Tag: Kindle DX

Wow! Amazon’s suddenly started selling a product that everyone thought they’d discontinued back in October! It’s the Kindle DX — with a huge 9.7-inch black-and-white screen on a device that’s nearly 11 inches tall. It was one of the last Kindles that Amazon ever released with a keyboard built right into the plastic, instead of using an on-screen “virtual” keyboard like the ones in the Kindle Paperwhite. And the Kindle DX ships with free 3G wireless connectivity, so you can surf the web even when you’re away from your WiFi connection!

The Kindle DX has always been one of my favorite Kindle models. (I always joke that the only thing better than an e-ink screen is a big e-ink screen…) I’m baffled as to why Amazon chose to revive this product line now. But maybe Amazon thinks the Kindle DX is a nice gift idea for Father’s Day. It’s got the biggest screen of any Kindle that Amazon’s ever released, and without all the distractions of a full-color tablet.

This is especially exciting because just eight months ago, I came to this blog to write a sad post called “Goodbye to the Kindle DX.” The month before a Kindle executive had surprised a technology site called The Verge with the news that Amazon is “pretty much done” with the Kindle DX. In that same interview, he’d emphasized that Amazon wouldn’t abandon the Kindle DX — though he never said what Amazon would be doing. At the time NBC News reported that the Kindle DX would go “to e-reader heaven” — though they admitted at the time that Amazon hadn’t actually confirmed that.

So in an unexpected move, Amazon has again started selling them again — and it’s almost as though Amazon has turned back the clock. The Huffington Post noted that basically Amazon “is re-releasing a product from 2009,” though it’s still a little expensive. At $299, the Kindle DX costs $100 more than some of Amazon’s color Kindle Fire HD tablets. But that’s actually a discount from the original selling price for the Kindle DX, which was $380.

And best of all, you can read ebooks on a giant screen that’s 7.2 inches wide by 10.4 inches tall…

This is a surprise, because just a few weeks ago, Amazon seemed to suggest they’d keep selling the Kindle DX themselves. In September an Amazon Kindle executive named Jay Marine had surprised a technology site called The Verge with the news that Amazon is “pretty much done” with the Kindle DX. But the executive had also stressed that Amazon wasn’t abandoning it, though it wasn’t clear just what exactly he’d meant by that. The Verge site reported that Marine “did note that there may be a few more DX’s manufactured and it’ll continue to be sold online [my emphasis], before it completely falls off of the face of the earth.”

I guess maybe I’m just having trouble reconciling those two phrases — “continue to be sold online” and “falls completely off the face of the earth.” But Monday, NBC News reported in their technology blog that the Kindle DX would finally go “to e-reader heaven”. Calling it “one of the oldest e-readers offered by Amazon and certainly the largest”, they argued that most consumers seem to prefer devices with a smaller (and cheaper) screen. Although I think it’s worth noting that NBC’s blogger couldn’t get a definite comment from Amazon confirming that the Kindle DX was definitely being discontinued.

I think the Kindle DX turned off some shoppers with its higher-than-usual price tag. Even today in the third-party market, they’re still selling for over $250 – which is more than you’d have to pay for one of Amazon’s color, touchscreen Kindle Fire tablets! In fact, this summer when I’d tried selling off my second Kindle DX on eBay, I had trouble finding anyone who was willing to pay more than $200. Now if you’re trying to get rid of your Kindle DX, Amazon will let you trade yours in for a $90.75 gift card.

But on this day, as we say our possible goodbyes to the Kindle DX, I’d like to take a moment to offer up some appreciation. It was great for reading PDF files, because you could switch the screen’s orientation to “landscape” and then stretch the book’s pages all the way across all 10.4 inches of the screen. (In fact, I ultimately sold my second Kindle DX to a local college student, who looking forward to reading his textbooks on it!) And as one of Amazon’s earliest Kindles, it still came with built-in network connectivity (instead of requiring you to connect to a local WiFi network). I once read my Kindle DX during a camping trip up in the mountains, and it was also great if you found yourself waiting somewhere unexpectedly, like the lobby of a doctor’s office.

Of course, there’s one more thing — the thing that I’ll always love most about my Kindle Dx. There’s only one thing better than an e-ink screen, I’ve always said — and that’s a really big e-ink screen. The Kindle Paperwhite may offer you more contrast with its front-lit screen, but the Kindle DX accomplished the same thing the old-fashioned way: with a bigger screen! I like seeing my ebooks big, 7.2 inches wide by 10.4 inches tall.

But apparently, if Amazon’s moves today are any indication, there just weren’t enough people who felt the same way.