[djloewen]

I asked Kobo about offering a standby option instead of just a full power-down, the answer was very interesting: it actually goes into standby automatically after 10 seconds. So, 10 seconds after every page turn it goes into low-power "trickle" mode, whereas if you press the power button it goes into no-power mode (while still leaving the book cover onscreen). So when I'm done reading for the night I'd typically power it down, but if I'm just switching from a subway to a bus or something there's no need to do anything, just leave the text onscreen and it's automatically in standby. Very smart, I tihnk, the only dumb thing is that they're not telling this information to anyone. If someone were to just compare devices without knowing this (as I did with Kobo vs Sony, and as I've read in some reviews) they'd think the Sony's 0.5-second "boot-from-standby" time to be much more impressive than Kobo's 35-second "full boot" time. So, uh, spread the word I guess :P

Edit: the next thing I'm curious about: load the same book into the Sony 300 and the Kobo, turn to page 1, and then just let them sit for a few days and see which drains the battery faster. The Sony will go into (blank-screen) standby mode after 5 minutes, the Kobo will stay in text-on-screen standby, the question is, which one's "standby" mode is more power-efficient?

Of course, to find out someone would need to have both devices and be willing to not read either for a few days.