MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader

CommanderROR · 03-06-2006, 06:14 PM

Hi everybody!

I've been looking for a "book-alternative" for quite some time now since i read a lot and am in danger of getting buried under books in my apartment...^^

So far there has been little of actual use for me. Backlighted displays were not really my favourite...readability was fine as long as the room was not too dark (with little surrounding light it became very eye-straining)...but the battery life of most PDAs is not really great.

Now there seems to be a solution...finally..although I have not seen an eink display in action yet it sounds like they are quite good if you belive the various reviewers...although the pictures of the various devices often look a bit "black und grey" instead of black and white...

Now here comes my problem/question:

The Sony Reader is only on for a US release so far (and I'm in Germany...) and "It's a Sony"...which from past experience (MD-Player for instance) is a possibly bad sign. The iRex Iliad looks cool (although it is a bit heavy at almost 400g) and offers a lot of features (some of which I don't really need) but should be available in Germany a lot sooner than the Sony...or maybe not...they state something like "available to business partners in april" on their website...

Now...I'm worried that the Sony won't be available in Germany anytime soon, that it won't read -txt, .doc and similar formats, and that it might have some very crappy "Connect" software like the MD-Player/Recorder I used to use before I bought my Iriver H340...

The Iliad "should" be available in spring, should read the formats I like, but probably won't work with the Sony connect store, so Content could be seriously limited. I really like the iTunes system. (I'm a music student and sometimes need to listen to a piece of music or find out how long a certain movement is or stuff like that, and iTunes REALLY helps there...and the prices are ok as well. I don't like the way it interacts ith iPods...deleting stuff from the Pod and such...but luckily I need not worry about that as i don't use an iPod...^^)

My main concern with the Irex Iliad is the battery-life.
The Sony can "read" several thousand Pages on one battery. That is really what I want, because it makes the Reader "book-worthy" and truly mobile.
The Irex battery-time is given at about 21 hours if you take the "about a week with 3 hours of reading a day" information from the website.
This means that I can't even read one book on the Iliad without recharging....

Please give me some comments on the issues I posted above.
I'm very sorry for making my first post so long...I've been reading a lot in the past and somehow needed a long time to express my ideas...i'll try to do better from now on...we all know how bad reading from an LCD is for the eyes...

03-06-2006, 06:14 PM	#40
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	Hi everybody! I've been looking for a "book-alternative" for quite some time now since i read a lot and am in danger of getting buried under books in my apartment...^^ So far there has been little of actual use for me. Backlighted displays were not really my favourite...readability was fine as long as the room was not too dark (with little surrounding light it became very eye-straining)...but the battery life of most PDAs is not really great. Now there seems to be a solution...finally..although I have not seen an eink display in action yet it sounds like they are quite good if you belive the various reviewers...although the pictures of the various devices often look a bit "black und grey" instead of black and white... Now here comes my problem/question: The Sony Reader is only on for a US release so far (and I'm in Germany...) and "It's a Sony"...which from past experience (MD-Player for instance) is a possibly bad sign. The iRex Iliad looks cool (although it is a bit heavy at almost 400g) and offers a lot of features (some of which I don't really need) but should be available in Germany a lot sooner than the Sony...or maybe not...they state something like "available to business partners in april" on their website... Now...I'm worried that the Sony won't be available in Germany anytime soon, that it won't read -txt, .doc and similar formats, and that it might have some very crappy "Connect" software like the MD-Player/Recorder I used to use before I bought my Iriver H340... The Iliad "should" be available in spring, should read the formats I like, but probably won't work with the Sony connect store, so Content could be seriously limited. I really like the iTunes system. (I'm a music student and sometimes need to listen to a piece of music or find out how long a certain movement is or stuff like that, and iTunes REALLY helps there...and the prices are ok as well. I don't like the way it interacts ith iPods...deleting stuff from the Pod and such...but luckily I need not worry about that as i don't use an iPod...^^) My main concern with the Irex Iliad is the battery-life. The Sony can "read" several thousand Pages on one battery. That is really what I want, because it makes the Reader "book-worthy" and truly mobile. The Irex battery-time is given at about 21 hours if you take the "about a week with 3 hours of reading a day" information from the website. This means that I can't even read one book on the Iliad without recharging.... Please give me some comments on the issues I posted above. I'm very sorry for making my first post so long...I've been reading a lot in the past and somehow needed a long time to express my ideas...i'll try to do better from now on...we all know how bad reading from an LCD is for the eyes...