MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - PRS-T1 PRS-T1: Navigating big SD Cards and Viewing Scanned-Book PDFs?

possiblyimagine · 12-03-2011, 01:33 PM

Half of the purpose of my ereader is for reading pdfs, and here are my thoughts regarding the PRS-T1's capabilities. Basically, it is the best ereader on the market for pdfs. Compared with Kobo's Touch, the Nook Simple Touch, and the Kindle Touch, only Kobo and Sony allow for landscape mode. However, Sony's handling is different in seemingly minor ways, which turn out to have a big effect on the pdf experience. For starters, you get pinch to zoom, which is much better than zooming in with a slider and then moving to the right position (what Kobo does). Second, there are physical left right keys, which change turn the page and leave you in the same zoomed place/state you were on the previous page. (Kobo has soft buttons, which take two or three taps to access, and it takes you to the next page on the top left side, which is much more annoying. Or you can scroll to the right of the page and click a soft button, also slow.)

Perhaps a more important comparison is between the Sony Reader and any kind of tablet. The problems with the PRS-T1 are overal slowness, a small screen, and not very robust search-options (it forces you to zoom out). Also, the only way to change the orientation is via a few taps on the screen, since there is no accelerometer. The upside is that an ereader (especially Sony's) is far lighter than any tablet---even the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet---and the screen is much easier to read (though maybe this is subjective).

I have personally compared all four of these products (Kobo Touch, Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, and Sony Reader), and my personal tastes have settled on the Sony Reader. The extra functionality on the tablets is nice, but in the end, if your main focus is reading things sequentially, with a bit of jumping around to search for references and stuff, then I think the advantages lie with the ereaders. If you want to use your books as purely references, where you are flipping back and forth between pages all the time, perhaps using the search function heavily, then you might be better served by a tablet.

Those are my tastes, but you might want to actually get your hands on these devices to try them out. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have generous return policies that make this possible.

12-03-2011, 01:33 PM	#11
possiblyimagine Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 6734 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Sony Reader Wifi	Half of the purpose of my ereader is for reading pdfs, and here are my thoughts regarding the PRS-T1's capabilities. Basically, it is the best ereader on the market for pdfs. Compared with Kobo's Touch, the Nook Simple Touch, and the Kindle Touch, only Kobo and Sony allow for landscape mode. However, Sony's handling is different in seemingly minor ways, which turn out to have a big effect on the pdf experience. For starters, you get pinch to zoom, which is much better than zooming in with a slider and then moving to the right position (what Kobo does). Second, there are physical left right keys, which change turn the page and leave you in the same zoomed place/state you were on the previous page. (Kobo has soft buttons, which take two or three taps to access, and it takes you to the next page on the top left side, which is much more annoying. Or you can scroll to the right of the page and click a soft button, also slow.) Perhaps a more important comparison is between the Sony Reader and any kind of tablet. The problems with the PRS-T1 are overal slowness, a small screen, and not very robust search-options (it forces you to zoom out). Also, the only way to change the orientation is via a few taps on the screen, since there is no accelerometer. The upside is that an ereader (especially Sony's) is far lighter than any tablet---even the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet---and the screen is much easier to read (though maybe this is subjective). I have personally compared all four of these products (Kobo Touch, Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, and Sony Reader), and my personal tastes have settled on the Sony Reader. The extra functionality on the tablets is nice, but in the end, if your main focus is reading things sequentially, with a bit of jumping around to search for references and stuff, then I think the advantages lie with the ereaders. If you want to use your books as purely references, where you are flipping back and forth between pages all the time, perhaps using the search function heavily, then you might be better served by a tablet. Those are my tastes, but you might want to actually get your hands on these devices to try them out. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have generous return policies that make this possible.