Kindle 2 has a 6" diagonal E Ink electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale. The total size of the unit itself is 8" x 5.3" and is about as thick as a magazine. It weighs in at a little over 10 ounces and, with a storage capacity of approximately 1,500 books on it's 1.4 GB of usable storage, is an excellent way to carry your library with you anywhere you go.
Books are downloadable in under 60 seconds through the 3G Wireless Network, which has global coverage. It has native PDF support and also has a text-to-speech function as standard.
Connectivity is via a HSDPA modem (3G) with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS. It uses Amazon Whispernet to provide wireless coverage via AT&T's 3G high-speed data network in the U.S. and partner networks worldwide.
Charging time is only 4 hours through the included U.S. power adaptor, or you can charge it from your home PC or Macintosh computer via the included USB 2.0 cable. A full charge will allow you to read for a full week with the wireless turned on, or you could turn off the wireless network and read for almost 2 weeks without need for a recharge. This is one of the many improvements from the first version of Kindle, which only gave about 4 days of battery life.
Battery life will vary depending your wireless usage, and low-coverage areas will consume battery power power more quickly.
Kindle DX, on the other hand, has all of these features as well as the capacity to store 3,500 books and view them on a 9.7" diagonal E Ink® electronic paper display, 1200 x 824 pixel resolution at 150 ppi. The unit measures 10.4" x 7.2" and is only a whisker thicker than the base version. The DX weighs in a little heavier at just under 19 ounces. Storage has been increased to approximately 3.3GB of usable space.
With the larger display area, Kindle DX is ideal for graphic-rich books, magazines, newspapers and blogs. Kindle DX also includes free built-in access to the world's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia - Wikipedia.org.
While the rotation mode of the Kindle 2 is manual, Kindle DX has an auto-rotation function, so it will change from portrait to landscape as you turn the device making it easier to view full width maps, graphs, tables, etc.
Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights and is standard on both versions. This will allow you to read from your iPhone on the ride home, bookmark it, and then pick up where you left off on your Kindle.
Both units come with a quick start guide, included in the box, and a Kindle User's Guide installed on the device.
Both products come with a 1 year limited warranty, but a 2 year extended warranty is available to U.S. customers ( sold separately ).
