8+ Readers in comparison

[Ebiumn]

mgmueller, have you looked at the pocketbook 360 and added it to your comparision, i think it would rate better than most including the sony readers

[Sischa]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Comparing to my pics, do you still think yours is defect?

1st Thank you very much for posting the pic's.

And yes i am pretty sure now that my device's screen has a serious defect. Dammit i just thought it could maybe be about the 1st generation screen technologie but compared to your iLead i would say mine is broken

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by rwizard

By the way, my understanding is that any books you previously purchased from Sony can be re-downloaded in epub format at no charge. I could be wrong about this since I do not own a Sony and therefore never bought any ebooks from them, but that is what I have heard.

That's correct. Sony so far did move about 40% of my books from .lrx to .epub.
But I'm a bit nostalgic here. And some of the books I've bought in various formats, so I already have the .epub version.
But you're right of course. If they port all the books to .epub, I don't loose the content and it's another step to the standard.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Ebiumn

mgmueller, have you looked at the pocketbook 360 and added it to your comparision, i think it would rate better than most including the sony readers

I've looked at it and I've been offered a very interesting startup-price of € 170.
But I've decided against it.
First of all, I'm no fan of 5" units (anymore):
I've got Sony 300, which I consider last of my Sony units. (Only a single option for turning pages, neither convenient nor ergonomic).
And I've got Cybook Opus, which I consider a phantastic unit but still rarely use. 5" simply doesn't have any benefit for me. When traveling, I always at least have my notebook bag with me and it's not much of a difference, whether I take Sony 900 or a 5" unit with me. When at home, I prefer more information per page, for example iRex 800.

Second, I was not sure about Pocketbook 360. Quite frankly, I don't care that much about OS or featureset. For example, Hanlin/BeBook has great OS and a great display. But still I haven't used it for more than 5 hours. I simply don't like the design and it's no fun for me to hold it in my hand.
You could say, I'm kind of an "Apple-fanboy": Form over function. My gadgets first of all have to be fun. I mainly want to read and I want to enjoy the touch and feel of my reader. Sony 900 does fulfill that need perfectly. So does nook.
But about Pocketbook 360 I've been extremely sceptical. I didn't see any real advantages over my Cybook Opus (which I already don't use) and I didn't like the buttons for turning pages. If I understand the pictures correctly, the buttons aren't set on top of the housing, but actually kind of "cut" into the housing. I've read somewhere, the plastic of the housing, where you press down the button, changes color a bit and weakens. I already see myself permanently staring at that spot.

And coming back to your comparison: I absolutely love Sony's design, Sony 900 to me is my most "polished" reader. I don't have any problems with the glare (and I could switch anytime back to my Sony 505 for example). I'm disappointed by the zoom, which only applies for the respective page instead of the entire document. But I don't read PDFs that often and I always can switch to iRex iLiad or iRex 1000S for that matter.

I've already reduced my "purchasing frenzy" for readers quite significantly. I'll check out Que, Skiff and iPad. Maybe Txtr if it ever makes it to the market. But that's pretty much it.
I find myself using most of my readers only the first week to check out the features and then never touch them again. Doesn't make sense to add a unit, which I'm not entirely sure about.

[JerseyBiker]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

First attempt to hack nook was hardware based by exchanging the internal SD-card.
Now it's purely software driven, that's why it's "soft"root.
It means, downgrading and then upgrading to a slightly modified firmware. They've even "hacked" the actual V1.2 already.
The "hack" opens the Android OS, so you can install 3rd party applications:

Thanks again. You have been so helpful. Since I build my own computers that sounds like something I'll try but not now. That's a project for down the road after I'm more familiar with ereaders.

~eddie

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by JerseyBiker

Thanks again. You have been so helpful. Since I build my own computers that sounds like something I'll try but not now. That's a project for down the road after I'm more familiar with ereaders.

~eddie

Just softrooted again.
The brillant tip https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...25&postcount=7 made it for me.
Now it automatically boots into the "hacked" launcher. With the press of a button, I can go back to the original menu structure (if I ever want to).

[peaceridge]

mgmueller, thanks so much for all this information.

I currently have a sony 700 - I have no problem at all with the glare. However, as a very fast reader, I'd like a bigger screen - thus looking at the sony 900 vs irex 800.

If you compare each using the same ebook, same font (approximate) size, which one has the most words on the screen?

Also, you said (about the 900) "Frequently checks library for new additions and is relatively slow for that (sometimes about 30 seconds without anything new in my library). A bit faster than other Sony units, it seems." I haven't noticed anything on my 700 - am I just missing it, or does the 900 do something different?

Finally, if I decide on the irex 800, there does not seem to be any place in the us that I can find it available. Anyone know?

Thanks again for your help.

Lynn

[kevindorsey]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Just softrooted again.
The brillant tip https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...25&postcount=7 made it for me.
Now it automatically boots into the "hacked" launcher. With the press of a button, I can go back to the original menu structure (if I ever want to).

