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Old 08-30-2009, 11:44 AM   #1
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Opus vs 300

So we seem to have a thread for almost every pair of readers on this forum, but I couldn't find this one yet.

As far as I can tell, the differences between the Opus and the PRS 300 are very minor. The Opus wins on a few issues, most of which are not that important to me (I think.) Specifically, the Opus has more font sizes, is (strangely) considerably lighter, has more memory and expandability, and has some user interface advantages such as folders. The 300 has the advantage of being backed by Sony, whereas Bookeen has received a lot of negative press for support.

In Canada, the price different is minor (the Opus costs $50 more.)

I haven't been able to get my hands on either. If I could, I'm sure I could make a decision immediately. I'm leaning to the 300 just for the more reliable service.

Has anyone managed to get their hands on both to compare? Are there other issues I may have missed?

Thanks!
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Old 08-30-2009, 11:47 AM   #2
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The Opus has significantly better ePub support. The Sony is still using their ancient ADE renderer, as used in the 505. It won't displayed fully-justified text, and is limited to 300k "flows" within books, which means that there are some ePub files it won't display.

Don't underestimate the value of folders; they are enormously useful.

I had always personally received excellent support from Bookeen. What people moan about is their slowness in issuing firmware updates, not their support. If anything goes wrong, they will deal with it promptly and efficiently.
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Old 08-30-2009, 11:55 AM   #3
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HarryT, are ePub ebooks fully justified in the opus (if the source is of course)?
In addition, to what you said, I find that the accelerometer feature in Opus is great.
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Old 08-30-2009, 11:57 AM   #4
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The other difference is that the PRS-300 reflows PDFs and the Opus zooms them. I wish there was a device that did both, because some PDFs work best with reflow and others need a zoom. The PRS-600 has reflow and zoom options, but, like the PRS-700, it still seems to require a re-zoom for every page.
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Old 08-30-2009, 11:57 AM   #5
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Well, now i'm used to folders, it have become a total need for me. Makes things way easier.

The only disspointement with the opus being the lesser ade quality rendering against the mobi reader, and some bugs (but the second part should be fixed by bookeen sometime soon.)

Bookeen is slow with updates, but they where there to help when I relly need them (ie when i broke my reader), it probably would have taken sony more than a week for screen change.

An other point that might make the différence is pdf support. The opus will zoom, move ok. But no reflow (Yet ?). Not sure about 300. Some of the sony's have reflow, so 300 might have it too.
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Old 08-30-2009, 11:58 AM   #6
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HarryT, are ePub ebooks fully justified in the opus (if the source is of course)?
Yes, they are. And it will work with >300k flows.
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Old 08-30-2009, 12:38 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Baldrake View Post
Specifically, the Opus has more font sizes, is (strangely) considerably lighter.Thanks!
I don't have either, so could someone more knowledgeable check me on this? However, I believe that the weight difference is due to a metal case on the 300 versus plastic on the Opus.

Some people will claim that the metal case does a better job of protecting the fragile eink screen from breakage - especially from twisting forces.

In regard to the memory difference it really depends on your usage. Some people only keep their most recent books on their device -- the ones they are currently reading. In this case, the 300 would have plenty of memory. Furthermore, folders won't be that important.

However, I personally don't like to plan that far ahead, and I prefer to keep my library on my device. If you resemble this, I think you will fill up the memory in no time. Furthermore, I think you would find folders to be much more important. Both of these would be pluses for the Opus.
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Old 08-30-2009, 03:29 PM   #8
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Thanks for all these comments. You've nearly sold me on the Opus.

I have no interest in reading PDFs on a 5" device. I am waiting til the Plastic Logic reader comes out, and if it's good, I'll buy one; if not, I'll buy an iRex. This one is for reading fiction.

HarryT, the servicing issue is actually a serious one, at least in Canada. If I have problems with a Sony, I can take it to a retailer that's a 15 minute drive from my house. With the Opus, I assume I have to mail it across the border to get repairs done. I recently had a warranty repair done on my phone, and had to pay nearly $100 in mailing, insurance and customs fees, not to mention waiting nearly a month to get it back!
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Old 08-31-2009, 03:16 AM   #9
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Quote:
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HarryT, the servicing issue is actually a serious one, at least in Canada. If I have problems with a Sony, I can take it to a retailer that's a 15 minute drive from my house. With the Opus, I assume I have to mail it across the border to get repairs done.
You have to send it to France. The chances of anything going wrong, though, are remote, so I wouldn't let that put you off.
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Old 08-31-2009, 01:49 PM   #10
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A couple of points to add (wrt the Sony 300--have not seen an Opus in these parts):

The 300 displays ADE books borrowed from my library as fully-justified text, at all 3 font sizes.

