I have also listed a transcript of the video below, for your convenience.

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. Ever since the first Kindle came out, really. So, when the time was right (May 7, my birthday), I finally went ahead and bought a Kindle DX. It didn’t hurt that I actually bought the newest Kindle, one that is even bigger and a little better than its early predecessor.

I was put on some waiting list, a first come first served type. A couple days ago, a box from Amazon finally came to my house, days ahead of its estimated arrival date of May 16. I have been playing around with it for a few days and thought I should publish some of my thoughts on this device.

Display

Let’s start with the display, shall we? The Kindle’s eInk technology is amazing to say the very least. I have spent hours looking at the screen, reading many pages with little to no eye strain.

Amazon repeatedly stated that the display is supposed to look like a regular book and they have accomplished that rather well.

Size

The Kindle DX, unlike the regular 6″ Kindle, has a bigger 9.7″ screen. It fits really well in your hands and the bigger screen allows you to read certain things, like newspapers and textbooks, much easier.

I haven’t yet started discovering textbooks on the device but I have tried reading the famous newspapers (they each come free for 14 days) and it’s just a gorgeous way to read the papers on the device.

User Experience

A lot of people have told me that they would never buy an eInk reader because they still like the look and feel of an “actual” book. And with all due respect, I disagree with (almost) everything they say. In fact, I look at them in the same way I would have looked at people that dismissed other technologies. These were probably the same people that prematurely dismissed the Internet, cellphones, and email. In a few years, I hope they will come around.

Kindle’s the future and I hope these people come to realize that sooner than later.

The user experience on the Kindle is something you will never get on any “actual” book. For starters, there are some very simple things like changing the font size and number of letters on a line that can help you personalize the work you’re reading to match your preferences. Show me an “actual” book that can do that.

Moreover, however, the Kindle is this extremely thin device (just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines) that can hold up to 3500 books, magazines, and newspapers.

Oh, and for your information, you can still snuggle up with your Kindle, just like with “actual” books. In fact, it’s quite an enjoyable experience.

Book Store

The whole point behind the Kindle is that it’s a way for you to buy and read books. Because of that, the book buying experience on the device has to be phenomenal and Amazon here really nailed it.

They’re offering something like 300,000 books, as well as thousands of blogs, newspapers, and magazines. The buying experience is very simple – maybe even too easy. As soon as I got the device, I found myself buying $160 worth of books in a relatively short amount of time. In retrospect, it was perhaps too easy of an experience.

That’s the genius of Amazon. They are selling the books, rather than the device and in the long run probably make more money selling the books than they do selling the actual Kindles. After all, Kindle sales account for 30% of book sales on Amazon, if the book has a Kindle version available.

And now…the Cons?

I wouldn’t be publishing a fair review if I didn’t explore some of my qualms with the device. The price is an obvious one. The whole thing cost me something along the lines of $500 and for an eBook reader, that was no doubt a little pricey. I understand that a lot of that is because of the 3G speed and the subscription to Sprint’s network (that I don’t have to pay for) but still, $500 was a lot and the price tag’s keeping a lot of people from buying this.

I have previously mentioned that Amazon should try going with a subscription model and lower the price a bit and I still support that.

Overall

In the end, I am glad I bought this. I would recommend it to anyone.

It was a great purchase for an amazing device. I look at it as more of an investment than anything – this will make me read more since reading now got a lot easier.

And for that, Amazon, thank you. From the bottom of my heart.