As expected, Amazon unveiled its new Kindle DX with a larger display today.
The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.
The Kindle DX comes with a 9.7-inch display, providing about 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle 2’s 6-inch display. It also comes with a built-in PDF reader (using Adobe Reader Mobile technology), a new auto-rotate feature, and 3.3 GB of available memory (enough to store up to 3,500 books). Like the Kindle 2, it comes with Amazon Whispernet to allow users to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content, and read from their library. Amazon will continue to pay the wireless connectivity costs.
Amazon also announced a number of partners for the Kindle DX. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will also offer it at a reduced price to customers who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers. A number of universities (Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia) will also run trials of the Kindle DX this fall. Supporting these trials, a number of textbook publishers will offer a number of textbooks through the Kindle Store this summer.
The Kindle DX is now available for pre-order for US$489 and will start to ship this summer.