Graphite Kindle DX coming July 7th for $379, now available for pre-order
By Ross Miller 
posted July 1st 2010 12:13AM
posted July 1st 2010 12:13AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Amazon Introduces New Kindle DX with 50 Percent Better Display Contrast and New Lower Price of $379
Amazon's latest generation large screen portable reader features all new, high contrast e-ink screen for the clearest text and sharpest images
SEATTLE, Jul 01, 2010 --
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today introduced the new latest generation Kindle DX and new lower price of $379, down from $489, and still with free 3G wireless--no monthly bills or annual contracts. Kindle DX is the 9.7-inch large screen member of Amazon's family of revolutionary portable readers. The new Kindle DX features a new graphite enclosure and an all new, high contrast electronic ink display with 50 percent better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images. The new Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today at http://www.amazon.com and it ships July 7.
"There's no turning back once you read on our beautiful new Kindle DX screen," said Steve Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle. "With 50 percent better contrast and darker fonts, you'll find it easier than ever to read wherever you happen to be, whether it's outside in bright sunlight or under the low light of your living room. We're excited to offer the new Kindle DX with free 3G wireless at the lower price of $379."
The Kindle Store (http://www.amazon.com) now has more than 620,000 books, including New Releases and 108 of 111 New York Times bestsellers, starting at $9.99 or less. More than 200,000 books have been added to the U.S. Kindle Store in just the last six months, including the full selection of John Grisham titles. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle, including classics such as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Treasure Island."
All New, High Contrast E-ink Screen: The new, graphite Kindle DX uses Amazon's all new electronic ink display with 50 percent improved contrast for the clearest text and the sharpest images.
Beautiful Large Display: Kindle DX's 9.7-inch diagonal e-ink screen is ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs.
Read in Sunlight with No Glare: Unlike backlit computer or LCD screens, Kindle DX's screen looks and reads like real paper, with no glare. Read as easily in bright sunlight as in the living room.
Buy Books Once, Read Them Anywhere: Kindle books can be read on the devices people use every day, including Kindle, Kindle DX, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phone, and BlackBerry. Plus, Amazon's Whispersync technology also automatically saves and synchronizes customer book libraries and last page read across all these devices.
Free 3G Wireless, No Monthly Bills or Annual Contracts: Shop the Kindle Store and download new content wirelessly in less than 60 seconds--all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon pays for the 3G wireless connectivity, so there are no monthly fees or annual contracts.
Books In Under 60 Seconds: Kindle books are delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds, no PC or setup required.
Global 3G Coverage: Kindle DX offers 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries.
Long Battery Life: Read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on or 2 weeks with wireless turned off.
Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases from $9.99.
Incredibly Slim: At just over 1/3 of an inch, Kindle DX is as thin as most magazines.
Carry Your Library: Carry up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents.
Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
Social Networks: New Twitter and Facebook integration enables the millions of Kindle customers to post meaningful passages and share their love of reading instantly with family and friends, and in turn, help them discover new authors, new books, and new ideas.
Built-In PDF Reader: With Kindle DX's large display and built-in PDF reader, read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing. Zoom capability is now available in Kindle DX for easily viewing small print and detailed tables or graphics.
Auto-Rotating Screen: Read in portrait or landscape mode using Kindle DX's auto-rotating screen. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables and images, all displayed in higher contrast on Kindle DX's new screen.
Read-to-Me: With the text-to-speech feature, Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud.
Customers can discover full details and pre-order the new Kindle DX for $379 today at http://www.amazon.com/kindledx and it will begin shipping on July 7.
Amazon's latest generation large screen portable reader features all new, high contrast e-ink screen for the clearest text and sharpest images
SEATTLE, Jul 01, 2010 --
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today introduced the new latest generation Kindle DX and new lower price of $379, down from $489, and still with free 3G wireless--no monthly bills or annual contracts. Kindle DX is the 9.7-inch large screen member of Amazon's family of revolutionary portable readers. The new Kindle DX features a new graphite enclosure and an all new, high contrast electronic ink display with 50 percent better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images. The new Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today at http://www.amazon.com and it ships July 7.
"There's no turning back once you read on our beautiful new Kindle DX screen," said Steve Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle. "With 50 percent better contrast and darker fonts, you'll find it easier than ever to read wherever you happen to be, whether it's outside in bright sunlight or under the low light of your living room. We're excited to offer the new Kindle DX with free 3G wireless at the lower price of $379."
The Kindle Store (http://www.amazon.com) now has more than 620,000 books, including New Releases and 108 of 111 New York Times bestsellers, starting at $9.99 or less. More than 200,000 books have been added to the U.S. Kindle Store in just the last six months, including the full selection of John Grisham titles. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle, including classics such as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Treasure Island."
