We liked

For only the third gadget Amazon has ever made, the Kindle DX is an amazing achievement. Build quality is first class and the wireless shopping experience is swift, seamless and good value (including many free books). The large, crisp screen makes reading totally immersive, especially if you need to read at a larger font size.

Text management features are generally clever and easy to use, and it's handy to have free basic web browsing on board.

We disliked

For a luxury product, the Kindle DX feels sluggish and temperamental. The joystick and main control buttons are small and finicky, and feel at odds with the generous, expansive display.

Amazon really shouldn't be making such a big deal of the DX's "native PDF support", as not being able to search or zoom documents hamstrings it considerably. The harsh text-to-speech and simplistic MP3 functions feel similarly jury-rigged.


Verdict

Once you've experienced the ability to alter font sizes, look up words, bookmark, annotate and search text, you'll never want to go back to dumb paper books. Downloading newspapers and books wherever and whenever you want is equally liberating.

The DX's display is wonderfully easy on the eye, but less so on the hand and pocket - if you want an e-book reader for commuting, the 6-inch version will be far more practical.

And for such a smoothly polished design, the DX does have some rough edges. The interface needs work, the processor needs beefing up and some of the physical buttons are a little tacky. Is this the iPod for books? Yes, it is. It's classy, easy to use and will change your literary life.

But it's also expensive, in danger of being upgraded every six months and locks you into a proprietary digital book format.