[mentalxfiction]

What format are your free books in? PDF? Sony will handle that better. There are a lot of freebies from Amazon but a lot of the time they are US only. I've tried downloading free books from Amazon US using US details (was not required to enter a credit card) outside the US but it must have checked my IP address and would not let me download. Work out where you plan to get your books from, and what format they are available in. PDF and epub - Sony. Buying from Amazon - Kindle. Keep in mind that if they are DRM-free you may be able to convert between formats. Kindle also reads mobi files.

Well the thing is, my friend has a Kindle like I've already mentioned and she has a load of free books. She's given me instructions on how to get those free books, so the matter of free e-books and PDFs isn't really a problem anymore.

The form factor is one which you'll have to decide how important it is. Personally I much prefer the clean lines of the Sony - I find miniature keyboards extremely annoying and ugly. To each his own. The Sonys are generally regarded as the most solidly built, having said that the Kindles aren't flimsy. While Amazon have a great reputation for customer service, I wonder how well that applies from the UAE. If you have to pay return shipping it can get to the point where it's not worth sending it back if you have problems.

Problem is Sony Readers aren't available in the UAE either at the moment, well they are but the models are limited plus in a different city from where I live, so not only will I have to order a Sony Reader online too but if it crashes or any problem occurs, I don't really have any customer service to rely on, regardless of whether it applies to where I live.
Amazon might still have better customer service in comparison as I've read a lot of reviews where Amazon took back and replaced faulty Kindles in Asian countries so I'm assuming it may apply here to some degree?

There has been a bit of discussion in the past about frame colours, and most people found that dark colours improved contrast. I'm pretty sure the Kindle comes in black and white, and I know that the Sonys come in a variety of colours (mine's a deep pink). So I wouldn't worry too much about disliking the white. You can always get a skin or decal.

The color really isn't a problem since the Kindle comes in graphite which I love, but the Sony 350 comes in white and this really ugly (in my opinion) hot pink which I can't stand :P

Keep shipping prices in mind when you're comparing costs. If Amazon doesn't ship to the UAE, I imagine you can still get one from another vendor or a drop shipper, but the cost will be higher. The Sony 350 is currently on sale for $130 at bhphoto.com, and they do ship to the UAE though it looks like the minimum shipping cost would be about $50.

The shipping prices really aren't too much of a problem. Because if Amazon doesn't ship to the UAE, there are actually websites like ebay that are exclusive to here. However the only reason I'm not buying from there is because not only is the Kindle almost twice as expensive, there's even the possibility that it might be used to a point.

Amazon ships to the UAE for $15 so I guess it's a lot cheaper than having a Sony 350 which is more expensive and doesn't have WiFi either (as you said) shipped for $50.

I have been keeping the shipping prices in mind which is why I kept my limit from about $100~$150, because if we add shipping costs and the price of protective covers, it'll make up to about $200 anyways.

Based on your comment that you won't buy books online, I will assume that you are basically interested in DRM free books. If that's the case, getting your books from well known book stores is not your #1 priority here so maybe a Sony ereader is better for you. It is a good device but expensive. Great pearl e-ink screen and good quality as well. Really good for PDF files although you will have to zoom and scroll a little bit.

One of the reasons I considered Sony Reader because I've read a lot of reviews about how Kindle doesn't read PDFs all that well. But like I already said to one of the posters, my friend will be giving me instructions on how to read free e-books on Kindles, and I made sure to ask her if authors that I like will be available on the website that she uses, since she has a lot of free e-books on her Kindle too.

She is actually the one who recommended the Kindle, since she hasn't experienced all too many problems on hers.