PRS-700/Kindle 2

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by emellaich

I have a Kindle and love it, so I have no axe to grind here. But remember that Amazon was in the ebook market once before, and it withdrew its products and inventory. I do believe they are in the market for the long term this day. However, I also would not be surprised to see further format changes from them.

But that was pre-Kindle, it's a whole new game now. They've purchased both MobiPocket and Audible and have their own format. They own parts of sites like LibraryThing and Shelfari. There is a *major* commitment to books, paper, ebooks and audio.

[F1Wild]

Originally Posted by Renaldo

Target and Borders Books also have display models. I've heard rumors of Costco and Sam's Club too, but I don't shop at either store to know.

Costco (or at least the AZ ones) do not. I checked for them when doing my own research. Was told they had a short-term display awhile ago, but no longer.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Max Introvert

Hello. I’m a longtime lurker. The impetus of my decision may be something completely different from what you were expecting, but the overarching question is still “which one should I buy?” and so I find myself here.

To start things off, I have been a (very) proud owner of a PRS-500 since January 2007. I even went all-out and bought the Valentine’s special with the Dooney & Bourke leather cover. I have no regrets about the purchase and even credit it with rekindling my voracious appetite for reading. It has seen much use.

Time has marched on, and I am finally in a position to replace the venerable workhorse with something better. The most glaring deficiency by far of the 500 is its inability to work with Vista x64, which is on my main machine. I have managed to work around this issue, but it is still incredibly annoying.

After much consideration, it comes down to the PRS-700 and the Kindle 2. Both solve my Vista x64 problem. I am aware of the “shortcoming” of the 700 with regards to the touchscreen glare, but having never seen a 505, I do not believe that will be an issue here.

Further, from a technical standpoint, the 700 is far ahead of the Kindle in my opinion. The 700 can read many more formats, including PDF files, and with the zoom feature, that should not be the squint-fest it was on the 500. The front-lighting is an added bonus and would be extremely useful as I like to read to get to sleep -- hitting a switch is a lot easier than getting up and turning out the light!

Given all this, why is the Kindle 2 even in the running? I’ll give you one word: “Betamax”. It seems to me as though Sony is on the losing end of things here (yet again), as the Kindle media blitz has placed it front and center in the minds of the general populace. I’m afraid we have a developing “iPod/Zune” situation here (to update things), and I have a long, sordid history of picking a product because of its technological superiority, only to suffer heartbreak and ridicule (don’t ask) when it goes the way of the dodo. I’d like to avoid this happening again, if possible.

Forgive the incendiary phrasing; it is succinct. Is the Kindle an unstoppable juggernaut? I would appreciate your opinion.

I've got both of them: Kindle 2 and Sony 700. Plus a few others.
So far, I've had exactly 2 disappointments: Sony 700 and BeBook.

I've bought the Sony 505 as my second unit and still love it. Great design, phantastic display. The forum had warned about the display quality of Sony 700, but (being kind of a Sony-fan) I've expected it acceptable. Actually, I find it annoying, why I don't use my Sony 700 for now.

For comparison:
File formats:
On Sony 700, you'll probably use 4 formats: .lrx (DRMed proprietary Sony), .lrf (Non-DRMed Sony), .epub and .pdf.
.epub and .pdf easly can be stripped from DRM and converted in whatever format you need. So it's not that big a benefit, that Sony natively can operate these formats.
.lrf is not DRMed, so it's even easier to convert.
.lrx for the moment is the only one of the major formats, that can't be stripped from DRM.
Meaning: The books you purchase in Sony's webstore usually are more expensive than the ones from Amazon. And you won't be able to port them to another reader. Here you might run into the "Betamax" phenomenon.

On Kindle 2, you'll probably use .azw and .tpz and modified .prc (Mobipocket).
.azw is about 90% of the books from Amazon and perfectly can be stripped and converted.
Meaning: 90% of the books from Amazon's webstore can be converted, no "Betamax" scenario here. Usually, the selection from Amazon is way bigger than from Sony and the books usually are about 15% cheaper from Amazon.

