Some Thoughts…

Over the last year, I have grown quite fond of reading books on my iPhone. I use the Kindle app for the most part, but I also have purchased a couple of books in mobi format, and for those I use the Stanza app. I have probably read more in the last year than in the several years previous. I’m not sure why, but I seem to be able to read for longer periods of time on the iPhone than I can reading a physical book.

I’ve wanted to try out an actual Kindle, but I don’t know anyone who has one – despite the fact that Amazon claims it is their number one selling product. So this week I took the plunge and bought a Kindle 2 from Amazon. I decided I can always send it back if it doesn’t meet my needs, and I am definitely leaning in that direction already. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a nice product. For me, however, the advantages over using the iPhone don’t justify the price.

There are some Kindle features that are definite improvements over the iPhone experience, including the larger screen size and the ability to read newspapers and magazines. The latter is actually quite nice – I spent quite a bit of time last night reading the latest USA Today and Newsweek. The Kindle also does a respectable job displaying the books I have purchased in mobi format.

However, one of the things I had hoped to do with the Kindle was read PDF documents. I deal with so many documents, especially at work, and I either have to read them on the computer (which I don’t like doing for any significant length of time) or I have to print them out to read (which is a huge waste of paper, time and clutter). I thought the Kindle would be a great alternative but the 6" screen is still too small to read most documents comfortably. This has been a big disappointment.

I’m starting to look on Ebay now to see how cheaply I can get a used Kindle DX . The PDF experience should be much more palatable on it’s 9.7" screen, but will it be too big and heavy? And is it worth the additional $100-$150 over the price of a Kindle 2?