Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller
Criterias: My very personal "gut feeeling" = How likely is it, to take the respective unit on a trip when I have to care about luggage? (*)
#15: BeBook One (a bit ugly, looks a bit cheap)
#14: Sony 300 (don't like turning pages with the 5-way-button)
#13: Sony 700 (great unit, but given Sony 600 it has lost its place)
#12: Cybook Gen3 (nice unit, especially after the firmware update. But no real arguments against Kindle 2 and others)
#11: iRex 1000S (great unit, but too bulky for me)
#10: Sony 600 (very pleasant surprise, but given Sony 900 it has lost its place)
#9: Kindle DX (flawless, but the big screen doesn't have any real advantage to me and makes it bulky. Maybe with more advanced PDF support?)
#8: Sony 505 (still one of my favorites, but no real advantage over Sony 900)
#7: iRex iLiad (still one of my alltime favorites, but replaced by iRex 800)
#6: Cybook Opus (only a niche product for me, 5" often difficult to read. But within its niche it's phantastic)
#5: Kindle 2 (there's a reason why Amazon is considered market leader)
#4: iRex 800 (has grown on me and we've learned a lot in our dialogue with iRex)
#3: BeBook Neo (great featureset, way ahead of iRex 800. In Europe, way cheaper than iRex 800 [and even in the US $ 100 cheaper than iRex 800]. Has potential "to kill them all". Lacks some design "polishing" though)
#2: Nook (very elegant, very positive surprise. No problems at all with the touchscreen. And I love the B&N shop and to download eBoks via WiFi)
#1: Sony 900 (a real beauty. Display quality a bit below iRex 800, but more than acceptable)
(*) Of course, the "new" factor matters. It's more likely to take my new BeBook Neo with me to do some further experiments, than taking my "veteran unit" iRex iLiad.
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Again, the picture has changed.
I've added Spring Design Alex and PocketBook 360.
Both are innovative units.
PocketBook 360 compares to Cybook Opus, of course. It's more feature rich, design is of similar functionality and has about the same "cool factor". One exception: The "butterfly buttons" on PocketBook 360 are close to disaster: Ugly, not very ergonomic and of low quality. Still, PocketBook 360 already has grown on me. Because of a great "hack", you don't need the buttons, you can turn pages via its motion sensor - simply briefly twist your wrist. And the last firmware update on Cybook Opus (filenames instead of metadata) did lower Opus' ranking for me.
Spring Design Alex of course compares to nook. Syncing both screens (6" ePaper Display on top, 3.5" LCD screen below for surfing the web or touchscreen functionality). Alex already is growing on me. It's no quantum leap to nook, but has some nice additions to it.
So, my actual ranking, after 3 days with Spring Design Alex and PocketBook 360:
#17: BeBook One (a bit ugly, looks a bit cheap)
#16: Sony 300 (don't like turning pages with the 5-way-button)
#15: Sony 700 (great unit, but given Sony 600 it has lost its place)
#14: Cybook Gen3 (nice unit, especially after the firmware update. But no real arguments against Kindle 2 and others)
#13: iRex 1000S (great unit, but too bulky for me)
#12: Sony 600 (very pleasant surprise, but given Sony 900 it has lost its place)
#11: Kindle DX (flawless, but the big screen doesn't have any real advantage to me and makes it bulky. Maybe with more advanced PDF support?)
#10: Sony 505 (still one of my favorites, but no real advantage over Sony 900)
#9: iRex iLiad (still one of my alltime favorites, but replaced by iRex 800)
#8: Cybook Opus (only a niche product for me, 5" often difficult to read. But within its niche it's phantastic, although the last firmware update with switching to filenames instead of metadata did reduce functionality for me)
#7: Kindle 2 (there's a reason why Amazon is considered market leader)
#6: BeBook Neo (great featureset, way ahead of iRex 800 for now. In Europe, way cheaper than iRex 800 [and even in the US $ 100 cheaper than iRex 800]. Has potential "to kill them all". Lacks some serious design "polishing" though)
#5:
PocketBook 360 (very hard to rank. It's aiming for mobility, of course having limited functions, compared to touchscreen units. But it does great for its main purposes)
#4: iRex 800 (very much has grown on me and we've learned a lot in our dialogue with iRex. I'm looking forward to the firmware update and clearly prefer the design over BeBook Neo)
#3: Nook (very elegant, very positive surprise. No problems at all with the touchscreen. And I love the B&N shop and to download eBoks via WiFi. And I've been able to exchange the AT&T SIM with my own German one, so I've got WiFi and 3G)
#2:
Spring Design Alex (doesn't have any real advantages over nook for me. And given the way lower price, nook does absolutely great. But for sideloaded content -even with softrooting nook- Alex is preferable for me)
#1: Sony 900 (a real beauty. Display quality a bit below iRex 800, but more than acceptable)
Ranking within the top 5 (or actually, it's maybe the top 7) is extremely difficult. All are great units. Even my last ranking unit, on its own, still is a top notch product.
Certainly the "new" factor plays its role. It's more likely for me, to take Alex or PocketBook 360 with me, than others. Simply, to further check out all the functions and "hacks".
And the picture can change quickly again. I carefully check for another firmware update for Cybook Opus. As soon as they switch back to metadata (instead of showing filenames), Opus will have a better ranking again.
And: It's nearly impossible for me, to compare 5" to 6" units. In direct comparison, iRex 800 for example beats PocketBook 360 hands down for me. Given the touchscreen functionality, iRex 800 simply has a way more convenient user experience. On the other hand, I can take PocketBook 360 with me in my suit pocket. Mobility sometimes comes quite handy over feature-richness.
And: Someone a few months ago has asked me, to rank my units without taking design into consideration, just focussing on the features. Personally, I don't approach my readers that way. They still are gadgets for me. I use them for fun. And usually, I've got a very distinct gut feeling for my gadgets from the very first moment.
My first reaction, when unboxing Kindle 2 has been: "What the .... is this? Design of the 70s based on cooking devices?". It has very much grown on me, it's a great unit. But still: It won't make my top 5.
Sony 900 on the other hand I've loved from first sight.
So, for example, the ugly "butterfly buttons" on PocketBook 360 lower its rank, even though there are alternatives for turning pages.
And: Let's not forget about the price. One more easily pushes a "cheap" unit aside and forgets about it ("another bad invest, another gadget I won't use"), whereas one tends to get back to an "expensive" toy and checks again, to find some hidden "perl".