Why should I get a SONY reader over a Kindle or nook?

[JSWolf]

Amazon introduced the ability to display PDF on the K2. But not on the K1. So for right now, K1 users have less functionality then K2 users.

Sony's move to ePub in their store is a very good idea. It also means that they can sell eBooks to more then just Sony users. Kindle users need not apply.

In the UK, The Lost Symbol is not available for the International K2. But it is available in ePub for any device that supports ePub via ADE. This is one reason why having ePub is a good thing. Outside the USA, ePub is king.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

Sony had to upgrade the 500 because they are going to ePub only in their stores. Sony wants to sell ePub books to the 500 owners. For Amazon there really is no reason for updating the K1 because owners can still buy books via Amazon. I am pretty sure that if Amazon introduced a format that could not be read on the K1 they would provide an update.

They had introduced EPUB to the 505 as well, along with most of the open standards that are supported by the later 300/600's. Now if only they upgraded the firmware more often for their current devices, then we could say unequivocally that they cared more about their customers.

One thing to note about the Kindle DX update is that the big reason they did it to upgrade the ADE version on the Kindle DX, IIRC... whereas past Sony updates were to add features or formats to the device. And as noted above, they want to sell ePub books to all users who have readers with ADE support the way certain other ebookstores already do - they're not afraid to take money from anyone, unlike Amazon who wants you to be locked into their platform forever and ever. And until the past few months, they weren't even available internationally whereas the Sony Readers (and the iRex ones, and the Hanlin ones, and the Azteks and the Cybooks...) were.

[WookieReader]

I have the Kindle DX, (going back) and a Sony 505 and Irex Iliad.

Very disappointed with Amazon on the DX. Upgrade to 2.3 was good, and now PDF's do reflow, but no folders or tags. Recent post from Amazon that they will address this in first half of 2010... So there you go. Also, speed and contrast on Sony 505 and 300 are much better and tags, folders, and table of content.

The Kindle wireless is nice, but after 50 docs on the thing, it is a mess to page through with no tags or folders. Imagine comments on their thread by users with 200+ books and PDF.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Amazon introduced the ability to display PDF on the K2. But not on the K1. So for right now, K1 users have less functionality then K2 users.

Sony introduced an inbuilt reading light and a touch screen in the 700 and did not add that to the 505. So 505 owners have less functionality than 700 owners.

Sony introduced a dictionary in the 600 so 500, 505, 700 and 300 owners have less functionality than 600 owners.

I mean, really, what is your point? You are grasping at pedantic straws here.

BOb

[Ea]

Originally Posted by WookieReader

Very disappointed with Amazon on the DX. Upgrade to 2.3 was good, and now PDF's do reflow, but no folders or tags. Recent post from Amazon that they will address this in first half of 2010... So there you go. Also, speed and contrast on Sony 505 and 300 are much better and tags, folders, and table of content.

The Kindle wireless is nice, but after 50 docs on the thing, it is a mess to page through with no tags or folders. Imagine comments on their thread by users with 200+ books and PDF.

To each his own, but in my experience my Kindle are faster and had better contrast than my 6-7 months old Sony505. I also never got the 'collections' to work well for me on the 505; it crashed once in a while and the collections meta data usually got deleted (along with bookmarks etc.) and I could load my books again and start over. Since I preferred reading LRF files and used calibre, that meant re-pagination of the books (tedious 2-5 min. wait). In the end, I didn't use collections at all, just had a flat list like on the Kindle. I like the idea of collections/tags, but it has to work consistently.

[kelly1010]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Kindle can't read epub library books. My library has over 400 best-seller new release type of library books, so for me this would be a deal-breaker.

This was HUGE dealbreaker for me. I actually had Kindle in the shopping cart ready to order. Once I found this out I CANCELLED that!

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

I opted against the Kindle purely for the fact that I would be forced to buy from Amazon - I don't like that. The Sony allows me (geographical restrictions permitting) to buy whereever I want. Sure, it is convenient to go to one store, but the concept goes against my grain.

Originally Posted by mxgamon

Wish my library had ANY ebooks - they have audiobooks only. Where is your library?

you can go to overdrive.com and find out which libraries carry ebooks. I live in California, and can get a card to any library in this state that has ebooks. I took a road trip this summer and got 4 or 5 cards to some San Francisco area libraries.

If I get a Sony, where besides the Sony store can I purchase new release popular books? If I use the Sony store, does the DRM restrict what device I can play it on, besides my computer? Can the DRM be removed?

I most often buy books from booksonboard, but I think that was already mentioned.

Originally Posted by budalb

Two reasons for me to buy Sony. 1) epub support, 2) SD card. Actually Nook has both and 3G +wifi. But Nook is bigger. I don't want to buy from BN. Not sure it's wifi function. BTW I got a good deal from Walmart.com. The only good thing of Kindle is free Gmail.

you can get free gmail WITHOUT having a kindle.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Sony introduced an inbuilt reading light and a touch screen in the 700 and did not add that to the 505. So 505 owners have less functionality than 700 owners.

Sony introduced a dictionary in the 600 so 500, 505, 700 and 300 owners have less functionality than 600 owners.

I mean, really, what is your point? You are grasping at pedantic straws here.

BOb

The big difference there is JSWolf's complaints were about features which could be added with a firmware update... whereas everything mentioned by JSWolf is unavailable to previous generation owners as they're not 'small' changes but big ones involving physical hardware limitations - the inability to highlight words easily on the non-touchscreen readers for the dictionary (and no hardware keyboard with nice, big arrow keys to move around or to search with) or the inability to add a sidelight with a firmware upgrade.

