E reader under 150 good for pdfs

[Todayswheather]

Hello-

I'm a graduate student, on the market for an ereader. About $150 is my upper limit for the reader.. As for features to prioritize:
*I don't care about 3g
*Wireless is nice, but not necessary
*I want to be able to read textbooks and pdfs of journal articles
*I'd like to be able to get books cheaply

So far, I started off looking at the Sony 300 versus the Kindle, and was liking that the Sony was a little more open market, but now I'm seeing that the Sony 300 is a little buggy? A little clunky? I've heard great things about the kindle, and I'm an avid Amazon user.. but I'm a little nervous about running into proprietary issues.. Maybe the Nook? or Kobo?

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[starrlamia]

if pdfs are a priority then the bigger you go the better, the sony 300 is to small IMO for pdfs, and a 6" screen is pushing it (it chops up 1 page into 2 basically). I wouldnt get a kindle just for the fact that you cannot do as much shopping around for books because of the limited format (its easier IMO to find epubs then mobi files).
For that price I would look at the Pocketbook IQ, which is more tablet like, LCD colour screen, wifi etc but shows pdfs well, or so I have heard.

[Latinandgreek]

If you don't necessarily want e-ink, the Pocketbook IQ is about $150. It's a new device, so I don't know too much about it yet, but it might be worth checking out.

For PDFs (I'm also a grad student, so I imagine that you are drowning in PDFs) people seem to be more satisfied with Sony products. The PRS-600 (last year's Sony model) and the PRS-350 (on sale this week, for about $150) fit in your price range, but the 600 is the older model with a worse screen. The PRS-350 has a 5 inch screen, but it's the new pearl screen, with better contrast. You can use reflow on PDFs and pan and zoom on the 350 and the 600. A Kindle wi-fi also fits your range. Here is a site that offers excellent reviews of these devices, including videos. I hope this helps a bit.

http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/pocketbook.html

[Todayswheather]

I'm hoping to get this by Christmas.. and it looks like the Pocketbook IQ is hard to snag..

[Todayswheather]

I also am a little drawn to the option to check out books from the library.. but am I sacrificing a lot? Is the Sony 350 far inferior to the Kindle?? Also, I'm hearing a lot of mixed things about the kindle's ability to use non-amazon products and am getting rather confused... Also, what about buying textbooks--seems like the sony store wouldn't have this? Could I buy from amazon and use it on a sony?

[fjtorres]

When it comes to ebooks, the IQ lets you have the best of both worlds; both Kindle and ePub. You can buy from Amazon or get library ebooks on it. Pdfs? Well, check here:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...id/#more-14050

Understand that pdfs don't do particularly well on *any* ereader at 6in or under.
If you deprecate that requirement you might do well with the Kindle 3 WiFi (if you can find one), Nook, or PB360 which are all priced under $150. If you can find a Sony that low it might fit.

You do need to decide upfront where you're going to get your drm'ed books from, Amazon, B&N, or the other guys. DRM-free content can be used on any reader either directly or through quick-n-easy conversion.

If PDF display is non negotiable, you might want to go a bit higher (to $199) and look at the Pandigital 9in Android tablet:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...ndroid-tablet/

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Todayswheather

I also am a little drawn to the option to check out books from the library.. but am I sacrificing a lot? Is the Sony 350 far inferior to the Kindle?? Also, I'm hearing a lot of mixed things about the kindle's ability to use non-amazon products and am getting rather confused... Also, what about buying textbooks--seems like the sony store wouldn't have this? Could I buy from amazon and use it on a sony?

Both are great devices, I wouldn't say that one is better than the other, it just depends on your needs and preferences. The Kindle has wi-fi access, the Sony doesn't. The 350 has a 5 inch screen, which is great for gents who want to carry their reader in their shirt pocket. The Sony products have better PDF viewing capabilities than the Kindle products, but again, with the 5 inch screen you'd be getting a smaller screen. (With the Sony products you can use dictionaries with PDFs, which I don't think you can with Kindle products; you can mark up your PDFs, which, again, I don't think you can do with the Kindle, also the zoom feature seems to work a lot better on the Sony products, from what I've seen on youtube reviews.) With the Sony products you can also use them to read library books for free, which is a great advantage in my opinion, and the Sony products come pre-loaded with 12 dictionaries, which for me make them worth the price for that feature alone... but then again, I read a lot in foreign languages, so YMMV.

