[patomonk]

The reasons I got the Sony:

PDF support is so much better than either the kindle or the nook. Just the fact that I can set a custom zoom that will cut the margins to the exact spot that I want is huge for me. That, plus the fact that the screen is a little wider than the kindle means that most pdf books from Googlebooks or archive.org can be read in portrait mode very easily. Plus most pdfs can be reflowed, even scanned ones from Google! [Ones that aren't text based (scanned) can often be forced to reflow using the two page horizontal view option.]

In addition, it seems to handle very large pdfs easier than the kindle. I have several pdfs that are over 100mb and it opens them and flips through them like a breeze, whereas I think that my friends kindle takes longer on the page turns.

The touch screen makes is so easy to:

-Look up a word in the dictionary, which I find myself doing quite frequently even though I have (although I do say so myself) a very good vocabulary. This is more tedious on the kindle.

-Click on a footnote. I actually haven't tried this on a kindle; my friend says it doesn't work, but I couldn't say.

-Highlight, etc.

-Scan through the book by swiping and holding. This is very convenient because instead of loading and refreshing each page it only refreshes when you arrive where you want to be.

-Go to a certain page. One touch at the bottom of the page and you can type in any page you want - And the Sony uses actual page numbers! unlike the strange system of the kindle.

-and just about everything else. It is much faster than using a key board for most things.

The size is perfect. over all it is just a little bigger than the kindle but the screen itself is considerably bigger so the reading experience is better, in my opinion. Plus, the two page landscape mode is great.

Kindle doesn't have page numbers, so citing is a joke.

Expandable memory.

Library books. There are so many available, and I hate the fact that if I buy a book from Amazon for example, I don't own the book, I just have a license to read it. Why not just check it from the library then? of course one wants to have some books always available and Amazon does have a great selection, but to me the library is a no-brainer.

Kindle plusses:

Free 3g - this was a huge attraction for me and really the only thing that made me waver between the two.

Landscape mode for browser and a wonderful article mode. For me the place where the kindle excels is browsing the internet. Plus you can download files directly. Of course you don't have as wide a variety of file options, but regardless, that is very nice.

External speakers. Nice, but I don't think that in reality I would use them a lot. However I really wish the Sony had them!

Text to speech. I can't imagine using it to listen to any sort of literature, but my friend is now using it to listen to a study guide while he watches his kids, and even though it won't go slow enough to be able to be really effective, it is something.

Really long battery life. The Sony's is long but the kindle's is longer.

I think that's about it. I really like the kindle and if it had better pdf options then I might have chosen it instead. And the kindle has some features that the Sony lacks, and is quite a bit cheaper - the wifi version especially, but I would get the 3g version myself!, but as far as reading goes, for me the Sony wins hands down. After using it for a while I can't imagine enjoying reading on a kindle as much as I used to.