Comparison photos of new Sony 350 and Kindle 3

[iReaderReview]

Hi,
Again let me know if this isn't the right forum.
Apparently, Canada gets the Sony 350 before anywhere else so was surprised to get it today.

Have added a bunch of comparison photos of Kindle 3 and Sony 350 including a few with the Sony 600 - http://ireaderreview.com/2010/09/10/...ny-350-photos/

Will be glad to answer your questions.

I'm very impressed by the Sony 350 - It's amazingly light and compact. The touch doesn't affect the screen at all.

It uses IR and you can actually 'touch' without even touching the screen though you have to go really close.

It's a pity Sony didn't add WiFi to this because it's a beautiful eReader.
It even fits in my tighest jean's pocket though walking around and sitting with it might break it.

It's so light it's unreal - it really feels physically impossible for it to be light.

[porkupan]

Very interesting review. Good pictures, good comparison points.

Having never actually handled a PRS-350, I would still disagree with a couple of your points.

1) PDF support better on K3? Is it really so? The previous experience tells us that Kindle only had very basic PDF viewing support, without search, reflow, highliting, notes, TOC and hyper-link support. This may have changed now, but Sony has had support for that functionality for a long time. I would like you to elaborate on this point a little bit.

2) Browser support a plus? For some people. For others it's a distraction. I haven't used the browser on K3, but the older model's browser was such a pain to use that I would much prefer using my Android phone. I also wonder if pop-ups offering to join a WiFi hotspot can get annoying after a while. You can't argue with "free" though.

3) Store integration. Good and bad. Good that you can easily buy a book when you want to read it. Bad that it will lead to a lot of impulse buying and moneys wasted. Locked into one big bookstore monopoly. A convenience for some, irritation for others.

4) The font rendering engines are actually better on Sony (I believe experts would agree). If you try embedding Amazon's (or any other set of TTF) fonts into EPUB and reading it on Sony, you will see that the fonts are rendered beautifully. Amazon is good with their particular set of Caecilia fonts, terrible with most other sets of fonts.

5) Right justification problems in MOBI (apparently started since firmware version 2.5). Some text is fully justified, some is not.

6) I believe the dictionary support on Sony is way better.

7) I would like to hear about the battery life in normal operating conditions. For Kindle "normal" means "with wereless on", I suppose. There is no hardware wireless switch, and most people wouldn't bother switching it off via the menu.

[soondai]

is the 350 battery user replaceable?

[daffy4u]

If Sony would make a DX sized reader (I don't line like the skinny 900 form factor), I would seriously consider buying it.

[Fbone]

Great photos. Thanks for posting.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by soondai

is the 350 battery user replaceable?

I don't believe so, no.

[MR. Pockets]

Great review! For the first time, I am seriously considering Sony as a good brand to buy. (Well, the Prs 500/505 are pretty good.)

[charleski]

Originally Posted by iReaderReview

It's a pity Sony didn't add WiFi to this because it's a beautiful eReader.

<sigh>
About a third of your comparison is just whining about wireless.
Wireless would be worthless. Instant book downloads need the sort of tight vertical integration given by Amazon's store or B&N is the US. Sony is aiming this at an international market, and doesn't have a hope of matching Amazon's book store across all the countries in which it will be selling, so they shouldn't even try - no point playing to their weaknesses.

Frankly, I don't get the point of wireless anyway. It's good if you don't want to have to cope with syncing with a computer and it's good if you're often away on the road for stretches of time. But I don't feel the need for instant personal gratification when it comes to buying new books. I get the feeling wireless has just become the fetish du jour when it comes to ereaders.

Your last picture certainly rams home how ugly Caecilia is, and of course on the Kindle you're stuck with that abomination.

[ImogenRose]

Great pics, thanks for sharing.

Imogen

[Papi]

Originally Posted by charleski

<sigh>
About a third of your comparison is just whining about wireless.
Wireless would be worthless. Instant book downloads need the sort of tight vertical integration given by Amazon's store or B&N is the US. Sony is aiming this at an international market, and doesn't have a hope of matching Amazon's book store across all the countries in which it will be selling, so they shouldn't even try - no point playing to their weaknesses.

Frankly, I don't get the point of wireless anyway. It's good if you don't want to have to cope with syncing with a computer and it's good if you're often away on the road for stretches of time. But I don't feel the need for instant personal gratification when it comes to buying new books. I get the feeling wireless has just become the fetish du jour when it comes to ereaders.
.

This is getting annoying...I wish the device had wifi too, and it's the only drawback it has for MY needs. I want wifi, I understand some people DON'T want wifi, and others simply don't care. It's fine with me, can't you just accept it ? It would be mainly for wikipedia access by the way, and I know other people would like this feature too, so nothing to do with a store.

[JeremyR]

Honestly, how important WiFi is really probably depends on if you actually buy books from a store.

