The Amazon Kindle DX was launched back in May and started getting into the hands of the ebook reader fans sometime in June and so far we’ve seen it welcomed wholeheartedly in the states with over 3/4 million sales so far. While tongues were wagging about it being the start of the end of newspapers and textbooks you’ll soon see that it’s far from that. Over double the screen size of the Kindle 2, it still doesn’t come close to the reading surface area of the standard newspaper. It’s about the same size of the hardback novels to be honest. However, that aside, you can definitely see that it’s the area we’re heading in with these ebook readers.

The Kindle DX has 16 shades of grey scale and it’s screen is simply amazing to read from with near perfect contrast and nice razor sharp clarity even in dazzling light. The large screen has made the icons, digital bars and page numbers insignifcant in the picture because they just take up less space. Complemented with faster page turns, obvious larger size and silky smooth images the Kindle DX is a big leap forward. The DX is as flat as a pancake but the weight is still enough to mean that you’ll get quickly tired in one arm unless you hold it with both. The half kilo weight will mean 2 hands for most.

You can now view the screen in both portrait and landscape due to the fitted accelerometer inside which will make for some variation, but you’ll probably get bored of waiting for the screen to re-orientate and often you’ll see some formatting issues. Its not as quick and simple to flick the page over at that horizontal setting either.

While we’re on the downsides, I’ll say it now that the user interface does slightly disappoint me as overall progress of these ebook readers is frustratingly slow in my opinion, especially after being spoilt by that of devices like the iPhone. There’s what seems like a tiny joystick in proportion to the whole device which makes navigating around quite laborious. The experience of the buttons isn’t quite there either. Further to this, it’s surpising that menu access is that tiny bit annoying and for impatient users like me you might be tapping away a few times in demand of faster actions.

The upsides though…the 3G makes buying books, blogs, and newspapers lightening fast comparably. This did delight me. Loading up PDF, MP3 and MOBI files is rapid too through the USB connection that also doubles as the charger.The Amazon DX in newspaper mode now lets you search within the newspaper but still only lets you see a single story at a time. Blogs also do ok on the new browser. Again, the text to speech on this device is not yet going to give the audio book market a run for it’s money but i’m sure the companies are working on this for the future. At the moment, we still have the 20th century robot that you’ll only give 5 minutes air time to before wanting to smash the whole thing against the wall.

In summary, the Amazon Kindle DX is a big step forward. The quality of design and build is really at the cutting edge and it’s using wireless capability well. The reading experience has been enriched with the bigger screen. The sharper image makes a huge difference and will make reading even more pleasurable. For those whos eye sight isn’t too great, the larger fonts work well because of this.

There are some areas mentioned above though that let this ebook reader down. The DX can be hit and miss with ease of navigation and response speed.

The looks are impressive but for those looking for a simple ebook reader for their commute, the DX will feel too cumbersome, even though it’s slick and smooth in design. Its just too large and too heavy for casual handbag use. It’s expensive too, but if you have the money, read a range of literature a lot including newspapers, and you like the latest and greatest designs, then you’ll be all over the Kindle DX. Amazon have done well with this 3rd edition Kindle.