[Harmon]

[QUOTE=bystander;443113]

A few facts: I'm in the US. I also use a Mac, but I can get access to Windows if I have to.

I use a Mac, and have a Sony 505 and a Kindle 2.

Priorities (in order of importance)

[LIST=1][*]Readability. I have fairly poor vision, and if the text is too small (typical paperback book size is fine, but no smaller), or if the contrast is too poor, or there is a glare, I won't be able to read the book.

My vision is okay, but I'm 61 so it's not what it used to be. I can read without reading glasses because I'm nearsighted in one eye, but I'm more comfortable with reading glasses.

You definitely do not want a Sony 700. The screen has glare problems, and the touch screen is really a press screen, and the letters are not as well defined as on the Sony 505 or the Kindle 2.

As between the 505 and the K2, the 505 seems to me to have a little better contrast. The screen tint is shaded more toward the greenish on the 505, more toward the gray on the K2. To my eyes, this makes the 505 a little brighter, but it's only really evident when they are side by side.

The K2 has a better font gradiation, because it has six possible sizes to the 505's 4 (3 standard, and a 4th, larger one in landscape mode - the K2 doesn't do landscape.) I find it easier to find a comfortable font on the K2, but the 505's largest standard font is larger than the K2's, and the landscape font is relatively huge. Further, you can adjust the font size on the 505 using Calibre, by changing the font size on the ebook itself. Of course, you have to go through this exercise for each book you want to read. I don't think this works for the K2 right now. I set up a book with a minimum font size of 18, but as far as I can tell, it did not translate to the K2 - the K2 appears to me to have suppressed the change.

[*]Ability to support at least a few formats very well. By this, I mean, that there is at least one format that will look like a normal novel, with no strangeness or formatting flaws. (E.g. it has text justified.)

You won't have a greater or lesser problem with that on either reader. As far as I can tell, that's more a function of the book itself, not the reader.

[*]I have tons of .lit books on my computer already, and while I'm pretty sure that none of the readers can use this file type, if there is something I could convert it to that would look good on one of the ebook readers, I'd love to hear about it.

I don't think you'll find that a problem on either reader. Both Calibre and Stanza Desktop offer conversion options, so long as your files are not DRMed. You will be able to find a useful format.

[*]Some sort of bookmark system and folder hierarchy would be great.

Both readers have bookmark systems. Sony's is a little easier to use since it's one push of a button to put it on or take it off. The K2's system requires two or three steps to work. The Sony has a useful one level but expandable folder system called "collections." You use Calibre and tags to establish them. The K2 lacks a folder system.

[*]I really would like to be able to manage the books on the ebook reader manually, as if it were just another hard drive, but I can stand some sort of forced application to do that if that's not an option.

You can do that with both. They show up as external drives on the Mac. But I'll bet you wind up using Calibre for this function.

I don't care about note-taking ability, audio, wifi, or dictionary lookup. I would never use any of those.

Me either, although the dictionary access on the K2 is nice.

From my research it seems that I am excluded from:[LIST][*]The Kindle: The best looking/designed of the lot. However, my understanding is that you have to pay Amazon $.10 for the "privilege" of using a format other than theirs on your $350+ machine. That's pretty dumb. Plus I would never use that keyboard.

It's probably more like a nickle a book, judging from the size of most ebooks. But both Stanza Desktop and Calibre are free (but donate to Calibre!) and offer more flexibility in doing conversions. You can upload to both the Sony & the K2 via USB.

[*]The two Sonys: Require a Windows machine for ebook management? Is this true, and if so, is there any way around it? I can get to a PC occasionally, but I don't want to have to do it every single time I want to add an ebook.

And now you have hit on it. I originally bought the Sony 505 because I like Sony products. And it's a nice ebook reader. But in the few weeks I've had it, I have become increasingly frustrated by the need to have access to a PC to update firmware, to use the Sony Bookstore, and to authorize the Sony to read Adobe Digital Editions. There are other, smaller and Mac friendly bookstores around, and they seem to cater to SF&F readers. To the extent that you want to access the books they sell, the Sony is a bit more open. But I am constantly finding that I can't get a book I want, even from these smaller stores. And since I have a Mac, I am excluded from the two largest commercial ebook sellers on my 505, but have access to the largest one on my K2.

Please let me know anything I've forgotten, or tell me more about any of the readers. I am open to anything. Please advise; I will be eternally grateful!

I have found the K2 to be more user friendly from a hardware perspective. Despite The K2 being larger than the Sony 505, I find it easier to hold, and the buttons easier to use. But the Sony navigation system seems a bit more flexible.

The text refresh is faster on the K2.

Using Calibre, you can get free access, for download to either reader, to a lot of the magazines and newspapers that Amazon charges you to get for the K2. But I suspect that the K2 versions are better formatted for reading.

I find the reading experience to be more booklike on the K2, in the sense that it seems easier to fall into the book, forgetting that it is an electronic device.

If you travel without your computer, the K2's big advantage is that you don't need a computer to buy your next book.

And finally, something you won't care about but makes a big difference to me - the ability to have the same book on my iPhone and the K2, and to sync the two so that I am at the last place I was in the book, no matter which reader I use.