Quote:
Originally Posted by daffy4u
I do like the 505 very much. I like it much more with the tweaks from PRSPlus. I've never been against the 505, I've just had a preference for the Kindle which I still do but I have decided to keep the 505 as my ePub reader (at least until I decide on a larger screen reader). There are certainly features of the 505 that I wish the Kindle had and vice versa.
These are my impressions based on un-hacked features of K2 and 505 (of course things that are important to me, may mean less than nothing to someone else): - Font Face: better on 505 because there are more to choose from and easier to make the switch (via Calibre)
- Font Sizes: better on K2, there aren't enough "between" sizes on the 505 and they vary from book to book unless I build in a base font with Calibre or a CSS
- Margins: better on K2, I prefer more white space around the text
- Justified vs. non-justified: originally I didn't have a preference but the more I play with the 505, the more I like left justified text
- Bookmarking: better on 505, there's a dedicated button and it's fast
- Page Turn buttons: better on K2, little tiny side button on 505 side in wrong order (for me) and are too small, big round button on bottom right does not turn pages in books (it should), big round button on the left is awkward for me
- Pages vs Locations & Percentages: better on K2, wish I could have both but honestly when I see page x of y, I mentally calculate the % or fraction of the book I've read. In a pbook I would do the same thing visually. I really like K2s chapter dots a lot.
- Organization: better on the 505, collections rocks!
- Search: better on K2, not available on the 505 so the K2 wins but search is not necessary to find books on the 505 because of the collections feature but finding things within books is not possible. I lost my place while fiddling around a few times and I had to go page by page to get back to where I wanted to be and it was frustrating.
- Navigation: better on K2, I just feel I can get to what I want faster on my K2 than on the 505, maybe because I'm more comfortable to K2
I have used PRSPlus to bring in as many "like" features of K2 to the 505 and it has made the reading experience much better.
Now as far as ePub itself, I'm going with it because the industry seems to want it to be the standard. With all the tools like Calibre and those for removing DRM available, it really doesn't matter what format you start with because you can convert it for your needs (if you have a little bit of tech savvy). I will continue to purchase my ebooks from Amazon (and maybe Fictionwise depending on how that experiment goes) and convert them for use with any non-Amazon readers I own. I probably won't be buying ePub or Adobe ADE specific titles but I will download all the freebies. |
Daffy, that was a really well thought out comparison between the 505 and the K2.
Font Face: ePub makes it very easy to embed whatever font you want so that really does give you more choices.
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Font Sizes: On the 505, font sizes are based on some size difference from the current size. I do feel that that should be made to be a specific font size instead. Because given the way that ePub do have different sizes to start with, changing the size gives differing results.
Margins: On the 505, Margins are based on what the book specifies.
Justified vs. non-justified: I would like to have ADE on the 505 support justified text even if just so we can get all the "I like LRF better because it's justified" people away from LRF. I' would not mind ADE being justified and given that you now know a lot more about digging into an ePub, you'd be able to change the justification to left quite easily I'd think.
Bookmarking: I do think the Sony has done bookmarking quite well.
Page Turn buttons: I do think this is a person preference and having had a 500 and now a 505, I do prefer the setup of the 505. But, one thing I would like is the page turn buttons on the right to be up a little higher. And if the same buttons were on the left, it would be easier for left handed people. On the k2, it is nice that there are page turn buttons on both sides.The only thing I would change is the home button on the right would be the page previous button. And the buttons are larger on the K2 and I can easily see how some may find that easier.
Pages vs Locations & Percentages: Now the chapter dots are nice. That's one thing I would really like on the 505 is to see how close I am to the end of a chapter. But, also coming from pBooks, I do like having actual page numbers. It helps in knowing how far along I am and how far I have to go.
Organization: One thing you can do with collections that you cannot do with folders is to have the same books listed in multiple collections without having to have the same book multiple times. Given how many people have been asking for folders on the K2, I am surprised that Amazon has not add folders.
Search: K2 hands down since the 505 doesn't have search.
Navigation: This I don't really know about as I've not used a K2 other then a quick demo at the Boston Book Fair where eink had one on display. For the 505 to get back to the collections menu from inside a book takes either 3 button presses or 2 button presses. 3 presses: 1 back to the books' menu, 2. back to that book's collection menu, 3. back to the collection menu. For the 2 presses, 1. press and hold the menu button and back to the main menu, 2. press 5 to go to the collection menu.
The good thing with ePub is that when you do finally decide on a larger screen reader someday, chances are, that your ePub formatted eBooks will be able to be used with this new reader without having to convert. Newer Mobipocket/AZW eBooks convert fairly easy. But some older Mobipocket/AZW eBooks can be a mess. And you do have to know something of HTML & CSS to clean up the results.