[jjansen]

Hi everyone, It really disappoints me that I can't hold and test and compare the ereaders I am interested in. This audience is my best option I believe. I currently have a Sony 505 which I am thinking of giving to my mother so she can read some of my books. I just bought my husband a Sony 300 to carry around in his pocket. I have come down to wanting to buy either the BeBook Neo or the iRex DR800SG as a replacement. I have seen a few comparisons in these forums but none address some of my requirements. I have no interest in wireless as all my novels are stored on my PC and I won't be finished reading them for a very long time. Price, at these price points, is also not a major concern. If a feature is announced as available soon via new firmware that is fine with me. I am not only interested in whether the device can meet my requirements but also if one reader is more awkward than another. Reading is supposed to be simple and mindless!

Environment: 2,000 novels (mainly epub thanks to Calibre) plus 500+ technical PDFs many with images. Working with my novels well is of prime importance.

1) If possible I would like to keep my novels separate from my technical PDFs. I would like to access my technical PDFs through the folder structure only.

2) I would like to access my novels both through the folder structure and also through indexing of author and title and date. Collections, tags or genres would be great but I haven't seen that on either device. I would prefer not to see my technical documents in my list of titles or authors. I don't want to have to index or scan all my books every time I power on.

3) The search feature within a novel is important to me. A dictionary would be nice. (are the devices even here?)

4) Ability to open mulitple books at once and be able to return to the page I left off would be good. I don't mind using bookmarks for this if that is what I need to do.

5) With my Sony I often read with one hand and I switch hands sometimes. This is very easy to do on the 505. I don't think that iRex even has this capability in their latest announced firmware. Correct me if I am wrong.

6) I very much like the 800 screen size but I am concerned that navigation becomes awkward. I certainly don't want anything larger than the iRex. I actually liked the size of my Sony and both these readers are larger.

7) Screen clarity is important to me. The new Sony's aren't clear enough for my eyes. I assume that with the Wacom tablet both readers will be similar and hopefully similar to my 505 clarity.

Any comments, particularly about the folder structure vs the indexing etc. would be great. Does anyone in the US know if they have the iRex on display at any of the Best Buys? I will be in Boston in April.

Thanks again............................Jackie