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hollywoodb · 04-17-2009, 01:00 PM

Hi, I've been lurking these forums and reading quite a bit, and I've come down to probably deciding between the Sony 505, BeBook, and CyBook Gen3.

I'm leaning away from the CyBook Gen3 since (from what I've read) it has much worse power management than the BeBook.

Here's what matters to me most:

Good, clear fonts
High contrast
Long battery life (off or on)
Ability to pick up on the same book & page I left off when I return to the device after a break
Durability and ability to use the device for at least a few years.
I run Linux exclusively. Any Windows-centric software or tools are completely useless to me and I will not be able to take advantage of them.

Here are things that make abolutely no difference to me:

DRM. I will not purchase/read any book that has any form of DRM. I don't believe in it, and even if I did most the books I want to read aren't available through Sony, Mobi, or Amazon's stores anyways. DRM is a non-issue, I won't use it.

If I've been reading correctly, I should be able to do format conversions between most popular formats using software like Calibre. With that in mind the supported formats aren't so important (even though I like the openness of the BeBook). I also think OpenInkPot is pretty cool, although I don't know for sure if I'll actually use it.

From what I've read the Sony appears to higher quality than the BeBook, but it's hard to get an honest answer because naturally people favor the product they already have/use.

04-17-2009, 01:00 PM	#1
hollywoodb Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Another 505 vs BeBook vs CyBook question Hi, I've been lurking these forums and reading quite a bit, and I've come down to probably deciding between the Sony 505, BeBook, and CyBook Gen3. I'm leaning away from the CyBook Gen3 since (from what I've read) it has much worse power management than the BeBook. Here's what matters to me most: Good, clear fonts High contrast Long battery life (off or on) Ability to pick up on the same book & page I left off when I return to the device after a break Durability and ability to use the device for at least a few years. I run Linux exclusively. Any Windows-centric software or tools are completely useless to me and I will not be able to take advantage of them. Here are things that make abolutely no difference to me: DRM. I will not purchase/read any book that has any form of DRM. I don't believe in it, and even if I did most the books I want to read aren't available through Sony, Mobi, or Amazon's stores anyways. DRM is a non-issue, I won't use it. If I've been reading correctly, I should be able to do format conversions between most popular formats using software like Calibre. With that in mind the supported formats aren't so important (even though I like the openness of the BeBook). I also think OpenInkPot is pretty cool, although I don't know for sure if I'll actually use it. From what I've read the Sony appears to higher quality than the BeBook, but it's hard to get an honest answer because naturally people favor the product they already have/use.