I've been using a Sony 505 for the past year. I primarily read free public domain novels in PDF or LRF format. I very rarely purchase ebooks but I have purchased a handful from Sony. I don't read many new releases or modern bestsellers. I don't like to fidget with file conversion (do enough of that kind of thing at work) but I will use Calibre to make my own LRF documents. For my purposes, I wanted a basic device with a good battery life for reading 2-3 hours at a time. I wanted something compact enough to fit into my purse and unobtrusive enough to use in restaurants without looking like I just plopped down a laptop next to my plate. I've been very happy with my 505.
If I had to replace my 505 (and couldn't get another 505), I'd probably buy the 700 simply because it's the same size and style and I wouldn't have to worry about converting my existing ebooks. I probably would never use the reading light, annotation or highlighting functions of the 700 and I'd miss the conveniently placed page turn buttons and the display clarity of the 505.
One of the reasons people ask about your reading preferences is that not all ebookstores have the same content or formats. For instance, the Sony bookstore has the right format for my 505 but not all of the books in a series I want to read. I found the rest of the books at another bookstore in a different format. I don't want to deal with converting those books to the format I need/want, so I probably won't buy those books. If you pick an ebook device that uses a specific set of formats but you can't find books in that format and you don't want to do file conversion, then you've probably picked the wrong device for your reading habits. We don't want to see that happen to you.
Have you had a chance to play with any of the ebook devices? Seen anyone using one? I think some of our Texas members are trying to plan
a meetup in a couple of months but you might not want to wait that long.
Dreamer