All New, High Contrast E-ink Screen: The new, graphite Kindle DX uses Amazon's all new electronic ink display with 50 percent improved contrast for the clearest text and the sharpest images.
Beautiful Large Display: Kindle DX's 9.7-inch diagonal e-ink screen is ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs.
Read in Sunlight with No Glare: Unlike backlit computer or LCD screens, Kindle DX's screen looks and reads like real paper, with no glare. Read as easily in bright sunlight as in the living room.
Buy Books Once, Read Them Anywhere: Kindle books can be read on the devices people use every day, including Kindle, Kindle DX, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phone, and BlackBerry. Plus, Amazon's Whispersync technology also automatically saves and synchronizes customer book libraries and last page read across all these devices.
Free 3G Wireless, No Monthly Bills or Annual Contracts: Shop the Kindle Store and download new content wirelessly in less than 60 seconds--all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon pays for the 3G wireless connectivity, so there are no monthly fees or annual contracts.
Books In Under 60 Seconds: Kindle books are delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds, no PC or setup required.
Global 3G Coverage: Kindle DX offers 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries.
Long Battery Life: Read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on or 2 weeks with wireless turned off.
Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases from $9.99.
Incredibly Slim: At just over 1/3 of an inch, Kindle DX is as thin as most magazines.
Carry Your Library: Carry up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents.
Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
Social Networks: New Twitter and Facebook integration enables the millions of Kindle customers to post meaningful passages and share their love of reading instantly with family and friends, and in turn, help them discover new authors, new books, and new ideas.
Built-In PDF Reader: With Kindle DX's large display and built-in PDF reader, read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing. Zoom capability is now available in Kindle DX for easily viewing small print and detailed tables or graphics.
Auto-Rotating Screen: Read in portrait or landscape mode using Kindle DX's auto-rotating screen. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables and images, all displayed in higher contrast on Kindle DX's new screen.
Read-to-Me: With the text-to-speech feature, Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud.
Customers can discover full details and pre-order the new Kindle DX for $379 today at http://www.amazon.com/kindledx and it will begin shipping on July 7.
what a steal!
@boom roasted
Technically amazon did get a steal to day.
They bought woot.com which offer daily steals for it users on one item.
See what I did there
Still about 150 bucks too much.
@boom roasted
Yeah, my first thought was "HOLY CRAP THAT'S AWESOME!"
Unfortunately, my rational side had to kick in and say "There are still some major flaws that need to be adressed". Like the fact that there are no page numbers, which makes it impossible to keep people on the same page as the physical textbook.
Also, it still has a locked down default file format, and the PDF controls are severely gimped.
It looks amazing though!!!!
@Cash9007 My thoughts exactly!!!
@boom roasted
is that what she said?
@boom roasted Steve Jobs once said "If you try to compete with the iPad I will attack you with the North".
@RhymeMaster nope
@boom roasted
$80 less & it would've been at a worth it price.
@boom roasted Hardly!
There is still no ePub format support, and the PDF is limited to "not complex", no memory card support etc. I will still have to wait for the Kindle 3.
@Mike10010100 Full support for ePub would fix the page numbering issue. Alas, the Kindle still lack support...
@erasure25 most textbooks have section numbers, so you can get by without page numbers.
That being said, I really think an effective textbook reader needs to have two screens, basic color support (even if it is only primary colors), and allow inking directly onto the screen. But an extra screen added hinged onto the DX would still be an awesome start and a big jump over the competition.
A textbook reader needs to be about more then consumption; it should allow convenient annotation of the textbook and notetaking (which means being able to draw diagrams).
And it needs to be lightweight, not the 2-3 lb monster that is the Entourage Edge.
@tmarks11
I agree with you. Especially when you may need to reference two books at the same time. For me, i'm learning Spanish so it would be nice to be able to read a book on one side and refer to a dictionary on the other.
I'm getting very tempted by these. I read tons of books and an e-ink display would be so much easier on my eyes than my laptop or phone.
How's the build quality in case you drop it, will Amazon fix it if the screen cracks now? I remember hearing they gave trouble earlier.
@Dafrety Before you spring for this, consider the smaller Kindle. It's fine for reading books that don't have a lot of graphics and is much more portable. It might be fine depending on what you read.
@appsman The smaller Kindle (or 6" ebook readers in general) is fine for anything originally in book form; the DX is handy when you have technical documents, financial statements or anything originally formed for A4.
Wow @ netbook prices. :|
@One Love
This isn't really something that's competing with netbooks. Well, maybe once they get PixelQi displays, but not now.
gotta get cheaper if they want the public schools to think about it
owning a Kindle is like winning the special olympics.
@memaf So it's an incredible accomplishment and something to be proud of? I love my Kindle, but I wouldn't give it that much praise.
