I'm looking around for e-ink reader options, and the primary concern I have is page-turning speed. My plan is to use it for personal reading of epub short stories and novels, not technical pdf's. But, I read pretty quickly, and I've found I'm more sensitive to page turning speed than a lot of people. Since this isn't a question handled very well by the wiki's ebook matrix, I'm looking for input.
Here are some other typical questions/answers that I can think of for features (besides the fact that, yes, I would like ponies, unicorns, and rainbows
). If there are others, I'm more than happy to answer.
Screen Size : I would prefer 6" or up. I've played a little bit with the Sony 300 at Target, and a 5" screen just seems... small.
Folder Support : Not really a concern for me. My current plan is to load a few books onto the device at a time from my PC, rather than putting my entire library on the device.
Note Taking : Not a concern for me.
Dictionary : Not a concern for me.
Language : English (US)
3G Connectivity : A little bit of a concern, but not much of one.
WiFi : I'm not sure... If I can load books from my PC to the device wirelessly via Calibre/etc, instead of via usb, that might be kind of nifty. It's nowhere near a "significant" decision point, though, because I always have multiple cables hanging out of my PC anyways, so another one (or re-using a mini-usb one) isn't really a big deal.
Touch Screen : I don't really care. I realize that at the screen size I'm talking about, touch screens are pretty common, but I doubt I'd use it very much; I hate wiping fingerprints off my iphone, and I imagine I'd hate it on this too.
Screen Clarity : I really care (commence Sony 600/900 flame fests here)
Price : $450 max; cheaper is better
Looks : I'd prefer something that doesn't look like a piece of plastic squashed by a sumo wrestler (IE, kindle; way too much white plastic for my tastes), but I'm much more interested in speed/functions over looks.
The obvious heavyweight choices are Sony 600/900, and iRex dr800sg. However, there are plenty of other 6" readers that are cheaper than a Sony 600, but it's hard to tell things like screen clarity, and true time-to-change-a-page off of youtube videos (ie, sometimes you can't tell when someone actually clicked the button so you can't tell how long the page change actually took).
As for units I've actually seen... I saw a beat up Sony 300 and 600 display kiosk at a local Target store. I tried an Astak EZ Reader a few months ago. That's about it for my personal hands-on experience. There's a Sony Style store in the next suburb over that I'm going to try to get to soon to play with a 900.
If anyone has other reader ideas/feedback, I'm interested in hearing them.