MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - PRS-700/Kindle 2

Max Introvert · 07-02-2009, 08:18 PM

Hello. I’m a longtime lurker. The impetus of my decision may be something completely different from what you were expecting, but the overarching question is still “which one should I buy?” and so I find myself here.

To start things off, I have been a (very) proud owner of a PRS-500 since January 2007. I even went all-out and bought the Valentine’s special with the Dooney & Bourke leather cover. I have no regrets about the purchase and even credit it with rekindling my voracious appetite for reading. It has seen much use.

Time has marched on, and I am finally in a position to replace the venerable workhorse with something better. The most glaring deficiency by far of the 500 is its inability to work with Vista x64, which is on my main machine. I have managed to work around this issue, but it is still incredibly annoying.

After much consideration, it comes down to the PRS-700 and the Kindle 2. Both solve my Vista x64 problem. I am aware of the “shortcoming” of the 700 with regards to the touchscreen glare, but having never seen a 505, I do not believe that will be an issue here.

Further, from a technical standpoint, the 700 is far ahead of the Kindle in my opinion. The 700 can read many more formats, including PDF files, and with the zoom feature, that should not be the squint-fest it was on the 500. The front-lighting is an added bonus and would be extremely useful as I like to read to get to sleep -- hitting a switch is a lot easier than getting up and turning out the light!

Given all this, why is the Kindle 2 even in the running? I’ll give you one word: “Betamax”. It seems to me as though Sony is on the losing end of things here (yet again), as the Kindle media blitz has placed it front and center in the minds of the general populace. I’m afraid we have a developing “iPod/Zune” situation here (to update things), and I have a long, sordid history of picking a product because of its technological superiority, only to suffer heartbreak and ridicule (don’t ask) when it goes the way of the dodo. I’d like to avoid this happening again, if possible.

Forgive the incendiary phrasing; it is succinct. Is the Kindle an unstoppable juggernaut? I would appreciate your opinion.

07-02-2009, 08:18 PM	#1
Max Introvert Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2007 Device: Sony PRS-T1	PRS-700/Kindle 2 Hello. I’m a longtime lurker. The impetus of my decision may be something completely different from what you were expecting, but the overarching question is still “which one should I buy?” and so I find myself here. To start things off, I have been a (very) proud owner of a PRS-500 since January 2007. I even went all-out and bought the Valentine’s special with the Dooney & Bourke leather cover. I have no regrets about the purchase and even credit it with rekindling my voracious appetite for reading. It has seen much use. Time has marched on, and I am finally in a position to replace the venerable workhorse with something better. The most glaring deficiency by far of the 500 is its inability to work with Vista x64, which is on my main machine. I have managed to work around this issue, but it is still incredibly annoying. After much consideration, it comes down to the PRS-700 and the Kindle 2. Both solve my Vista x64 problem. I am aware of the “shortcoming” of the 700 with regards to the touchscreen glare, but having never seen a 505, I do not believe that will be an issue here. Further, from a technical standpoint, the 700 is far ahead of the Kindle in my opinion. The 700 can read many more formats, including PDF files, and with the zoom feature, that should not be the squint-fest it was on the 500. The front-lighting is an added bonus and would be extremely useful as I like to read to get to sleep -- hitting a switch is a lot easier than getting up and turning out the light! Given all this, why is the Kindle 2 even in the running? I’ll give you one word: “Betamax”. It seems to me as though Sony is on the losing end of things here (yet again), as the Kindle media blitz has placed it front and center in the minds of the general populace. I’m afraid we have a developing “iPod/Zune” situation here (to update things), and I have a long, sordid history of picking a product because of its technological superiority, only to suffer heartbreak and ridicule (don’t ask) when it goes the way of the dodo. I’d like to avoid this happening again, if possible. Forgive the incendiary phrasing; it is succinct. Is the Kindle an unstoppable juggernaut? I would appreciate your opinion.