindle users glad enough. But it’s not telling us about converting any Tamil PDF files to be readable in Kindle. If any one find such an article, please make us know. Here is the link.
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116098
Venkatarangan TNC
@Sriganesh, you can directly copy a PDF file to your Kindle (which gets mounted as a drive when you connect to your PC using USB). You can also email it to your personal kindle email ID, which converts the file and wirelessly transfers it to your Kindle – for this you pay per MB to Amazon.
Sriganesh
i have a pdf document; can it be loaded directly to the device; or else i has to be send to amazon to convert for us. if so, how to pay such charges
Venkatarangan TNC
@govind, thanks for the compliment.
I checked with my Kindle DX now. Scaling of PDF files to 300% or Actual Size worked flawlessly without any issues, only thing you have scroll to read the next columns. The Text to Speech didn’t work on any of the PDF files I tested. It works only the native Kindle format, purchased from Kindle store.
govind
Venkat,
This is great and overall excellent blogs. Well thought and interesting. Regarding Kindle DX, does it have speech functionality on pdf documents or only native supported files.
Also can you scale pdf docs to bigger size without wrapping wierdness? I am slightly vision impaired and anted to see how flexible it is to adjust to fonts on pdf documents?
I want to hold plenty of pdf docs like sanskrit slokas,vedas etc and not sure if it increase in scale like Adobe Acrobat on windows (increase in % or Control++). Lack of added storage is definitely a problem for lot of pdf docs. This is good for people buying books on amazon, hich i dont plan to do in much. I am interested in indian newspapers/magazines etc
govind, san jose
Venkatarangan TNC
@ganesh, to best of my testing(s) it supports only as Embedded PDF files as of now.
Ganesh
vanakkam Venkatrangan,
Does Kindle support Tamil/Hindi unicode fonts in the properietary .azw format, or is it necessary for me to use embedded fonts in PDF?
Venkatarangan TNC
@Sriram, please buy the black leather cover – it does make holding better, more book like and certainly helps to protect from dust & scratches.
Sriram Srinivasan
Hi, I am planning to buy a Kindle DX, but confused on whether need to buy a protective cover also? Did you buy one? Pls. let me know.
Venkatarangan TNC
@Vijay, Yes Kindle DX does support rendering of most of the embedded fonts in a PDF. I tried with TSCII fonts (Embedded) in a PDF file from Project Madurai (http://projectmadurai.org/pm_etexts/pdf/pm0001.pdf) and it did display correctly. See the image of it rendering it correctly here:
"http://venkatarangan.com/blog/content/binary/Project Madurai TSCII Tamil in KindleDX PDF0001.jpg"
Vijay
Hi,
I am also interested in Kindle but just worried about the tamil language support. As you said PDF files with embedded fonts can be read in Kindle, is it possible to read the PDF files downloaded from Project Madurai web site. These files use the TASCII encoded fonts embedded in them.
venkatarangan tnc
@Govind, I guess you are meaning Indic Languages like Hindi, Tamil, Bengali when you say Native Language. Currently no version of Kindle ships any Indic Language fonts (you can’t load it yourself as well) and there is no rendering support as well for them.
But PDF files with Font-Embedded displays that you can back-load (using USB or Wireless) into your Kindle displays Indic Languages just fine. I have many such files in my KindleDX
All said I feel Native Support is a matter of time, as the base OS is somekind of Linux and Platform is Java – both support Indic Languages for UNICODE. I guess Amazon hasn’t been asked loudly enough for this as only few publishers in India are present on Kindle – which is due to their conservative business nature and lack of understanding of E-Books.
Govind
What abutt native language books availability? Pandu has almost sold me the kindle (smaller size), super impressed by free browsing :). I do not care for color anyway. Reading is awesome !. I really wished local lang books are available , this would be great gift for mom.
Kartheeban
Well written article Venkat. Thanks for sharing!
subcorpus
After doing some research about price, screen size and PDF support, I ended up buying the Amazon Kindle DX. And it is great. It really is a good device. It doesn’t do much, but what is does, it does beautifully. Very nice.
venkatarangan tnc
hi krupa shankar, the difference between a e-book and a netbook boils down to what you want to do & convenience. If you want to browse, send emails, edit documents/spreadsheets, see movies and also read e-books then Netbook or iPad will be better suited for you. But if you want a great reading experience with little strain on your eye (due to Backlit and LCD in Netbooks/iPad) then e-book readers with e-ink will be better suited.
In general, specialized devices are better than multi purpose devices (compare the Camera in your Mobile to a proper Nikon Digital SLR). Similarly though ebooks can be read in Netbooks, PCs, Mobiles through even their respective Kindle Apps; it feels much better & convenient to do it on Kindle device.
S Krupa Shankar
I have a doubt since a long time. eBook readers cost more than a laptop. Are they really worth the amount costing about Rs. 25,000?
I have not used it, but not sure what could be the advantage as compared to, for example, a netbook (in terms of reading).