Sam Purtill

I’ve purchased both the Kindle DX and Kindle 2. One for home, magazines, newspapers (DX), and the other for reading books and travel (Kindle 2). You can see them side by side here (I was able to get the same screensaver on both).

I have yet to put PDFs on the DX, I’ll get on that this weekend to test it out. I’ve had the DX since Monday and the Kindle 2 for a little over a month, here are my thoughts so far.

The 2 is much easier to read books on (fiction and non fiction) because the size of the screen is similar to that of a paperback book. The DX is much better to use when reading magazines or newspapers, since the screen is similar to a normal magazine page. The DX is much heavier and not ideal for taking with you travelling / commuting. All the buttons are on the right side of the DX too (they’re on both sides of the 2) which is annoying when you want to hit Next Page from the left side and have to lift your right arm up and hit it from the right side (subtle but very frustrating).

The ink is darker on the DX which I’ve found better on the eyes. Sometimes the 2 has font that’s not fully black which makes your eyes strain a little (not a big deal though).

I like the 2 more than the DX; I’m using the 2 much more for commuting and reading books - I’ve finished 4 books on it so far (I’m a bibliophile). I really like the DX for magazines (Atlantic, New Yorker) and newspapers (NYTimes, WSJ). Also, Amazon gives out a lot of free books for the Kindle - about 2,000 of them - and I got the Cook’s Illustrated for free, which has been super fun to read on the DX (since it’s about the size of a cookbook).

When comparing the two devices to print books, I’ll take the Kindle all day long. You forget you’re reading on the device after 5 minutes of use and never look back.

A few friends have ran the cost of owning a Kindle vs. continuing to buy print books, to which I’d say a few things:

- The Kindle is environmentally friendly (we wouldn’t be cutting down trees for books/publications if everyone was using an e-reader)
- The Kindle displays only one page at a time, which is a big deal. When you are laying in bed on your side with a regular book, it’s always a hassle to read one of the two pages - you’re constantly holding up half the book to be able to read it. With the Kindle this problem doesn’t exist, you just hit the Next Page button and continue on.
- You can read any book or publication within 60 seconds of purchasing it. No more trekking down to Borders and spending 45 minutes trying to find the book, or waiting 3-5 days for Amazon to ship the book to you. The Kindle is a much more efficient process.
- The number of people that will gawk at you when you pull out the Kindle. I’ve given previews to 7 people on the CalTrain now, and they all love it.
- Books are $9.99 at most, much cheaper than the print versions. And there are thousands of free books that Amazon has - you can view the list here.

I would highly recommend the Kindle 2 to anyone looking to purchase an e-reader.