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Thanks for all the replies guys

Originally Posted by DDHarriman

Hi

By your expressing I think you have already decided: get the Cybook.

Originally Posted by ChipnDale

Agreed with the poster above, the CyBook seems better suited for you Good luck!

I think you're both probably right about the way I was leaning. I'm just a bit thrown off by this in a round-up I read though: 'It does feel rather plasticky for something costing £180, though.' I'm not the sort of person who is entirely fussed about the looks of such things, I often buy gadgets which don't look the best. I'm just wondering if it really does look quite cheap, as the review implies, or if they are exxagerating to some extent.

Originally Posted by DaleDe

As to the question of which one formats PDF better they two readers take a very different approach to the display of PDF. PDF, by the way, is already formatted and is built with a page for page image of a paper book.

The cybook.

Takes the page (no matter how big it is) and shrinks it to fit on the screen. For most PDF's (letter or A4 size) this means that it is too small to read. This image can be zoomed to make the text larger but this means you get only part of the page. You will need to pan around to read the whole page.

The Sony initially displays the page the same as the Cybook.

The zoom functions undoes the page formatting to display the text full sized and reflows the lines as needed to show the sentences on the page. This makes the text easier to read, more like a novel, but the page formatting is totally lost.

Which you prefer depends on what you kind of PDF eBooks you plan to read.

Dale

Ahh thanks for that Dale . Very helpful indeed. I'll suppose I'll have to take a look at what PDFs I'm likely to read on the go and then decide which device is better suited to read them

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

yes it is

Well that's amazing then. Is it a very hard process to do this?

Originally Posted by HarryT

Having owned two different CyBooks in the last year, I'd thoroughly recommend it. MobiPocket format, which it supports, is very much a de facto standard, and although other formats can be converted for use with the Sony, it's a lot less hassle to be able to read Mobi books directly.

The screens on the two machines are identical, although the Sony has a different controller, meaning that it can display 8 grey-scales rather than the CyBook's 4. This makes pictures look a little better on the Sony.

The CyBook, however, has many benefits, to my mind, including:

- The ability to load any TrueType or OpenType fonts onto the machine, and read any book using any font.
- A choice of 12 font sizes, compared to 3 on the Sony.
- Support for font "families", meaning that it uses "real" bold and italic fonts, compared to the Sony's "synthesised" italics.
- A user-replaceable battery.
- Dictionary lookup.
- Double the internal memory.
- Support for the Mobi format which means lots of bookstores to choose from.

To my mind, these factors make the CyBook a clear winner.

Buy it from W.H.Smiths if you decide to get it - their package of the CyBook + case for £180 is a bargain. The case is (IMHO) essential.

Thanks for that, I think you're right. As to the WHSmiths package I just took a look on their website and you're right about the price, so I will definately order it from there. It doesn't mention that it comes with a case, but it has it in the pictures so I'm assuming it does. I doubt my local W.H.Smiths will have one in store unfortunately.