Review: Amazon Kindle DX Second Generation:Can be used for reading scanned PDF files?

While I love Kindle 3 (see Amazon Kindle 3 review), its screen appeared to be too small to read mathematical and IT literature in PDF format. So I decided to find out whether Kindle DX Second Generation is any better for reading PDF files.

There are many problems when reading scanned PDF documents:

• The process of turning pages in PDF books that have more than 600 is very slow. Books that has 800+ pages freeze Kindle DX from time to time. Books that have 1400+ freeze Kindle DX right away.
• When PDF pages have a size of A5 or smaller, reading them is comfortable. Kindle DX removes blank fields from all sides and magnifies pages to full screen.
• Reading A4 or similar pages is very uncomfortable. The best way to read such pages is by switching from the portrait to lanscape mode. In the latter mode Kindle DX splits pages onto 2 or 3 halves. The problem is that turning pages in the landscape mode is not as handy as in the portrait mode. Moving back and forth is also disappointing.
• You can go to any page you like by entering its number. But Kindle DX doesn't offer page thumbnails to make it easier to navigate.
• Battery life is much lower when reading PDF documents.

It seems to me that the best way to read PDF files on Kindle DX is by using OCR software like Abbyy Finereader first.

Verdict: While I like Kindle 3, I haven't found enough reasongs to keep Kindle DX. It is not portable and pricey, but doesn't make my reading experience much better.

What is your opinion about Kindle DX?

There is an alternative system for reading PDF and DjVu files on Kindle DX:

Originally Posted by duokan.com

Duokan(meaning “read more”） is an alternative system for Kindle 3 developed by a Chinese team. It's also available on Kindle2/Kindle DX/Kindle DX Graphite. It's free for non-commercial use.

It doesn't overwrite the official system in Kindle, but worked as a secondary system. After installation, there'll be a system selection menu shown when Kindle is restarting. You can select from Duokan system and the official system by pressing "Q" and "W".

Duokan improved the compatiblity with Chinese characters of K3，along with some other key features. It supports Text、ePub、PDF、mobi、CHM、Zip、DOC、djvu ；it has a new PDF reader which provides full-screen reading，cropping the white margin and better support of two/four-column papers.

Duokan can also use the "partly-refresh" method to make the refresh faster when switching pages （a popular function for E-ink readers in China），instead of a full-blacked refresh in the original system.

For me（I'm a Chinese)，Duokan works better in comics and some complicated PDF files.

[alexthunder]

Make sure to update your firmware. Firmware v2.5.7 allows to zoom PDF documents. It is far from ideal, but at least better than in v2.3.