I don't, I read mostly old stuff, so WiFi isn't particularly useful. I did get a bunch from Amazon's store, but the formatting on them is so bad it's painful to read them.

So I'm having to hook it up to my computer anyway to transfer them over after downloading well done versions from here.

But on the flip side, if you never read old stuff, just bestsellers from stores, hooking it up to a computer would be an extra hassle, so being able to buy a book from a store via wifi (or something else) would be useful.

Indeed, that's probably a large segment of Kindle buyers - people who don't want to fuss around with a computer to read e-books.

[Richey79]

The most useful comparison photos I've seen so far - good job. Nice to see how good Sony's new screens are.

I really like the way the Sonys render fonts - they seem to have more graduated edges and the fonts themselves are more elegant to my eye.

Advantages to both readers are a good thing for competition, although I should think that most people will see the difference in price and suddenly be somewhat blind to the Sony's advantages. There are always those who prefer the more expensive product as they presume it must be better build quality, though!

[ShellShock]

I also would not use wireless. I buy quite a few books from the online stores, but I always download to my PC first, so I can format shift to epub. Even epub originals get a reformat treatment (change fonts, margins etc). Plus connecting the reader to the PC gives a chance to charge it. So I rarely have to consciously charge it, it just happens as a side affect when I am copying books on to it. Probably most people would not go to this trouble, but for me most commercial ebooks are poorly formatted--too much wasted white space. Of course with epub's support for CSS, reformatting is not that difficult.

[Psykhe]

Firstly, great photos. Thanks for that.

The one thing which keeps me on the fence between The Kindle 3 and the Sony 650 hasn't been handled in your comparsion, though: the handling (pun is entirely accidently; from everything I've seen the 350 and 650 should be apart from the weight identical in this aspect).

With that I mean two things mainly:

- The haptics of the case.

I assume the Sony 600 and 350 cases are apart from the size and weight pretty much identical, right? If you compare the Sony 600 and the Kindle 3, which feels better in your hand after you've hold it for an extended period of time?
Ignoring the weight, since the Sony 600 is about 20% heavier than the Kindle 3, while the 650 is about 5-10% lighter. Just how the case feels and where holding it feels more "natural". Like is the hand still relaxed or does it cramp slightly since you have to hold a case tighter because it is more slippery. Or does one case warm up to an uncomfortable level while the other doesn't. Stuff like that.


- "next page"

Since that is the thing you'll do for 99% of all time as input. How do the buttons of the kindle and the touchscreen & buttons of the 350 compare in this aspect? Which is less of a "bother"?
Not from the response time (that seems to be virtually the same, right?), but from the manual action aspect.


--------

Just to give you my complete reasoning (although it is not really important and a bit wall-of-textish, so feel free to skip):

I am living in germany which modifies a few points:
- the 3g Version is worthless here since the only site you can browse is the american wikipedia.
- Kindle wifi is after shipping and tax 155€, sony 650 after student discount 205€. I am quite willing to pay the extra 50€ for the smaller size *if* the handling is at least equal.

Wifi web browsing is meaningless to me since I'd rather use my netbook or main PC for that.
PDF support doesn't really matter either since for books I do not see it often and other PDFs (like Uni lecture stuff) I much rather use my Netbook for.
I do not plan to take any notes on books so I do not need a keyboard (or the sony sketch tool for that matter).

File formats do not matter to me. If needed I'll just strip DRM and convert. It is no real bother to me technically and I have about as many qualms to do that as when converting a copy protected CD I own to mp3 for my Ipod. Aka none.

The only extras which are of any use to me are those directly connected to reading and there the Sony seems to have the edge (slightly lighter, better dictionary, better collection support, option to upgrade the space (although I do not think I will need it, but I know how it is with hard disks, you always have too little space) and faster book selection with the touchscreen (although that will save in the end very very little time, so that advantage is largely academical)). Amazon has a longer battery life as counter-advantage.
All of these advantages fall into the "nice, but not really a deciding factor" drawer, though.

Advantages of Sony which I do not care about are any "better style" points (not that I mind them, but I rather have 5% better handling than 100% better style) and the touchscreen (unless it improves the handling).

The screen quality and response time is of cource very important, but from what I have seen so far that one is virtually identical on both devices.

[Papi]

Originally Posted by Psykhe

I am living in germany which modifies a few points:
- the 3g Version is worthless here since the only site you can browse is the american wikipedia.

Are you sure about that ? I heard about someone on this forum who hadn't internet access (from Germany also), but it seems most did...That was with Kindle 2i though, maybe it has changed with the new firmware.

Originally Posted by Psykhe

...better dictionary...

I'm interested in the dictionary, but I wonder if they'll adapt it to each different country language : I'm in France, and would like a regular French dictionary, French <-> English, French <-> German. I guess every country will have the same dictionary, I think the previous version had only an English Dictionary.