As for the touchscreen of Sony 700: I love the touchscreen of iRex iLiad or iRex 1000S, as they're perfectly supported by the OS (dictionary support, scribbling on PDFs, ..). I don't find it of any use on Sony 700. No dictionary support, no respective menu structure.
On the other hand, dictionary support in Kindle 2 and Kindle DX for me by far is best. Directly on the fly within the "footnote" of the page.

My personal suggestion:
If you care for PDF, iRex iLiad might be an option.
If you consider Sony, I'd carefully compare Sony 505 and Sony 700. The Sony 700 definitely is usable. But in direct comparison to Sony 505, the display is way inferior. The front-lighting of Sony 700 I don't like at all, you should check it out. In bed, I use the Kindle application on my iPhone instead.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Max Introvert

At any rate, I did not know about the August rumors, and I still have not seen a 700 (let alone a K2) in person. There are several Fry's where I am, but my usual (Plano) does not have demo models on display. I suppose it's best to wait for now.

Do not buy a 700 without comparing it in person with the 505. You will buy the 505, I'll bet. I actually bought one of each, went home & tried them both out, and almost immediately returned the 700 based solely on the inferior screen. The fonts were fuzzy, and the screen reflected glare. It's simply unacceptable for long term reading.

As for the Sonys vs. the K2, the Sonys seem to be better constructed, with more attention to detail, than the K2. I find the K2 more comfortable to hold.

I have a 505, and a K2, and use the K2 the most. But if the 505 were the wireless Amazon device, and the K2 was the non-wireless Sony device, I'd use the 505 the most. It's the wireless shopping and transfer of files, and the syncing with my iPhone, that makes the difference for me.

[pboss]

I have a 505 and I prefer it over the 700 mainly because of the page turn solution. The 700's swipe-to-turn thing does just not feel right for me. Now that I own a Kindle I'm biased for many reasons. No other device can beat Kindle when it comes to title availability.

[krischik]

Originally Posted by Max Introvert

Given all this, why is the Kindle 2 even in the running? I’ll give you one word: “Betamax”. It seems to me as though Sony is on the losing end of things here (yet again), as the Kindle media blitz has placed it front and center in the minds of the general populace.

Since Kindle is not available in Europe (or any other country apart from the USA) - and as the T-Online and Vodaphone deals failed - won't be for a quite a while Amazon might just as well be on the loosing end.

So if you don't want to be on the loosing end you need to wait a little longer.

Martin

[Max Introvert]

Quick update: I hiked down to the Sony store and saw a 700 in person.

Oh, dear -- yes, there is a substantial difference, even compared to my good ol' 500 (I brought it along). In my opinion, the 700's screen is much closer to an LCD in readability than an E-ink display. Strange that a touch-screen membrane could affect to that degree, and how come nobody complained about it with iRex's models?

Sooo... It's either a K2 (Billy Mays) NOW AT THE AMAZING PRICE OF $300, or wait and see what, if anything, Sony has up its sleeve.

I'm really kind of disappointed -- the 700 is SO nice, but when it misses the mark on its main purpose...

Ah well. Live and learn. Thanks!

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Max Introvert

...
Strange that a touch-screen membrane could affect to that degree, and how come nobody complained about it with iRex's models?

The "touch" technology on the iRex models are the same as on Wacom tablets - an electromagnetic field that is activated by a special pen - so the actual touch technology is placed behind the e-ink screen. It's not like the pressure sensitive (I assume) touch screen of the Sony, which needs to be placed in front of the screen.

Why not consider a Sony 505 after all? That should last you some years, until it's getting clearer who's going to "win". There's so much happening right now, for example the Pixel Q LCD screens, that it's difficult to even try to predict what the market will look like in 4-5 years.

[TMark]

Good info. I'm leaning toward Kindle. It looks like it's the most future proof e-book reader there is atm.