MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Kindle vs Sony Digital Reader, which one?

kmo_9000 · 12-31-2010, 10:12 AM

Personally I just made a very similar decision and decided to go with the Kindle 3 over the Sony 650 ereader. Since I live in Canada it did cost me 16$ import fee.

After doing a lot of research the only flaw in the Kindle 3 I could find was its lack of support for e-pub. But really Calibre does a great job converting e-pub to mobi or pdf making this really a very minor problem.

The other thing about the kindle 3 is that if you plan on pirating books, you will be able to pirate those books in amazon's format just as easily as you would be able to download an e-pub. It's not hard to remove the DRM and most of the time if you pirate it the DRM is already removed. I mention this because a lot of people say e-pub is great because it has no DRM and you can pirate it easily, even the guy at the sony store told me this. Personally I find it lazy for sony to have to rely on this "market" as a selling point.

You also have to remember that Amazon.com does have the biggest e-book library available online so when you buy a book chances are you will be able to get it from amazon.

Another minor fact about the kindle 3 is that it can read chinese, japanese and Russian fonts out of the box. The Sony ereaders require a firmware flash to do this.

The final thing with the Kindle is that it does not have any card readers. It does however have wifi, and with wifi (or 3G) you can download books or subscriptions anywhere you go. Making it really pointless to store millions of books on memory sticks. Keep in mind that when you buy books from amazon you can download them as many times as you want and with 3G that means anywhere you want also.

Very last thing that made me get a K3 over Sony: Price. I found the 650 to be far to expensive compared to the K3. I mean it doesn't even have Wifi or 3G, your paying more for a touch screen and two memory stick slots. I mean what do you need TWO memory stick slots for anyway? When I went to the Sony store the guy showed me his 650 and sure enough it was covered in finger prints, something I would not want to be looking at when I read books.

Having said all this I also must say that comparing the Sony e-readers to any other e-reader on the market I would choose it over all of them if the Kindle did not exist. Anyway hope this helps.

12-31-2010, 10:12 AM	#6
kmo_9000 Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: not sure yet	Personally I just made a very similar decision and decided to go with the Kindle 3 over the Sony 650 ereader. Since I live in Canada it did cost me 16$ import fee. After doing a lot of research the only flaw in the Kindle 3 I could find was its lack of support for e-pub. But really Calibre does a great job converting e-pub to mobi or pdf making this really a very minor problem. The other thing about the kindle 3 is that if you plan on pirating books, you will be able to pirate those books in amazon's format just as easily as you would be able to download an e-pub. It's not hard to remove the DRM and most of the time if you pirate it the DRM is already removed. I mention this because a lot of people say e-pub is great because it has no DRM and you can pirate it easily, even the guy at the sony store told me this. Personally I find it lazy for sony to have to rely on this "market" as a selling point. You also have to remember that Amazon.com does have the biggest e-book library available online so when you buy a book chances are you will be able to get it from amazon. Another minor fact about the kindle 3 is that it can read chinese, japanese and Russian fonts out of the box. The Sony ereaders require a firmware flash to do this. The final thing with the Kindle is that it does not have any card readers. It does however have wifi, and with wifi (or 3G) you can download books or subscriptions anywhere you go. Making it really pointless to store millions of books on memory sticks. Keep in mind that when you buy books from amazon you can download them as many times as you want and with 3G that means anywhere you want also. Very last thing that made me get a K3 over Sony: Price. I found the 650 to be far to expensive compared to the K3. I mean it doesn't even have Wifi or 3G, your paying more for a touch screen and two memory stick slots. I mean what do you need TWO memory stick slots for anyway? When I went to the Sony store the guy showed me his 650 and sure enough it was covered in finger prints, something I would not want to be looking at when I read books. Having said all this I also must say that comparing the Sony e-readers to any other e-reader on the market I would choose it over all of them if the Kindle did not exist. Anyway hope this helps.