Why I Won’t Be Buying A Kindle DX

Posted on 6 Jan 2010 in Miscellaneous | 1 comment

Early this morning I saw that the much awaited Kindle DX was available in the UK for pre-order, and I know a lot of people who will be rushing to be first in the queue.

A few of us talked about this in work yesterday and we discovered that the “book” prices aren’t exactly cheap. In fact I don’t think I would ever recoup my money over the lifetime of a Kindle which to me, is the first stumbling block.

Its grayscale!

• as I read biographies, old B&W photos relating to the story, wont have the same impact as a real book
• I like photography so any guides, other than B&W Basics, will be 100% useless on the Kindle
• We travel.. a lot! In the next 12 months, we’re hopefully going to see temperatures of between -25°c and 35°c. I’m not convinced leaving it out in the sun while I take a dip, or taking it out in the cold, won’t break my “book”
• Travel guides will not have the same impact as colour photographs

I haven’t looked in to the Kindle that much so I’m not sure on power but hear it lasts 4 days (Kindle2 set to last 7 days), but already when I travel I take 3 or 4 chargers with me. The last thing I’d want to do is add another to my collection, or try and find someone that sells batteries in the middle of a Kenyan reserve, Brasilian village or the Antarctic!

I do think its a fantastic invention which will revolutionise the way we read access in the future – similar to what iPod did for music, or iPhone did for smartphones. Currently the Kindle does have 100’s of practicle uses as shown in the online video.

I never buy technology for the sake of it. There has to be a REAL use for it and sadly, for me, I haven’t found one with the Kindle DX. If I was planning a 12 month world tour and read a lot of books that weren’t dependant on colour, then I would think about it. Unitl then, I’ll be sticking to colourful books that operate in all temperatures and don’t mind getting wet at the side of the pool.