Meet the Newest Kindle of Them All: Kindle DX

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As far as we can tell, here’s the one important piece of information you need to know about Amazon’s new Kindle DX: it costs a whopping $489 dollars. Well that, and some misguided souls think that it’s going to save the newspaper industry from ruin. As one Flavorpill staffer noted, that’s almost enough money to buy a real laptop. Which make it a crazy product to launch “in this economy,” right?

Maybe not.

Gizmodo balks at the price tag, but likes the new device, specifically because of the “surprise landscape/portrait rotational sensitivity we find useful in so many smartphones.”

The New York TimesGadgetwise blog says it seems small, but not in a bad way and adds “if the goal was to replicate the newspaper reading experience, then Amazon seems to have succeeded.” Note: The Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe will all be offering long-term subscribers a reduced price on the Kindle.

AppleInsider serves up this quote from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: “Personal and professional documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display that you’ll find yourself changing ink-toner cartridges less often. Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks — anything highly formatted — also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your documents and your whole library in one slender package.”

The Financial Times’ John Gapper is a little less enthused over on his Business Blog. “Here I am again at a New York launch event for a new Amazon device, only three months after the arrival of the Kindle 2.This time, Jeff Bezos of Amazon has just enthused about the Kindle DX, which sounds like a small car but is in fact a large screen version of the Kindle electronic paper reading device. I am not sure whether it is really an improvement.”

Interestingly enough, he also thinks the hefty price might make it less accessible to the college kid market that Amazon’s hoping to court, but that’s where we think the DX could find its cash cow: Most students would be willing to fork over that much for the luxury of carrying around 19 ounces instead of a pile of textbooks.

Any of you lucky enough to attend this morning’s press conference? Send us some images/your take on the Kindle DX to tips[at]flavorpill.com.