Hello,
I have been perusing this forum ever since I bought my Sony PRS 650 and how helpful it was! However, I am now pondering whether it would be wise to change my eReader and I think the best thing to do is to ask the ones in the know.
Right now, I'm using a Japanese PRS 650 which is not authorized since I was told to use a Japanese Windows running computer in order to do that. When I convert a Japanese web page to an ePub file, unless I use Calibre to convert it I can't read it. All the kanji are question marks. I guess it has to do with the encoding, but I haven't totally understood this issue yet.
I'd like to point out that in addition to having a non authorized eReader, I'm an Ubuntu user. Talk about jumping through hoops to read legally bought DRMed books
I've been dealing with all those things since the beginning and I'm quite fine with that. I love my eReader, I take it everywhere with me (sometimes in my coat pockets and yes it's a bit bulky). I don't really
need to change it right now. But sometimes, I'm kinda weak and I wish things would be easier. For instance, I really wish I could search for Japanese words in the dictionary.
The Kobo mini's price point is still 79.90€, but 20€ will be put back on one's account to buy anything, not necessarily ebook related. Oh, and I have a 30€ voucher to redeem in that store, but my first idea was to use it to buy books. All in all I could pay it 49.90€ and buy the books with the 20€ put on my account.
I have been considering the PRS-T2, but I think I can't have the Japanese dictionary if it'S not bought in Japan. It's possible, but not very soon and I'll be back to square one regarding the authorization unless I can deal with that by WIFI while being there.
I have put aside anything Kindle for many reasons, one of them being the closed ecosystem of Amazon. But reading an other thread, I realized I was somewhat close-minded on that one. Is there a good option to consider there?
Mainly I'm interested in the Kobo Mini because it seems so easy in comparison to my current situation and it's cheap. If another eReader is really standing out of the crowd, I guess I'll have to wait and save money.
Do you think it's worth buying a Kobo Mini now? Is it worth buying one knowing I'm coming from a Sony PRS 650?
Thank you very much for any advice
Japanese PRS 650
+ good Eng.-Eng. dictionary
+ good Eng.-Jp. dictionary
+ still works as new (battery life...)
+ classy look IMO
+ seamless integration of Calibre and Sony
- bad rendering of ePubs made from Japanese web pages without Calibre
- no Jp.-Eng. dictionary
- no Jp.-Jp. dictionary
- non authorized (only an issue once in a while)
- no WIFI
Kobo Mini
+ easier to carry around
+ firmware and contents doesn't seem to be region specific
+ interesting offer for a limited time
- too small to read???
- difficult to sale my Sony and I can't keep 2 eReaders
- no frontlight*
- no ePub3*
* either of which can be included in next releases