This lunch time I ventured into Soho (London) to try out a few ereaders in the flesh. I parked my motorbike and nipped off into the nearby stores carrying a little SD card containing a good cross section of the books I'd gathered of the web.
At Waterstones they only had the Sony Touch and Pocket on display and fixed by metal tabs into a frame so you couldn't hold them. The Pocket worked well with the titles already on the machine but I couldn't try it out with any of my collection as it didn't have an SD card slot. The 5" screen only appeared a little smaller to the 6" (I guess 1 inch difference
) but mainly I wasn't so keen on all the buttons. The Touch was displaying a demo program and refused to exit - it took 15 mins and a small pin to make it quit. I was impressed with the Touch - it was intuitive to use, had the touch screen and a dictionary. I didn't notice any glare and the screen seemed only marginally greyer than the pocket version. Sadly it also had a £249 price tag.
At Foyles you could actually hold the ereaders as they were only attached by security wires but sadly there was a gap where the Neo should have been as someone had run off with the device. Luckily they brought another one down for me and it appeared quite impressive - nice screen, design, fast, wifi etc. It read my SD card but just found 100's of data files and none of my books - it might of helped if it showed the folders they were in or allowed me to search for a name or type of file or just showed the file types it could handle. I also got a feeling the firmware still needed a few adjustments. At £280 you could definitely see a jump in functionality over the similarly priced Sony. I also tried the BeBook Mini which appeared similar to the Sony Pocket but with more functionality but less design. Sadly they didn't have the Sony models on display.
I know I want an ereader but I still find it hard to justify the price. I nearly bought the Sony Pocket a few days ago when it appear on Woot for $109 but sadly they wouldn't ship to the UK. I'd also be happy with the Sony Touch at the American price of $199 but I'm not sure what fees I'd incur by bringing it over. I'd be very happy with the Neo as well for $339 but again I have the same problem. I'd also like to have tried the Pocketbook machines but they weren't available in store.
At the end of my lunch break I'd learnt a lot about the various devices but was no wiser as to whether they could read the books in my current collection. I'd also learnt that book stores seem to employ some very attractive and bookish girls - I was distracted a few times in my quest. Back on the motorbike I found I'd earned myself a parking ticket - Oh well the price of knowledge.
Mike