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MSWallack · 05-16-2008, 09:56 AM

My mother is getting ready to go to Europe for a few weeks and she was going to borrow my old 500. She decided that the screen wasn't bright enough. So, she decided to buy a Kindle (and had Amazon overnight it to her). Last night, we got together for dinner and I had a chance to play with her Kindle and compare it to both my 500 and 505.

1) Screen: The screen on the Kindle appeared to be ever so slightly brighter than the 505 (and significantly brighter than the 500). However, that might have more to do with the use of bold, sans serif fonts and less to do with the actual brightness of the screen. Winner: Kindle.

2) Case: The Kindle has a nice soft leather(-ish?) case that feels much nicer than the 500/505 case, but about the same as the deluxe case that I purchased for the 500. I haven't tried a deluxe case for the 505 yet. The Kindle case also has a strap to keep it closed but I found that to be clunky; I prefer the magnetic closure of the 505. The Kindle is secured (not well) by tabs at the corners as opposed to the locking tab on the 500 or the top/bottom tabs on the 505. It seems as if it would be easy for the Kindle to fall out of the case. The Kindle's case does have a slight "bump" on the inside cover that lines up with the screen. Finally, due to the shape of the Kindle, the Kindle's case is much bulkier that the 500/505 (maybe 2x as wide at the binding). Winner: 505.

3) Look & Feel: The 505 (I have the blue, though it mostly looks black...) has a sleek, metallic feel. The Kindle is, well, plastic. It looks like plastic and feels like plastic, while the 505 (and 500) both feel much more substantial. The 500/505 look pretty cool with their button placement. Somehow, the Kindle's button arrangement just doesn't seem as stylish or sleek. So, for sheer "sexyness" or "coolness": Winner: 505.

4) Usability (part 1): The Kindle has a dictionary. The Kindle has a modem that let's you buy books online (my mother purchased 2 books while we sat at the dinner table). The Kindle's menu seems to move much more quickly than the 505's menu and I really liked the combination wheel/button (like a mouse wheel) to scroll through the menu (much much faster than the 505). I do wonder, however, whether the number of screen refreshes that seem to occur in the menu (especially with the little pop up sub menus) will suck battery power much more quickly than the 505. Winner: Kindle (subject to battery analysis).

5) Usability (part 2): The Kindle has very easy to press page buttons. Virtually the entire right side of the Kindle is a page forward button (with a smaller page back button toward the bottom) and a page buttons on the left side, too. That's good and bad. The good part is that you can put your finger anywhere and turn the pages and you don't need to push a tiny button as on the 505. However, I found that it was too easy to push that page button. No matter where I tried to rest my hand while reading, I found myself still inadvertently pushing the page button. Also, the 505 provides a page button that can be used by the left thumb (and I presume that when we start hacking the 505 the way that we did the 500, the arrow keys in the lower right will also be usable for paging [like the joystick hack]). By contrast, the entire bottom part of the Kindle is taken up by the useful but odd-looking keyboard. Perhaps the keyboard has a page button; I'm not sure. In addition, as a function of the size of the device, the size of the case, and the need to be careful not to accidentally push a button, I found the Kindle much harder to hold than the 505. Plus, it just didn't feel as nice to hold. With the 505 you feel like you're holding a piece of sleek technology; with the Kindle you feel like your holding a toy. The 505 is the iPod or PSP and the Kindle is the Gameboy or DS. Winner: 505.

Overall, I would have to say that I still prefer my 505. Of course, I only got to play with the Kindle for a short period of time and didn't get to sit around and really dive through all of the menus, buy a book online, e-mail a book to myself, or, most importantly, read a book. So, if anybody wants to buy me a Kindle to keep experimenting with, I won't turn them away. But after my brief time with the Kindle, I'll stick with my 505.

05-16-2008, 09:56 AM	#1
MSWallack Right, Except When Wrong Posts: 363 Karma: 4323767 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Indianapolis Device: Kindle Oasis 3 (sometimes iPad Mini).	Comparing 500/505 to Kindle My mother is getting ready to go to Europe for a few weeks and she was going to borrow my old 500. She decided that the screen wasn't bright enough. So, she decided to buy a Kindle (and had Amazon overnight it to her). Last night, we got together for dinner and I had a chance to play with her Kindle and compare it to both my 500 and 505. 1) Screen: The screen on the Kindle appeared to be ever so slightly brighter than the 505 (and significantly brighter than the 500). However, that might have more to do with the use of bold, sans serif fonts and less to do with the actual brightness of the screen. Winner: Kindle. 2) Case: The Kindle has a nice soft leather(-ish?) case that feels much nicer than the 500/505 case, but about the same as the deluxe case that I purchased for the 500. I haven't tried a deluxe case for the 505 yet. The Kindle case also has a strap to keep it closed but I found that to be clunky; I prefer the magnetic closure of the 505. The Kindle is secured (not well) by tabs at the corners as opposed to the locking tab on the 500 or the top/bottom tabs on the 505. It seems as if it would be easy for the Kindle to fall out of the case. The Kindle's case does have a slight "bump" on the inside cover that lines up with the screen. Finally, due to the shape of the Kindle, the Kindle's case is much bulkier that the 500/505 (maybe 2x as wide at the binding). Winner: 505. 3) Look & Feel: The 505 (I have the blue, though it mostly looks black...) has a sleek, metallic feel. The Kindle is, well, plastic. It looks like plastic and feels like plastic, while the 505 (and 500) both feel much more substantial. The 500/505 look pretty cool with their button placement. Somehow, the Kindle's button arrangement just doesn't seem as stylish or sleek. So, for sheer "sexyness" or "coolness": Winner: 505. 4) Usability (part 1): The Kindle has a dictionary. The Kindle has a modem that let's you buy books online (my mother purchased 2 books while we sat at the dinner table). The Kindle's menu seems to move much more quickly than the 505's menu and I really liked the combination wheel/button (like a mouse wheel) to scroll through the menu (much much faster than the 505). I do wonder, however, whether the number of screen refreshes that seem to occur in the menu (especially with the little pop up sub menus) will suck battery power much more quickly than the 505. Winner: Kindle (subject to battery analysis). 5) Usability (part 2): The Kindle has very easy to press page buttons. Virtually the entire right side of the Kindle is a page forward button (with a smaller page back button toward the bottom) and a page buttons on the left side, too. That's good and bad. The good part is that you can put your finger anywhere and turn the pages and you don't need to push a tiny button as on the 505. However, I found that it was too easy to push that page button. No matter where I tried to rest my hand while reading, I found myself still inadvertently pushing the page button. Also, the 505 provides a page button that can be used by the left thumb (and I presume that when we start hacking the 505 the way that we did the 500, the arrow keys in the lower right will also be usable for paging [like the joystick hack]). By contrast, the entire bottom part of the Kindle is taken up by the useful but odd-looking keyboard. Perhaps the keyboard has a page button; I'm not sure. In addition, as a function of the size of the device, the size of the case, and the need to be careful not to accidentally push a button, I found the Kindle much harder to hold than the 505. Plus, it just didn't feel as nice to hold. With the 505 you feel like you're holding a piece of sleek technology; with the Kindle you feel like your holding a toy. The 505 is the iPod or PSP and the Kindle is the Gameboy or DS. Winner: 505. Overall, I would have to say that I still prefer my 505. Of course, I only got to play with the Kindle for a short period of time and didn't get to sit around and really dive through all of the menus, buy a book online, e-mail a book to myself, or, most importantly, read a book. So, if anybody wants to buy me a Kindle to keep experimenting with, I won't turn them away. But after my brief time with the Kindle, I'll stick with my 505.