Hello from a newbie ebooker,
I have been lurking these forums for awhile trying to decide between a Kindle 3 and Sony 350 for my FIRST ereader, well I went to Best Buy tonite and they had a Kindle 3 on display but no Kindles out yet so I finally got to play with it. I then went behind the display to the Sony E-readers and they still had the old 300/600 on display but there was one random PRS-350 in a box below! I picked it up so no one could take it.. and then went and played with the Kindle for a bit.
I have big hands and the Kindle just didn't feel right and I didn't like the little buttons it just felt tiny and like I would break it.. again I am a big dude. So I bought the PRS-350 since it was only one they had and also there is a 30 day return window if I don't like it.
Well I got it home and LOVE IT. I can palm it in my hand and move the pages with my thumb, the screen is just as good as the Kindle, maybe even better? And I cant imagine having an ereader without the touch screen, looking up dictionary words, highlighting and notes is quick and easy with the stylus or finger. It is SUPER lightweight and super comfortable in my hands. Another big thing was my library down the street has ebook lending which the Kindle cannot do.
So if you are on the fence Best Buy will have the Kindle, Nook and Sony's at stores in the next week so you can play with them all and find the one that suits you the best, Sony has definitely fixed their screens and they are equal to Kindle and better than Nook. So the deciding factor is now just the features you want. I am glad I finally got to play with a Kindle as I don't think I would have liked it comfort wise.
Unlike others I don't think the $179 price is too high for the PRS-350 the hardware definitely is nicer quality than the kindle and the touch screen is super responsive. I think it is a fair price for this piece of tech. Wifi/3g is overated for readers IMO I just want it too read books. I have an iPhone and a netbook if I want to surf, or listen to MP3s. I think there are 3 diverse readers that can suit anyones needs so try them all out and pick the one you like! They all have pluses and minuses.
UPDATE
Loaded some books from gutenberg and also found an EASY way to put my Kindle books I had purchased on the 350 so this is the perfect reader for me, oh Calibre ROCKS, haven't even loaded the sony store on my cpu yet.
Im gonna go read now
