The Kindle DX is slightly smaller than a standard sheet of notebook paper and about as thick as a magazine. So, even though the larger display size dictates that the unit as a whole must be bigger, it's still small enough to be considered portable and not at all cumbersome. With a weight of 18.9 ounces, the Kindle DX can still easily be held in one hand by the average person, but it's far more comfortable to use both hands when reading from the device.
Display
One of the main attractions of the Kindle DX over other e-readers is its larger display size, about 2.5 times larger than that of other Kindle models. This larger screen area makes the Kindle DX much more similar to a real book in terms of the amount of content you can see at one time. The E Ink display is nice and crisp and, in general, reading from the device is a pleasure.
One new feature introduced with the Kindle DX is the automatic portrait/landscape viewing. You can turn the device on its side and it immediately senses the movement and switches from portrait to landscape view, allowing you a better view of images in the widescreen format.
While some others have mentioned a bit of oversensitivity with this feature and stated that the viewing mode changed with only a slight tilting of the screen, I've had no such problems. In fact, at least for me, the Kindle DX seems to have mastered the sensitivity level in this area. The only time that I've "accidentally" switched to landscape view is when I lowered the Kindle as I was reaching for a glass of water. Even then, it only took a moment to reposition the device again and switch back to portrait viewing mode.
Keyboard and Navigation
As far as the keyboard on the Kindle DX goes, it's not as bad as I thought it would be, but it's also not as good as I want it to be. However, I'll be the first to admit that everything pales in comparison to a full-size keyboard to me, and I generally detest keyboards on all portable devices. With that in mind, I feel that the layout of the keyboard on the Kindle DX is "okay" but it could be improved.
For instance, because of the size of the DX, I tend to hold it with my hands at the lower sides of the device – very similar to the image in the previous section – and type with my thumbs. This worked great for me on the smaller Kindle. The problem with typing this way on the larger Kindle is that it is so wide, my thumbs can't reach the two columns of keys in the middle. However, there is quite a bit of unused space on either side of the keyboard area, so I would love to see the keyboard separated in half with each half shifted more toward the sides of the device to make it easier for this form of thumb-typing.
