Amazon sent me a “review copy” of the Kindle. I get to keep it and play with it for two weeks. Don’t worry, I won’t be doing 14 blog posts on this, but do want to get down my first impressions. This is the international version, meaning I can use its wireless features in Hong Kong.

First, I do love the form factor on this. It’s much smaller, thinner and lighter than I’d imagined. For me, getting to hold it in my hands awhile ago at a press event was enough to make me want one. And yes, even with a leather cover (also supplied by Amazon), it’s small enough and light enough in my backpack that I’m not aware I’m carrying it.

Me, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t want to read instruction manuals. I opened the box, plugged it in to charge and right away tried to transfer content to it. I’d read that it supported PDFs, so I simply cut and paste a few PDF files via Windows Explorer. Then I disconnected the Kindle from the PC, went to the home page, looked for the files I just transferred and … not there. Guess I need to read the manual after all.

It turns out that if you want to load on a variety of formats, they need to be converted. And the conversion needs to be done by Amazon. Why is the software not built into the Kindle? Or provided on a computer disk so you can do it yourself? I don’t know.

Here’s how it works. Your Kindle has a unique email address (xxx@kindle2.com, this is reconfigurable to some extent). You email the file you want to convert to your Kindle’s email address, Amazon gets the email, converts the file and then sends the converted file wirelessly to your Kindle. There is a $1.99 charge for each file you convert in this fashion.

What if you want to avoid that charge? Then email the file to xxx@free.kindle2.com. You’ll get an email back with a link for downloading the file – which you can download to your PC or directly to the Kindle if its connected to the PC via USB.

I tested this out with about half a dozen files, none more than two megabytes – sending each one separately. I wasn’t sitting there with a stop watch, but it seemed that each time I sent one out, I received the download link in under two minutes and it took just seconds to download the file.

They say the process is “experimental” and that some PDFs may not format properly during the conversion process. I haven’t done a careful A/B comparison yet but so far, so good. And I was pleased that for PDFs with images, not only were the images in the translated file, I could highlight the image and zoom it to full screen (landscape mode).

So that’s all well and good, except I have some extremely large PDF files that I was contemplating putting on there – one is 95 megs. Clearly that’s too big for email and that means it won’t be going on the Kindle after all.

When you buy a book from the Kindle store using a PC, you get two options. Get a free sample chapter or get the whole damned book. Then you can select whether you want the book to be delivered wirelessly to the Kindle or sent to your PC, for later transfer via USB.

So the first time out, I opted for a sample chapter of Chuck Klosterman’s latest book, Eating the Dinosaur, and wireless delivery. That chapter was on my Kindle in under 30 seconds – well, it’s just an 83K file.

Then I decided to buy Nick Hornsby’s latest book, Juliet Naked, and have it delivered to my PC and that didn’t go as well. Because even though I’d carefully checked the “deliver to my PC” option, the book was delivered to me wirelessly instead. And that then meant two invoices – $9.99 for the book, because I’m registered on Amazon with a US address. And a second one for $1.99 for wireless delivery outside of the US. (Foreign customers get the $2 surcharge added into the basic book cost with every purchase.) I’ve written to Amazon to ask what happened here, waiting for a response.

Which also opens up an interesting question. If you order a book online and you own more than one Kindle, you specify which Kindle it’s to be delivered to. So if I buy some books now and converted some PDFs now for my loaner Kindle, when I send this back and get one of my own, do I have to buy the books again and convert the files again? I’ll send them that question a bit later on.

As to the reading itself, yes, the background color is gray, not white. Some people have complained about this but I actually found it a bit easier on the eyes. I think that not having that bright white shining up at you actually means less eyestrain which translates to reading longer, easier. I’m also appreciating that I can change the font size on everything – that also seems to result in far less eyestrain.

I got in bed with my “book” and soon pretty-darned-close-to forgot that I was reading an eBook and not a book. I only remembered each time I got to the end of a “page” and had to press a button rather than flip a page. I imagine that soon this will become second nature as well.

So overall, after my first day with the Kindle, I’m impressed and looking forward to spending more time with it.

But wait, you say. What about Barnes & Nobles’ new Nook? I’ve yet to read any in-depth review of it. What we do know is that it uses the exact same screen for the book itself. It remains to be seen what difference that second, color touch screen will make. How useful is it, how good is the virtual keyboard as opposed to Kindle’s physical keyboard?

Right now B&N is being a bit coy about how many current books are available for the device. Their huge number of books includes all of the stuff in Google Books. And, as HK Phooey already pointed out, that second screen is sure to be a quicker drain on the battery. It does seem to accept more formats for text, though I don’t know the process for getting those formats onto the reader.

Most important, for global users, the Nook won’t work internationally. Apparently even if I was to go into a B&N store in the US and buy one, once I get it back here I wouldn’t be able to add any new content – not even by downloading to the PC and transferring by USB, at least if I understand the info I saw on their web site. I’m sure an an international plan will come … eventually.

But honestly, I’m not so sure that the Nook is a game-changer in the way that the Kindle was. My early assessment is that it may well be successful but that Amazon will continue to dominate the market.

So now to spend a few days getting comfortable with the Kindle. I’m pleased that I’ll be able to have it with me for my flight to L.A. next week. Having a selection of books in such a lightweight device should serve to make the flight a bit more pleasant.