[seajewel]

I never had a Sony touch reader before, and I have to say I was firmly in the "tap" camp before I received my PRS-350. I know recently with the Kindle Touch being announced, there was some arguing in a T1 thread about swipes vs. taps and why each is superior. Well, after using my 350, I'll say that there is something to be said for swipes.

When I use apps on my phone, they always only want a tap, and so I thought that was the better option, would require less motion, etc. But here's why the swipes on the 350 are awesome: you set up the direction you want Next Page and Previous Page on, and you can swipe from either side of the reader and change next or previous page. I *love* this, because I like to read and turn pages with only one hand, and generally the thumb is the easiest to use to tap or to swipe. If I hold the reader with my left hand, on anything that requires just a tap, I usually have to either use my right hand to turn pages (because the next page tap will generally be on the right side of the reader-I'm talking iphone app here) or contort my hand in weird ways to tap on the right side. Also, it's probably much easier to avoid accidental page turns this way.

With the PRS-350 (and the T1), I can use either hand, and turn pages previous or next from either side of the reader. That is a huge plus, and one that I hadn't seen mentioned. The other pros people have mentioned like "swipe causes less fingerprints" didn't sway me at all, as in my experience e-ink screens are fairly fingerprint-safe anyways, not like iPhone screens.

So I can say that now that I've used both swipes and taps (previously only taps on iphone apps) i actually don't mind swipes like I thought I would, and may actually prefer them because of the ergonomic concern.

This is only making me wish I could get my hands on an affordable 650 or 950, though. I like the 350 but I'd like more screen real estate over all.