MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Reasons why NOT to exchange Sony PRS-650 for a Kindle

trekchick · 11-19-2010, 12:00 PM

I used to have a Kindle 3 (and K2 and K1). I currently have a Kindle DX. I also own a Sony 350 and a Sony 950 and I've used the 650.

As other's have mentioned, the Kindle 3 and Sony Touch use identical screens.

Kindle does not have offline Wikipedia. It has integrated Wikipedia search, but you must have wifi signal to access it (or 3G if you have the $189 model).

The Kindle 3 does not have a backlight, but Amazon sells a lighted case. Amazon's lighted case is prettier than Sony's lighted case, but the illumination is sub-par (I regretted buying it).

K3 has the best PDF features of any Kindle, but it's still lacking compared to Sony. K3 displays the PDF's filename and the author from Metadata, if it can read the metadata Sometimes, the author is inexplicably blank, even when I can see the correct metadata in Inspector when using Preview my Mac. Sony displays the PDF's metadata. You can Google "Edit PDF Metadata" to find the tools to do that without converting the file.

K3 has 3 pre-set PDF zoom levels: 150%, 200%, 300% (or you can view full screen or full page). Sony has a user-selectable and lockable zoom, plus it has columnar page modes that are darn-near perfect for some of my PDFs. If altering the zoom or page mode doesn't work for you, the Sony can reflow the text, but Kindle doesn't support reflow.

You don't have to pay to load PDFs on your Kindle (you can just drag and drop them into Kindle's "Documents" folder via USB). If you want to deliver them over wifi, you can email them to your devicename@free.kindle.com account and they'll appear on your home screen as long as you're in a wifi area. If you send PDFs with a blank subject line, they'll be delivered as-is, if you put "convert" in the subject line, amazon will send you an .azw version of the file (the usual format problems with PDF conversion apply).

Flipping to landscape mode on Kindle or Sony gives you a petter view of the PDF's width, but on either device, there are intermittent issues (e.g. ghosting, repeating, cropping) with the lines which end and begin pages on the screen, but are part of a single page in the PDF file.

I actually like Kindle, so it's hard to say bad things about it (as the OP requested). But I can share some of it's shortcomings.

My biggest problem with PDFs on Kindle is that it doesn't support table of contents or document links. This is a huge PITA, especially for technical books, which are often accessed non-sequentially. In order to go to Chapter 4, you have to search for "Chapter 4" (and hope that it's not really "Chapter Four", or you'll have to search again.)

My second biggest problem with PDFs, specific to my DXg, is that it doesn't have K3's "advanced" PDF features: annotations, dictionary look-up, opening password-protected files (I cannot fathom why Amazon chooses to withhold these features from the only Kindle that can actually display a readable full-size PDF page).

I also get annoyed by Kindle's preset zoom levels. Sometimes 110% or 125% would be perfect, but those aren't options. Kindle does automatically crop the margins, but it can't crop headers/footers, and sometimes getting rid of those would make the difference between readable and un-readable. Also the way Kindle performs margin crops can be distracting; Kindle dynamically crops the outer whitespace on a page-by-page basis, so, a page with one short column will be shown at mega magnification, and the next page will look tiny in comparison.

If you're familiar with PDF creation. Amazon uses the entire Media Box and automatically crops from there. Sony displays the Crop Box, which means that I can manually crop PDFs on my computer and display that view on Sony, but Kindle ignores my alterations (or sometimes shows only blank pages, even though Sony displays the same file flawlessly).

I didn't mean to go on this long, so I'll quit here by stating that if PDF reading is your primary activity, then Kindle 3 is a poor choice. Sony Touch or Daily Edition are better options and the DX is also a good choice if you can work around not having a table of contents, annotations, or dictionary lookups (if Amazon updates the firmware to include those features, DX will be the best choice for PDF).

11-19-2010, 12:00 PM	#14
trekchick Lurker Posts: 226 Karma: 9245 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Walton, KY Device: Sonys and Kindles and Nooks, oh my!	I used to have a Kindle 3 (and K2 and K1). I currently have a Kindle DX. I also own a Sony 350 and a Sony 950 and I've used the 650. As other's have mentioned, the Kindle 3 and Sony Touch use identical screens. Kindle does not have offline Wikipedia. It has integrated Wikipedia search, but you must have wifi signal to access it (or 3G if you have the $189 model). The Kindle 3 does not have a backlight, but Amazon sells a lighted case. Amazon's lighted case is prettier than Sony's lighted case, but the illumination is sub-par (I regretted buying it). K3 has the best PDF features of any Kindle, but it's still lacking compared to Sony. K3 displays the PDF's filename and the author from Metadata, if it can read the metadata Sometimes, the author is inexplicably blank, even when I can see the correct metadata in Inspector when using Preview my Mac. Sony displays the PDF's metadata. You can Google "Edit PDF Metadata" to find the tools to do that without converting the file. K3 has 3 pre-set PDF zoom levels: 150%, 200%, 300% (or you can view full screen or full page). Sony has a user-selectable and lockable zoom, plus it has columnar page modes that are darn-near perfect for some of my PDFs. If altering the zoom or page mode doesn't work for you, the Sony can reflow the text, but Kindle doesn't support reflow. You don't have to pay to load PDFs on your Kindle (you can just drag and drop them into Kindle's "Documents" folder via USB). If you want to deliver them over wifi, you can email them to your devicename@free.kindle.com account and they'll appear on your home screen as long as you're in a wifi area. If you send PDFs with a blank subject line, they'll be delivered as-is, if you put "convert" in the subject line, amazon will send you an .azw version of the file (the usual format problems with PDF conversion apply). Flipping to landscape mode on Kindle or Sony gives you a petter view of the PDF's width, but on either device, there are intermittent issues (e.g. ghosting, repeating, cropping) with the lines which end and begin pages on the screen, but are part of a single page in the PDF file. I actually like Kindle, so it's hard to say bad things about it (as the OP requested). But I can share some of it's shortcomings. My biggest problem with PDFs on Kindle is that it doesn't support table of contents or document links. This is a huge PITA, especially for technical books, which are often accessed non-sequentially. In order to go to Chapter 4, you have to search for "Chapter 4" (and hope that it's not really "Chapter Four", or you'll have to search again.) My second biggest problem with PDFs, specific to my DXg, is that it doesn't have K3's "advanced" PDF features: annotations, dictionary look-up, opening password-protected files (I cannot fathom why Amazon chooses to withhold these features from the only Kindle that can actually display a readable full-size PDF page). I also get annoyed by Kindle's preset zoom levels. Sometimes 110% or 125% would be perfect, but those aren't options. Kindle does automatically crop the margins, but it can't crop headers/footers, and sometimes getting rid of those would make the difference between readable and un-readable. Also the way Kindle performs margin crops can be distracting; Kindle dynamically crops the outer whitespace on a page-by-page basis, so, a page with one short column will be shown at mega magnification, and the next page will look tiny in comparison. If you're familiar with PDF creation. Amazon uses the entire Media Box and automatically crops from there. Sony displays the Crop Box, which means that I can manually crop PDFs on my computer and display that view on Sony, but Kindle ignores my alterations (or sometimes shows only blank pages, even though Sony displays the same file flawlessly). I didn't mean to go on this long, so I'll quit here by stating that if PDF reading is your primary activity, then Kindle 3 is a poor choice. Sony Touch or Daily Edition are better options and the DX is also a good choice if you can work around not having a table of contents, annotations, or dictionary lookups (if Amazon updates the firmware to include those features, DX will be the best choice for PDF).