Of course, the PRS-505/300/500 are probably also a bit too pokey in the processor to run the dictionary well (maybe), which could be related to the hardware things again. But yes, the lock-in to Amazon with regards to DRM'd books is a bit of an issue with the Kindle, especially if you're not in the US.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by WookieReader

I have the Kindle DX, (going back) and a Sony 505 and Irex Iliad.

Very disappointed with Amazon on the DX. Upgrade to 2.3 was good, and now PDF's do reflow, but no folders or tags. Recent post from Amazon that they will address this in first half of 2010... So there you go. Also, speed and contrast on Sony 505 and 300 are much better and tags, folders, and table of content.

The Kindle wireless is nice, but after 50 docs on the thing, it is a mess to page through with no tags or folders. Imagine comments on their thread by users with 200+ books and PDF.

I have nearly 350 books and pdfs on my DX and have no problem finding what I want. If there is something that I want to read that I know has drifted far down my list of docs because I haven't read it in a while I just run a search and have it rather quickly. YMMV.

[Lilly]

I have both the K2 and PRS-505 and let me tell you, having the ability to have collection folders is priceless! I have 280 books on my PRS-505 (it's 13 pages of books but only 3 pages with collection and I still have more room on page 3). Not only is it great for organizing series (I have the Lora Leigh Breed series - 19 books in one folder in order and Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunters series - 28 books in another folder). I don't have to search for which book to read in that series since each series are in chronological order in a folder. I have not touched my K2 for reading in over 2 months, all because of organization and page numbers. The 2 things that makes my PRS-505 a better reading experience. I was going to upgrade to the PRS-600 and then Sony announced the PRS-900 (which is still the same size as the K2 even though the screen is an inch bigger due to the keyboard) and since I use my readers a 100% for pleasure reading, that will be my next upgrade for my primary reader. Not that I'm not enjoying having both the K2 and PRS-505, even though I'm not using the K2 to read, I do use the Amazon store to buy books! I have no urge to buy a Nook (0%), from my personal experience, these 2 readers meets all my needs.

[rainsux]

Sony's PDFviewer supports features that the Kindle DX does not:

- TOCs/bookmarks
- Hyperlinks

Amazon's PDFviewer is worthy of a high school science fair project.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by rainsux

Sony's PDFviewer supports features that the Kindle DX does not:

- TOCs/bookmarks
- Hyperlinks

Amazon's PDFviewer is worthy of a high school science fair project.

This is not true, as I have several pdf's where I have bookmarked my spot. With pdf's it has as much to do with the quality of the file going in as it does with the reader.

[Josieb1]

To each his own, but in my experience my Kindle are faster and had better contrast than my 6-7 months old Sony505. I also never got the 'collections' to work well for me on the 505; it crashed once in a while and the collections meta data usually got deleted (along with bookmarks etc.) and I could load my books again and start over. Since I preferred reading LRF files and used calibre, that meant re-pagination of the books (tedious 2-5 min. wait). In the end, I didn't use collections at all, just had a flat list like on the Kindle. I like the idea of collections/tags, but it has to work consistently.

I find your comment about Collections and Tags strange, I have a PRS505, and use Calibre, and have upwards of 74 seperate collections on my reader, with many stories being in more than one collection.

The collections are simply tags, with a comma between more than one tag for a story. Its very simple and stable, I have never had a problem and every story I load goes into a least one Collection.

Its the only way I could manage my calibre library as I have over 600 stories in Calibre. Up until today they were all on my reader but the volume was slowing it down so my reader has only about 100 stories and 20 collections on it now.

[SanAntone]

I'm a REB 1100 former user and now a Kindle, Kindle 2, and then a Kindle DX user...and yes I'm glad of my choice.

Just wanted to comment on a few things:

1. I really admire the Sony hardware. The Readers are well made and a fantastic piece of electronics. I find it very interesting that most of the press now are disregarding the Sony and focusing on it being a "two horse race" between the Kindle and the Nook.

2. Regarding the comments about Amazon reaching in and extracting your books... I have a problem with that, too. However, I do admire that when a company makes a mistake, the CEO comes out and publicly admits it...doesn't make excuses. But please...let's not forget the role that Sony played a few years ago when they reached out and installed software, without permission or knowledge of the user, on their computer when they bought a cd. To re-use an analogy from an earlier thread...this is the equivalent of someone entering your house and installing a bug and then leaving. Let's not pretend any of these big companies haven't made mistakes.

3. The main reason I never purchased a Sony Reader (and I wanted one bad!) was because, for some strange reason, their INTERNET book store wouldn't work with Macs. I know that's been fixed now, but for the longest time, I wasn't considered a valuable customer.

4. For Sony to really compete, they'll need (in my opinion) a $259 reader that is wireless and access to content at the same price (best sellers) as Amazon and B&N.

I truly hope Sony, Amazon, and B&N succeed with their readers. That's the best thing for all of us. Good luck with your choice. I doubt you'll be disappointed with any of them.

[rainsux]

The Kindle DX PDFview is crippled - it does not support PDF TOCs/bookmarks or
hyperlinks.

[tablettweet]

I do a quick comparison table about this 3 e-reader. .

This is what i found.
- Kindle DX has a biggest screen size.

- Nook & Sony Digital Reader Touch Edition has a touchscreen keyboard while Kindle DX only has a Qwerty keyboard.

- Sony Digital Reader Touch Edition is a lightest e-reader among this three.

- Kindle DX is a biggest e-reader.

- Kindle has a best screen resolution 1200*824 pixel

- Kindle has a largest 4 gb memory.

- Sony Digital Reader Touch Edition has a longest battery life – 2 weeks (no wireless on Sony).

So, think about it ;]