My amazing wife, with a little help from some friends, got me a Kindle DX for Christmas!

Since I'm a bit of a bibliophile, I'd been coveting my friends Kindles for the past year. I never expected to actually get one of my own this Christmas.

After 4 days of use, I thought it was time for a quick hit review of the Kindle DX, and a summary of my first impressions.


First Impressions:

* The screen is huge compared to the Kindle 1 or 2. The 9.7" e-ink screen is large and especially good at displaying images and graphs (compared to the earlier generation Kindles).

* The Amazon Kindle store is easy to navigate & intuitive. I have bought 2 Kindle books and a dozen free Kindle books in the last couple days, and have found the experience to be very user friendly.

* Reading is a pleasure on the Kindle DX. I was able to read a 180 page book in about 3 hours without having my eyes get tired. This is a big deal for me as with most paper books, my eyes tire after about 120 pages/2 hours.

* The text to speech option, while not intuitive, is great for when you want to listen to more technical works, but not all that great for fiction.

* Amazon's whisper-net wireless service is a great added feature. I've checked my e-mail, looked up directions, checked out the news, and updated my facebook status from my Kindle...all for FREE! Love that part. No need for wi-fi to be able to download new books or access the mobile web.

* I love the capacity for 3,500 books on one device. I usually carry my laptop, and about 2-3 books with me (often having to leave behind 2-3 other books I'd like to bring). Now I can just bring my Kindle, and have access to any book I have in Kindle format.

* The ability to read native PDFs is great! I can take files with me that I'd normally need my laptop to open, or have physical copies of in front of me.

* The standard outlet to USB cable charger is great! It charges quickly. Can charge off an outlet or my laptop, and I can use it to charge my Blackberry (a great added feature as I don't have to carry two USB cables in my bag).

Things I'd like to see changed:

* The auto-rotation on the display is helpful, but a little too sensitive. A sensitivity setting would be nice.

* The 5-way navigation controller is a pain. It is slow and not nearly precise enough when navigating the web. I'd prefer a trackball similar to the Blackberry with a cursor for 360 degree navigation. The current controller simply takes too long to navigate from top to bottom on a page. (I'm sure there are some keyboard shortcuts to help with this, but I haven't discovered them yet).












* Speaking of the keyboard. Could there be a less comfortable keyboard on any electronic device? Seriously. Give us a split keyboard, which can be used by our thumbs only, while gripping the sides of the Kindle. Amazon can do far better than this.















* The ability to share my books with other Kindle users. Simple give me license to share with 1-5 friends for 1-5 days. I know this is an issue with publishers, but I share printed books all the time, and many times they buy the book for themselves.

* Give me the ability to change the font size when viewing PDFs.

* Folders for sorting my books. Currently, you can only organize your library by: Author, Title, or Most Recent.

All that being said, the Kindle DX is a great e-book reader, and I love mine. I'll look forward to posting an update after 6 months of use to see how this love affair ages.