MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sony PRS-600 or Kindle 2?

Yoshi 1080 · 10-26-2009, 08:22 PM

I'm about to buy my first eBook reader but I can't really decide which one to get. So I'm hoping that maybe you can help me with that decision! I know these damn noob questions about stuff that's been asked a thousand times before in different combinations sucks, but my head's already smoking from all that thinking and deciding!

So, I have narrowed it down to the Sony PRS-600 and the Kindle 2. These are the only readers that are visually appealing to me (important) and have interesting features.

Sony PRS-600:

+ beautiful, sleek aluminium case
+ red

+ touchscreen, great navigation
+ ePub, PDF support
+ small

- no justification (I find ragged type to be distracting)
- no UMTS
- some glare, not as good contrast (minor issue)

Amazon Kindle 2:

+ nice white design (though inferior to the 600's design)
+ UMTS
+ Amazon store with gigantic selection
+ newspapers and magazines, though without pictures in EU and small selection
+ really good text-to-speech feature
+ awesome image quality
+ 60€ less than Sony

- pretty much everything outside the Kindle store has to be converted
- no touchscreen, therefore far inferior navigation
- bigger
- the keyboard looks to be distracting during reading (poor concentration)

So, here is where I am stuck. Actually, I prefer the Sony for it's design and it's navigation. It also has ePub support and works with Adobe DRM, so I don't have to get creative to get part of my eBook collection on it (although the same holds true for my few Kindle eBooks). I also really like standards, and ePub is the de-facto standard for eBooks. But the lack of a justification option and the missing text-to-speech really bother me. Although I do have some real audiobooks, I like the idea of being able to listen to any eBook I own. In the YT videos Kindle's voice sounded pretty good. Or does that feature wear off quickly and Kindle owners don't really use it?

Regarding the other Kindle features: Being able to buy eBooks wherever I am sounds great, but I'm not actually reading that much so I wouldn't really "need" it. The selection in the Amazon store is huge, but most books are English. While this is fine, at least occasionally I'd like to read some German books, too. The newspapers and magazines are cool, but without pictures I don't think I would use this feature very often.

Thanks for any help, I appreciate it!

edit: Just FIY, Kindle 2 only came to my interest when Amazon announced a reader software for the Mac. I need to be able to view my eBooks on my Mac as well. Converting one or two Kindle books is okay with me, but I wouldn't want to mess with that on every book I purchase. In a way I'd wish Amazon would stop the development of that app as that would make the decision much easier for me!

10-26-2009, 08:22 PM	#1
Yoshi 1080 Addict Posts: 303 Karma: 204 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Germany Device: iPad, iPhone, Mac	Sony PRS-600 or Kindle 2? I'm about to buy my first eBook reader but I can't really decide which one to get. So I'm hoping that maybe you can help me with that decision! I know these damn noob questions about stuff that's been asked a thousand times before in different combinations sucks, but my head's already smoking from all that thinking and deciding! So, I have narrowed it down to the Sony PRS-600 and the Kindle 2. These are the only readers that are visually appealing to me (important) and have interesting features. Sony PRS-600: + beautiful, sleek aluminium case + red + touchscreen, great navigation + ePub, PDF support + small - no justification (I find ragged type to be distracting) - no UMTS - some glare, not as good contrast (minor issue) Amazon Kindle 2: + nice white design (though inferior to the 600's design) + UMTS + Amazon store with gigantic selection + newspapers and magazines, though without pictures in EU and small selection + really good text-to-speech feature + awesome image quality + 60€ less than Sony - pretty much everything outside the Kindle store has to be converted - no touchscreen, therefore far inferior navigation - bigger - the keyboard looks to be distracting during reading (poor concentration) So, here is where I am stuck. Actually, I prefer the Sony for it's design and it's navigation. It also has ePub support and works with Adobe DRM, so I don't have to get creative to get part of my eBook collection on it (although the same holds true for my few Kindle eBooks). I also really like standards, and ePub is the de-facto standard for eBooks. But the lack of a justification option and the missing text-to-speech really bother me. Although I do have some real audiobooks, I like the idea of being able to listen to any eBook I own. In the YT videos Kindle's voice sounded pretty good. Or does that feature wear off quickly and Kindle owners don't really use it? Regarding the other Kindle features: Being able to buy eBooks wherever I am sounds great, but I'm not actually reading that much so I wouldn't really "need" it. The selection in the Amazon store is huge, but most books are English. While this is fine, at least occasionally I'd like to read some German books, too. The newspapers and magazines are cool, but without pictures I don't think I would use this feature very often. Thanks for any help, I appreciate it! edit: Just FIY, Kindle 2 only came to my interest when Amazon announced a reader software for the Mac. I need to be able to view my eBooks on my Mac as well. Converting one or two Kindle books is okay with me, but I wouldn't want to mess with that on every book I purchase. In a way I'd wish Amazon would stop the development of that app as that would make the decision much easier for me! Last edited by Yoshi 1080; 10-26-2009 at 08:27 PM.