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I've got mixed feelings on this, but the size isn't as much the issue.
My now decommissioned reader was a 4"x3" PDA screen that I've used and abused for years now. Never had "size" problems with reading from it. I could get a clear font small enough that I'd spend enough time on one page that I wasn't constantly flipping it . . . and there in lies my problem with the 300.
My PDA had practically instantaneous response. You press a button, before your eyes could make it to the top of the screen (and on a small screen too), the next page was there. I'd drooled over the 500, 505, and even toyed awhile about shelling out for an iliad, but i'd see the videos and see the user press the button . . . then wait . . . then the screen would flicker and be done -- in many cases more than a second transpired.
Yes, I know E-Ink has a notoriously slow refresh rate, but the more I've looked at them, the more I've come to realize that it isn't the screen that makes it painful -- it's the sleeping processor. It has to be aroused from slumber, gather it's wits about itself, read from memory, render the page load it on the screen hardware, and *THEN* the screen would start it's flicker and change. The processor lag took FAR more than the screen's redraw delay.
It wasn't until Sony made the 600 that a fast enough processor was in play to cut the "load" time down to transitions I can tolerate. After seeing the 600 perform, I was hoping the 300 had taken advantage of it's bigger brother's design choices -- sadly it had not. The response rate isn't much better than the 505, *AND* I'll have to do it more because the screen is smaller.
So yes, I agree a smaller, clearer page with the right font size can give you a faster(and easier) per-word read experience than say an atlas sized page with a comparable font (900, I'm looking at you!) *BUT* if the page transitions are significantly slower due to the processor, and you have to change more often, you're not really much better off.
I'd love a smaller form than my 600, but as for speed, I'd take function over form any day.
Dan <><
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