Kindle DX: What will I miss if I buy outside the U.S.?

July 7, 2009 3:05 AM

I live in Romania and I'm considering a Kindle DX. (Sony Reader is a crappy competitor and the iRex products are expensive). What features will I miss if I bring the Kindle to Romania? Does it still worth it?

Also, can I use Kindle DX to read PDFs from my computer without going through any Amazon service?

posted by danburzo to shopping (6 comments total)

I think reading PDFs from your own computer would be pretty much all you'd be able to do with it, as Amazon only sells ebooks to US customers as the only way to actually get the ebook from Amazon to the device is over their Whispernet 3G wireless service which is US-only.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:44 AM on July 7

That is not true, you can download the ebook to your computer and transfer it to the Kindle over USB.
posted by jrockway at 5:32 AM on July 7

Yes you can read PDFs from your own computer without going through Amazon just by transferring them through the USB cable.
If you have a US credit card you can purchase books from Amazon and mail them to yourself and then transfer them via the USB cable. There may be some complications to this process that I don't completely understand, but it's possible at least in theory.
posted by peacheater at 6:08 AM on July 7

Also, you should find a way to disable the 3g radio, as it is surely not licensed to work in Romania.
posted by rbs at 7:46 AM on July 7

I have the Kindle 1 and have used it outside the U.S. since it came to market - I still LOVE it. Perfect for traveling and not having to bring a heavy bag of books.

Of course the whispernet feature is only good inside the U.S. where there's coverage, but I just turn it off to save battery when not in the U.S.. The wiki look-up won't work for the same reasons. Dictionary still works. Ability to read books works.

I buy my Kindle books on Amazon just like normal (account connected to and automatically billed to a credit card w/a U.S. billing address). Then I visit the Manage Kindle page and download the book straight to the Kindle via the USB wire that comes with it. Easy. Not sure about Romania's internet connection, but mine is somewhat slow and the books still manage to download within seconds.

Regarding PDFs - you can download files to the Kindle just the same, but you should visit Amazon's forum on the DX where people talk about this. I remember when the Kindle 1 came out that some people had issues reading certain types of PDFs (maybe people were trying to just scan docs instead of converting to PDF - not sure). Might not be a problem for the DX since that model was created more for textbooks/diagrams.
posted by MuckWeh at 9:21 AM on July 7

My wife has a Kindle and I can confirm that the Whispernet feature only works in the US, or at least that it does not work in the Czech Republic, Austria or Costa Rica.
posted by tomwheeler at 5:25 PM on July 7