It’s only been a few months since the launch of the Kindle 2 wireless reading device, but now Amazon has released a follow-up. The Kindle DX is still as thin as its predecessor at about 1/3 of an inch, but it now sports a bigger 9.7-inch (diagonal) display.
With more than twice the surface area of the six-inch Kindle, this new reader has 16 more shades of gray for better graphics. The large display shows letter-sized documents in full view, although 9.7 inches is still a lot smaller than a lot of materials that are larger than books, such as magazines.
The Kindle DX has a couple more things going for it though. For one it now has a built-in PDF Reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology – a feature that was sorely missing in past Kindle iterations. PDF documents can be transferred easily to the DX now without any file conversion, and they can be viewed on the DX in full form without any reformatting. The new features list also includes auto-rotation, which shifts the DX’s view from portrait to landscape mode and vice versa simply by turning the unit around. The DX also has 3.3GB of memory, whicn translates to roughly 3,500 books. That’s an upgrade from the previous Kindle 2’s 2GB capacity.
The DX still uses 3G wireless for downloading content from the Amazon Kindle Store with no extra fees. It will syncs with other Kindle DX units, previous Kindle models, and Kindle for iPhone. Shipping will start in the summer, but Amazon is taking pre-orders now, and the Kindle DX can be had for $489.
