Quote:
Originally Posted by Duckrow
The two things that matter most to me are the screen and the dictionary. I would rather pay less and get a Sony but couldn't live with no dictionary. The iliad sounds great but is more than twice the price. Is it a much better screen than the Kindle 1 which I use at moment?
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I haven't got a Kindle 1, so I'll compare to Kindle 2.
iRex iLiad:
Pros:
- Native PDF support. Via its touchscreen, you freely can zoom whatever area you want to. Simply mark the area and blow it to full screen.
- Touchscreen, which doesn't harm contrast and doesn't have any glare. I love scribbling in PDFs, for example playing Sudoku or Kakuro.
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Menu structure. You freely can use folders and subfolders. You even can add thumbnails or descriptions.
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OS. You can add comments to every single book ON THE FLY on the iLiad, without need of a PC. You even can change author's name or book title, again: Directly on the fly on iLiad.
- User defined dictionaries. Bilingual dictionaries of course are nice to have, over her in "old Europe". You can use various dictionaries at once, simply choose the one you'd like to use for a specific definition.
- In my opinion, best for PDF. In Sony 505, for example, I have to use reflow. Some praise it, I don't like it (changes in layout): On iRex iLiad, I simply zoom whatever area I'd like to full screen. However complex the document may be, I freely and easily can zoom into.
- "Perfect" screen size for me. Even A4 PDFs can be read and it's still highly mobile.
- No cover included, but a very convenient carrying bag.
Cons:
- No standby. There probably won't be any firmware update...
- When purchasing books, Mobipocket usually is about 15% more expensive than Amazon and has less books to offer.
Kindle 2:
Pros:
UPDATE: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...652#post536652
= Multilingual dictionary support.
- Amazon webshop. Cheapest and bigger than the others.
- Whispernet. Can't use it over here, but great concept anyway.
- "On the fly" dictionary. I don't have to "leave" the book I read and "enter" the dictionary. I can see the description in the "footnote" of the very same page.
- Very fast in turning pages.
- iPhone app. Reading on iPhone/iPod touch and Kindle in parallel without additional costs, brilliant business model.
Cons:
- In my opinion (sorry!) Kindle 1 is fugly. Kindle 2 and Kindle DX are okay, but I clearly favor Sony 505's design for example.
- I don't like .tpz and prefer .azw. I don't see the difference on Amazon's website and sometimes, by accident, purchase .tpz.
- Without the Amazon webshop in the background, I'd rank Kindle 2 midrange, similar to Cybook.
- No cover included, has to be purchased separately (quite annoying, when outside of the US).
Meaning:
iRex iLiad still is one of my favorites. Without Amazon in the background, Kindle only would be mediocre.
But given Amazon's webshop and the dictionary support, Kindle easily makes my top 3 as well.
If PDF is important for you, iRex would be my favorite.
For the screen, with the exception of Sony 700, I consider all the others more or less even.