The latest edition in Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader family – the DX was announced in early May, only a few weeks after the launch of the Kindle 2 in February. Since then Kindle owners and prospective owners have been speculating about just how big the changes and enhancements in the DX in comparison with the Kindle 2 truly were. If you’re an existing Kindle owner or if you’re an avid reader undecided as to which of the two devices would be the best suited for your requirements, then check out the comparison below:

Display
The Kindle DX has a 9.7” display (measured across the diagonal) – which is two and a half times larger than the Kindle 2’s 6” display. Besides the obvious size advantage, the DX screen features an auto-rotate facility which allows you to change from the standard portrait mode to landscape mode simply by rotating the device. This makes the DX better for reading newspapers, magazines and other text which contains graphics.

Overall Device Size
The DX has device dimensions of 10.4” X 7.2” X 0.38” and weighs in at 18.9 ounces. The Kindle 2 has overall dimensions of 8” X 5.3” X 0.36” and a weight of 10.2 ounces. So, whilst the Kindle DX isn’t too large or heavy to carry around, the Kindle 2 is definitely the more portable of the two devices.

On Board Memory Storage Capacity
The DX has 4 GB of internalapproximately 3,500 books. The Kindle 2 has 2GB of storage, enough for around 1,500 books – not too shabby, and enough to keep most people supplied with reading material for a long while, but still a good way short of the DX.

PDF Support
The Kindle 2 can read pdf files – but only after you e-mail them to Amazon for translation. There is a cost – very small admittedly – for the conversion. All in all, a bit of a hassle. The DX on the other hand has pdf support built in so you can just load up your pdf files and read them with no conversion, no cost and no fuss.

Price
The Kindle 2 is currently available for $359. When the DX ships on June 10th it will cost you $489. It’s hardly surprising that the price is somewhat higher than the Kindle 2, the larger screen is one of the most expensive items in the device so a higher price point is not unreasonable. If you compare the DX’s $489 ticket price against the $859 of the iRex Illiad – a broadly similar 10” ebook reader device – the DX doesn’t seem quite so pricey anymore.

Amazon Kindle Final Analysis
Although the Kindle 2 is relatively new, and was itself a major step in the right direction in comparison with the original Amazon kindle , the DX offers significant additional enhancements. The big display and the ability to handle pdf files is more than enough to warrant you forking out a little extra – especially when you consider the price of other similarly sized ebook readers on the market at the moment. Unless Amazon make a serious downward adjustment of the Kindle 2 price following the launch of the DX, plump for the DX option.