Trying out the Kindle DX: So far, so good

The new Kindle DX, launched today, offers no dramatic breakthroughs over its predecessor. But, after using the device at Amazon's press event, I found it delivers on the promise to preserve—and in modest ways enhance—the strengths of its smaller sibling, the Kindle 2.

Here's how the DX, which will be available this summer for a hefty $489, does that:

The bigger screen. As Amazon claims, the new screen—at 9.7 inches, 50 percent bigger than the Kindle 2's—appears to be identical in its resolution of type and images, and in how quickly it refreshes. All of which are good, since these are strengths of the Kindle 2.

The bigger size allows, though, for fewer page turns and for less need to reformat—and so disturb the design—of full-sized pages converted to Kindle format. The difference was as apparent on textbook pages chock full of diagrams and the like as on pages of the New York Times, where you could see more type in a readable size, and a more harmonious integration of type and art elements, than on the Kindle 2.

More viewing options. There's also flexibility to tailor type not only to the size you want, which the Kindle 2 allows, but to also adjust the length of the lines to suit you. The adjustment is made in the same popup menu—accessed with a key press on the device's keyboard—as you use for size adjustments and, like those, the changes are made on the fly.

Another plus over the Kindle 2: The screen automatically—or upon demand, if you prefer—rotates when you turn the device. The switch was very fast—faster, even than with my iPhone—and allows not only a switch from portrait to landscape view but a full 180-degree rotation, so that the page is completely inverted.

Because of that capability, though, Amazon has removed the navigation bars from one side of the new Kindle (on the Kindle 2, you can press tabs on either the right or the left of the screen to advance pages). That might irritate lefties who don't want to always have the Kindle "upside down"—with the keyboard above the screen—or users of the Kindle 2, like me, who liked being able to click to the next page with either hand.

Those are some key highlights on my first spin with the Kindle DX; we'll of course put the device through a proper evaluation when it becomes available "sometime this summer," according to Amazon staffers, who wouldn't commit to any firmer timing.

Speaking of ordering, an important difference for the pre-ordering process—which is now up and running on Amazon.com—this time around compared with the last refresh of the Kindle. Then, owners of the first Kindle were moved to the front of the line if they pre-ordered the Kindle 2. This time, Amazon folks told me, there's no such preferential treatment because "the Kindle 2 was a replacement device, which this isn't," as one put it.

While the spokespeople said they expect supplies to be ample, you might want to order your DX now if it's important to you to get it early.

Of course, the $489 price tag for the new Kindle might help limit the stampede of buyers. Perhaps the only positive spin on the price is that, with (by Amazon's math) 2-½ times the screen area of the Kindle 2, which costs $359, the DX costs less on a dollars-per-square-inch basis than its older sister. —Paul Reynolds