The Sony 650 has a 6 inch screen and the 950 has a 7 inch screen. (I'm looking to get myself the 950. It's on sale now for $250, I believe). I'm not sure how good the Amazon store is for textbooks, to be honest... try looking up some textbooks that you'd need /want and see if they carry them. Any textbooks that I have are in PDF format. To be honest, the products that would probably fit your needs best are the Kindle DX, the Sony PRS-950 and the Pocketbook 902 or 903, which are all above your price range.

Here are some videos that show the PRS-350 handling PDfs, as well as the Kindle, so that you can get an idea of how they work:

PRS-650

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE6Ivnk817E

Sony 650 vs. Kindle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtrKo5UWpco&feature=fvw

Kindle PDFs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlZ9cqjzOik

Hope that helps a bit.

[bl1none]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Both are great devices, I wouldn't say that one is better than the other, it just depends on your needs and preferences. The Kindle has wi-fi access, the Sony doesn't. The 350 has a 5 inch screen, which is great for gents who want to carry their reader in their shirt pocket. The Sony products have better PDF viewing capabilities than the Kindle products, but again, with the 5 inch screen you'd be getting a smaller screen. (With the Sony products you can use dictionaries with PDFs, which I don't think you can with Kindle products; you can mark up your PDFs, which, again, I don't think you can do with the Kindle, also the zoom feature seems to work a lot better on the Sony products, from what I've seen on youtube reviews.) With the Sony products you can also use them to read library books for free, which is a great advantage in my opinion, and the Sony products come pre-loaded with 12 dictionaries, which for me make them worth the price for that feature alone... but then again, I read a lot in foreign languages, so YMMV.

The Sony 650 has a 6 inch screen and the 950 has a 7 inch screen. (I'm looking to get myself the 950. It's on sale now for $250, I believe). I'm not sure how good the Amazon store is for textbooks, to be honest... try looking up some textbooks that you'd need /want and see if they carry them. Any textbooks that I have are in PDF format. To be honest, the products that would probably fit your needs best are the Kindle DX, the Sony PRS-950 and the Pocketbook 902 or 903, which are all above your price range.

Here are some videos that show the PRS-350 handling PDfs, as well as the Kindle, so that you can get an idea of how they work:

PRS-650

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE6Ivnk817E

Sony 650 vs. Kindle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtrKo5UWpco&feature=fvw

Kindle PDFs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlZ9cqjzOik

Hope that helps a bit.

I echo LatinandGreek - the Sony 350 does a reasonable job with PDFs but the 650 is much better with respect to the PDFs from journals and textbooks; the screen for the 600 was pretty mediocre and difficult to use. Using the 350/650 ereaders, for scientific articles the B&W text is crisp and readable even for small icons or 1/8th or smaller page figures. Being older and (many) years out from grad school, I definitely appreciate the better screen and would make the trade off for that with a 5" diameter v. a larger but with less contrast/quality image. FWIW. Best of luck with your decision.

[surrealmind]

If you are dead serious about using a device as paper-replacement for pdfs in the $150 price range, you will want to buy a used tablet PC. The new 7" devices might be okayish, but I think you'll find 7" is even pushing it for good pdf reproduction. I'm also not sure how those devices save annotations; I suspect they use a proprietary system, but I'm not certain about that.

A used tablet PC, on the other hand, will give you the following features: a very readable 10" (or 12") screen, accurate inking which can be written directly on the PDF file itself, a full OS in which you can manage folders however you like, wireless Internet access with instant backup of your files via Dropbox, and the option to have another application running at the same time (for writing down fuller notes, for example). I speak from experience here since I did quite a bit of research this summer to find a PDF reading solution for all the 18th-century Google PDFs I had to blast through for generals this fall. I currently read using PDF Annotator by Grahl Software ($30 academic license), and take more expansive notes at the same time on Windows Journal (free) or OneNote.

It will take a little patience to find a TC1100 or similar tablet for less than $200 on Ebay, but I think $150 is possible. Also, these computers are aging and they are not flawless solutions. They are heavier than current ereaders, which bothers some people. Battery life is shorter, and of course they use LCD screens instead of eInk. At the least, however, you will have a PDF reader that should last through grad school, and when you're then ready and able to upgrade to iPad 4 or whatever tech solution is hot then, all your data will be saved on good-old standard PDFs and Windows notetaking formats.