|
I'm in a very similar boat. I'm looking to buy a reader for my wife for the holidays (although her reading material of choice is fantasy/sci-fi), and am debating between the 505, the 700, and the BeBook. I had a 700 on preorder, and it actually arrived today, but before I open it I'm going to drop by the Sony Store and have a look at their demo model (which they just got in, too), and see how bad the screen is for myself. I may return it.
When I dropped by the Sony Store and picked up the 505, I noticed right away that my right thumb fell right over top of the page turn buttons on the right side. The BeBook has more or less the same page turn buttons as the Sony, but reversed, so I imagine my lefty wife might prefer the BeBook for that reason.
On the other hand, as you mention, the Sony is a fine looking machine, with it's extruded aluminum case, whereas the BeBook is plastic. Also, not sure where you are, but here in Ottawa, there's at least 3 Sony stores, so I have somewhere I can return it to if I have warranty problems, whereas the BeBook I'd have to ship somewhere. Minor consideration, perhaps.
I also understand that the Sony lists all the books on it in one giant list, whereas the BeBook can be organized into folders? (Maybe someone with a Sony or a BeBook can comment futher here?)
The BeBook certainly supports more formats than the Sony, but now that Sony supports epub there's very few formats you couldn't convert to work on the Sony. The open source "Calibre" tool automates a lot of conversions for you if you have a Sony reader (and I'm working on a little project that should make it easy for any other reader).
|