PRS 650 or Kindle 3

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by Prince Hal

Got through to the confirm page on the SonyStyle website and got a message that there was a technical error on the site and I should try again later. Took this as a sign from the eReader angel that it should be a K3. So re-ordered the Kindle, with a ship date of the 20th September. Considering re-cancelling and getting a PRS650. I need counselling and medication. I am glad I am not like this in my job.

Nothing personal but really funny

[Prince Hal]

Originally Posted by SkyDream

Nothing personal but really funny

Funny thing is that when I cancelled the Kindle, the case had already shipped. I thought about just buying paperbacks and putting them into the Kindle case, then I wouldn't have to worry about whether it should be a Kindle or a Sony.

What I did notice however is that Sony charge tax and Amazon didn't. So the Sony with a case was going to be about $280 and the K3 with case only $174.

Stay glued, who knows where I might end up..... with a Nook? I see the PRS600 is down to $139 plus tax at Borders. So, over $90 cheaper. Maybe at that price it's worth a try and then see what the next generation will be like next year.

You see, now I need more medication!!

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have read about some pretty nasty spills some Sony Readers have taken and they came up with the screen in tact. I'm not sure a Kindle could take those spills and come up working.

My PRS-505 lived through plenty. I considered it pretty tough. Then I put it in a backpack with some other things, and stupidly put the backpack in a car with the Reader on the bottom (underneath all that weight). The screen was damaged.

edit: clarification: by "bottom" I mean relatively alone in the last chamber of the backpack, and then put my backpack down, shoulder straps up. So it was padded by Sony's 505 cover, the material of the backpack, and in a distinct backpack chamber.

Originally Posted by jswinden

As I've stated plenty of times, I am not a brand snob. That means I'm loyal to no company.

Maybe you're not, but you sounded pretty negative for a product that you haven't touched yet. I couldn't stand the 700/600 either because of the murky display, and I'll agree the touch responsiveness didn't seem stellar. The 350/650 (I played with them in the Sony store the other day) had gorgeous contrast levels, and seems very snappy. The handwriting seems a little worse, but that might be me remembering the previous models poorly. I couldn't tolerate the older Sony touchscreens, but I actually WANT one of these. Night and day in my book.

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by Prince Hal

Stay glued, who knows where I might end up..... with a Nook? I see the PRS600 is down to $139 plus tax at Borders. So, over $90 cheaper. Maybe at that price it's worth a try and then see what the next generation will be like next year.

You see, now I need more medication!!

Have you played around with the Nook's LCD screen? It's horrible. It's like a using jailbroken iPhone multitasking a half dozen apps at once. Choppy. Laggy. One wonders why they bothered using LCD instead of eInk if it's going to be that laggy. What good are animated transitions when the whole thing is running at 6 frames per second?

This is just my opinion, but I don't think B&N stands strongly behind their product. It looks to me like some qualified person put together a christmas list of features, but nobody seemed to ensure that they were implemented well.

I am no big fan of Amazon and its lock-in, but I do regard their enthusiasm for the Kindle pretty highly. They improve it constantly. Even if you don't like their business model, that's admirable. Sony Readers are--like most Sony stuff--slick pieces of kit, often with crappy accompanying services.. And for the first time, they've made some Touch devices that don't have muddy screens. Hurrah.

I said to myself when looking at Sonys last year, that if they could make a model with the features of the Touch, but the clarity of the 505/300, that I would get it. So....now that's happened, meaning I might have to buy one of these things (bye money )

[Josieb1]

What no one seems to have considered here is the price difference. In the UK a 650 is £199.99 and a K3 is £109. I paid £250 less than a year ago for a 600 and now want a better screen, I can afford a K3 but the 650 is just too expensive.

I am different to most of you as I read fanfiction (my own PDF's, rtf docs etc) and non DRM epubs, with conversion to MOBI in calibre these are all perfect on the K3, even the PDF's so the K3 gives me everything I want.

On top of that I have now bought 13 books from Amazon where I never bought anything from the Sony store or any other commercial ebook store.

The 600 wasn't my first Sony, previously I had a 505.

It's really great if Sony have now fixed the touch screen problem but for me it's just too late my K3 and I are doing great.

[kartu]

I wonder if amazon is making money on Kindles hardware.

[kakakanno]

Originally Posted by kartu

I wonder if amazon is making money on Kindles hardware.

sure, ive read somewhere that e-reader will cost less than 100€ by the end of this year and 2011 less than 50 €.

but i am sorry ive forgotten the link, its from someone "important", market analysis director or something

[kartu]

Originally Posted by kakakanno

sure, ive read somewhere that e-reader will cost less than 100€ by the end of this year and 2011 less than 50 €.

but i am sorry ive forgotten the link, its from someone "important", market analysis director or something

I think "e-reader will cost X" for the consumer doesn't mean that the price covers manufacturing expenses.

[wachuko]

Look... selling the digital books at 12-14.99 I don't feel a bit sorry if they are loosing on the hardware... @#$%@#$%#$

[talaivan]

In the past, the surface on Sony's touch screens has dimmed the display. Is the 650's display actually as clear as the Kindle 3? For me, this is the most important thing.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by talaivan

In the past, the surface on Sony's touch screens has dimmed the display. Is the 650's display actually as clear as the Kindle 3? For me, this is the most important thing.

Reviews that I've read have said that the display of the 650 is in fact as clear as the Kindle 3.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Reviews that I've read have said that the display of the 650 is in fact as clear as the Kindle 3.

Yup, the touch screen doesn't require any special hardware in the glass itself or on top of the glass. That means Sony is back to using the same glass as everyone else. It's more expensive because of the tech required to pull this off, but the clarity is very nice.

[polly]

One consideration that no one's mentioned is organizational abilities on the reader. As I understand it, the Kindle and Nook both let you list by author, title, and maybe date added. The Sony collections, built from metadata provide an impressive ability to group books by type, series, etc. I like being able to carry lots of books on my reader, so being able to organize into collections or folders is a key requirement for me. Say what you like about the Sony readers, they have a nice user interface.

If you read books with table of contents or periodicals with links to articles, a touchscreen is much better than a keyboard for navigation. And speaking of navigation, swiping the screen, rocking a switch, or tilting the reader is better for my arthritic thumbs than pushing a button to turn pages. Alas, the PocketPro is the only one with a rocker and tilting the reader requires an accelerometer, missing in both the Sony and Kindle.

[rahulm]

I'd rather have a true file browser. But collections are fine too, and I don't consider it a downside.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I read as many Sony ePubs on my Kindles as I do mobi books

No you don't. You can read an approximation of an epub that has been put through the wringer of an automated epub->mobi conversion, but that's all.

ePub has its problems, but it can do a lot more than the clunky mobipocket format could dream of. Unfortunately it's true that the vast majority of publishers are just looking to churn out digital titles on the cheap, so we get books whose typography doesn't go beyond what's available on the Kindle. This is why I strip the DRM and spend a bit of time fixing them before I load them on my Reader.

Maybe this doesn't matter to you, that's fine. But for me the prospect of wrecking the way my books look by converting them to mobipocket is the Kindle's most damning disadvantage.