Special Olympics FTW
Meh
/Sent from my iPad
@winbsodos
Meh @ your comment
/sent from my Kindle
(it does internet- at the same pace as the ipad as well, considering they both can't run flash)
Is the additional 50% contrast the only selling feature...
Not trying to be a jerk, just don't kno much about the Kindle itself...
@illmaticstill I'd actually consider the improved contrast a potentially very valuable upgrade. I'm interested in e-readers, but from the ones I've been able to see in person so far (Nook, regular Kindle and Sony eReader), the contrast still isn't quite there for me - it's more like cheap newsprint to me. I think I could get into e-ink more if it was closer to a high quality high contrast printed page.
@Zadillo Valid point, thanks for the insight. I use iBooks but I'm actually thinking of getting one of these bad boys.
@illmaticstill
The darker graphite shell should also increase apparent contrast even further.
@illmaticstill
I have a Kindle 2 (and my brother *just* got a DX), and I'd certainly appreciate a little more contrast.
The always-there-without-subscription 3G is cool, as is the book syncing to my Android phone, iPhone, and computer.
I'm a big Amazon hater, but I love my Kindle (wife bought it for me).
Still too expensive.
At that price point, I'd prefer to buy an iPad.
@The Mad Mule please do show me the $379 iPad
@The Mad Mule
and it would do more than one thing...
@Michael Scrip
So what? The point of the Kindle is that it does one thing VERY well instead of doing a bunch of things. You can get books quickly from anywhere in the world for no charge beyond the price of the device. The iPad can't. The Kindle's screen is better for reading and its battery lasts much longer. These things are important to people who read a lot and don't want to deal with the eyestrain caused by reading off of an LCD screen.
@The Mad Mule
If you really want a device than can do many thing - just go for a laptop. iPad is so limited.
@Steve B You're right that it does one thing very well for a niche group of people (don't get me wrong, I know it's a large group). The iPad (and products similar to it) eliminate the need to carry too many products around as it can do many things (with 3rd party apps). Now I know you can argue it actually adds to the amount of devices to carry around, but my point is that I would rather have a single product that can do many things decent enough than multiple amazing devices (plus I don't have the money).
@The Mad Mule Where would you get that iPad? On the moon? Last time I checked they started at $499.99. Want 3G? That's $629.00 plus your provider's monthly charges. For $379.00 you're getting the device and lifetime 3G connectivity. Yeah; there's no contest here. Kindle all the way.
@Steve B
Right.... but I was replying to the OP who said he'd prefer an iPad. And I was supporting his comment with my own editorial about the iPad.
If he had said "at that price point, I'm gonna finally get a Kindle DX..." it would have been different.
But no... I assumed he meant that if you're gonna spend close to $400 for a Kindle... you can get an iPad for $500.
I was agreeing with him... while you disagree.
@lerxst
So what if it has 3G? It can't really do much else than buy books. Great device if that's all you're interested in.
@lerxst -- "For $379.00 you're getting the device and lifetime 3G connectivity. Yeah; there's no contest here. Kindle all the way."
You can't say the Kindle is a better value than the iPad when the two couldn't be more different. I've read 2 of your comments on this topic. You are clearly on Team Kindle.
But what if the Kindle is the best e-ink book reader on Earth... and the iPad is the best iPad on Earth? Why does it have to be one or the other?
If you want a book reader... buy a Kindle. If you want an iPad... buy an iPad.
Let's go back to arguing which smartphone is better. At least that's a somewhat even playing field.
@Tony
Couple of commas would have done you well.
@Steve B
Whispernet downloads are not free in Germany. Books are charged an additional $2... Web and Kindle store are free.
@Steve B
wow, I didn't know Kindle store was giving away free books. Most of the prices I've seen have been on par with other eReader stores like Sony's Reader Library.
I have the Kobo eReader and I like it because it does do just one thing and does it well enough, especially for $150. I just couldn't justify a Kindle (3G not supported in most of Canada and dictionary is just a feature I didn't need). All I needed was something to load books onto so I could read and it does that very well. Also, it supports ePub and they as a company acknowledge and support Calibre which is a huge plus to me because I do have some books bought from other stores.
I hope the PDF support has improved and also that they come out with a white version.
They have to do better than that.
That's quite cheap. Wouldn't mind getting one of those, if only Amazon shipped to my country...
@HikaKao Hm, seems like the Kindle might be an exception. Where's the edit button when you need it?
@HikaKao
Nonexistant, like my girlfriend, life, and job.
@HikaKao
You must live on teh moon...cause the Kindle is evaharwhurr....
@coolbreeze Well, just figured out that the Kindle does ship to my country. Sadly, that's one of the few things that Amazon -does- ship to my country. Oh well, better than nothing.
support sound and video?