I have over 100 novels loaded on my 300 (probably close to a year's worth of reading) and still have 360 MB free, out of 443 MB. I will never have a need for external memory cards.

If you are like me, and just want to be able to carry a large variety of books with you to read, then the folder option may not be important. I have no problem quickly finding the book title or author I want with just a couple of button presses. OTOH, if you want to carry an entire huge library around, including tons of books that you won't get around to reading for years (if ever), then you may want to consider a device with external memory and folder options.

Oh yeah. And apparently the Opus crashes periodically, from what I've read here. I would never want my dedicated ebook device to crash or require constant recharging. I want it to act more like a book!
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Old 08-31-2009, 02:09 PM   #11
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AThe 300 displays ADE books borrowed from my library as fully-justified text, at all 3 font sizes.
These are presumably Adobe PDF ebooks. For PDFs sold as ebooks, reflow should work better than zoom, although ADE's habit of treating each page as a separate reflow unit is annoying and there can be other anomalies. This is why I would like both reflow and zoom.
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Old 08-31-2009, 04:23 PM   #12
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With regard to the Opus' occasional crashes, someone on the CyBook forum reports:

Quote:
Bookeen support e-mailed me today. E-mail states:
This issue has been identified. The Development Team is working on resolving it. The solution will be integrated into the coming firmware upgrade.
which leads one to hope that this is a temporary issue. Obviously one should never "count" on these things, however, but even with the occasional crash (and it is very occasional - it happens to me perhaps once in every 6h of reading, on average) I would still have no hesitation in recommending the Opus to anyone.
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Old 08-31-2009, 04:26 PM   #13
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A couple of points to add (wrt the Sony 300--have not seen an Opus in these parts):

The 300 displays ADE books borrowed from my library as fully-justified text, at all 3 font sizes.
Are you sure you have ePub and not PDF? I did try Three Men in a Boat (as made by Zelda) on a 600 and it did not display it justified while it did on ADE 1.7.1 on Windows. The problem with the 300 is that it does not have an SD card slot and thus, I cannot go into the shop and try it out properly.
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Old 08-31-2009, 05:31 PM   #14
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Are you sure you have ePub and not PDF? I did try Three Men in a Boat (as made by Zelda) on a 600 and it did not display it justified while it did on ADE 1.7.1 on Windows. The problem with the 300 is that it does not have an SD card slot and thus, I cannot go into the shop and try it out properly.
They are pdf's. The reflow is fine (no zoom though, as noted above). Just like with eReader, I think we need to have clear usage of terms here. Both ePub and PDF are ADE formats. ePub is not the same as ADE.

OTOH, I would not complain if Sony released firmware updates for improved ePub handling. That would make sense, given it's new focus on ePub. In fact, I predict we will see firmware updates across the board for all Sony Reader models this fall. (You heard it here first!!!)

Last edited by DrMoze; 08-31-2009 at 05:38 PM.
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Old 09-07-2009, 02:58 PM   #15
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Well, now i'm used to folders, it have become a total need for me. Makes things way easier.

The only disspointement with the opus being the lesser ade quality rendering against the mobi reader, and some bugs (but the second part should be fixed by bookeen sometime soon.)

Bookeen is slow with updates, but they where there to help when I relly need them (ie when i broke my reader), it probably would have taken sony more than a week for screen change.

An other point that might make the différence is pdf support. The opus will zoom, move ok. But no reflow (Yet ?). Not sure about 300. Some of the sony's have reflow, so 300 might have it too.
Sony's collections, which you define in their PC library software and synchronise with your Sony reader, aren't that bad. I prefer them to folders.
In physical folders, I have to decide where to put my book.
In collections, I can use the very same book in various collections.
For example, I have 1 collection for source of purchasing, for example booksonboard.com.
I have collections for my favorite authors as well.
The very same book can be in each of those collections. Okay, you manually have to create them. But you'll create your folders as well...

Sony 300 does reflow. Normally, I don't like it for PDFs as it "destroys" the layout. But for the small 5" screens, I actually prefer it.
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