You are well versed my friend

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

mgmueller, thanks so much for all this information.

I currently have a sony 700 - I have no problem at all with the glare. However, as a very fast reader, I'd like a bigger screen - thus looking at the sony 900 vs irex 800.

If you compare each using the same ebook, same font (approximate) size, which one has the most words on the screen?

Also, you said (about the 900) "Frequently checks library for new additions and is relatively slow for that (sometimes about 30 seconds without anything new in my library). A bit faster than other Sony units, it seems." I haven't noticed anything on my 700 - am I just missing it, or does the 900 do something different?

Finally, if I decide on the irex 800, there does not seem to be any place in the us that I can find it available. Anyone know?

Thanks again for your help.

Lynn

If you're fine with Sony 700, you'll love Sony 600 and you'll worship Sony 900.
But iRex 800 will win hands down concerning crispness of the screen.
Still, Sony 900 is perfectly readable.

I'm comparing Jeffrey Archer's "A Prisoner of Birth", the first .epub I've found on both.

iRex 800 does show more information per page than Sony 900.
(Sorry for the picture quality, deepest night here already).

As far as I know, since yesterday, iRex 800 is available (pre-order?) in the US. Cheaper than in Europe.
Check out the last few threads in the iRex 1000S forum.
Or http://www.bestbuy.com/site/IREX+-+D...r800&cp=1&lp=1

Concerning "frequently checking".
Sony 900 (but so do all my Sony readers) checks for new content when starting the unit. Or when re-inserting a card. Or when disconnecting from PC. Or...
Most other readers seem to track any changes to the memory, whereas Sony seems to check the entire file structure. Lots of users claim, it takes minutes or even hours for them to index their library.
On iRex, I don't recognise this at all. Either it's indexing in the background or directly when saving content to memory.
To me, it's not a huge problem with Sony, but it becomes pretty obvious when playing around with tons of files.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by kevindorsey

You are well versed my friend

Thanks. But the explanation was so specific, I couldn't possibly fail. (Although I had no idea what I were doing).

[peaceridge]

Thanks so much. That really helps. After seeing your pics, both are acceptable, although I am leaning towards the irex now. Still, depending on the wait to get it, I might end up with the sony 900 instead - I'm not the patient type.

One other question that occurs to me - I think you said somewhere in these many pages that you find holding the sony 900 easier than the irex 800. Can you hold the 800 with one hand for long reading periods? I do have rather small hands, so that might be a problem.

Again, thanks so much for the quick reply.

Lynn

Originally Posted by mgmueller

If you're fine with Sony 700, you'll love Sony 600 and you'll worship Sony 900.
But iRex 800 will win hands down concerning crispness of the screen.
Still, Sony 900 is perfectly readable.

I'm comparing Jeffrey Archer's "A Prisoner of Birth", the first .epub I've found on both.

iRex 800 does show more information per page than Sony 900.
(Sorry for the picture quality, deepest night here already).

As far as I know, since yesterday, iRex 800 is available (pre-order?) in the US. Cheaper than in Europe.
Check out the last few threads in the iRex 1000S forum.
Or http://www.bestbuy.com/site/IREX+-+D...r800&cp=1&lp=1

Concerning "frequently checking".
Sony 900 (but so do all my Sony readers) checks for new content when starting the unit. Or when re-inserting a card. Or when disconnecting from PC. Or...
Most other readers seem to track any changes to the memory, whereas Sony seems to check the entire file structure. Lots of users claim, it takes minutes or even hours for them to index their library.
On iRex, I don't recognise this at all. Either it's indexing in the background or directly when saving content to memory.
To me, it's not a huge problem with Sony, but it becomes pretty obvious when playing around with tons of files.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Thanks so much. That really helps. After seeing your pics, both are acceptable, although I am leaning towards the irex now. Still, depending on the wait to get it, I might end up with the sony 900 instead - I'm not the patient type.

One other question that occurs to me - I think you said somewhere in these many pages that you find holding the sony 900 easier than the irex 800. Can you hold the 800 with one hand for long reading periods? I do have rather small hands, so that might be a problem.

Again, thanks so much for the quick reply.

Lynn

I prefer the form factor of Sony 900. Actually, that's one of the main reasons why I'm ranking it #1.
And I simply love Sony's minimalistic though elegant design.

Usually, I read with covers on the readers.
With Sony 900, that's no problem at all. Neither the reader, nor the opened cover to the left in any way are distracting or annoying.
With iRex 800, it's slightly different.
First of all, I urgently need another cover. I absolutely don't like the white one from iRex. Eagerly waiting for M-Edge, Noreve or whomever.
Second, iRex 800 is significantly wider and the opened cover the same. It's within the acceptable range, but to me it's at the upper limit (Kindle DX being above that limit).
Without the cover, it wouldn't be a problem at all, but that's not my usual reading habit.

To sum up:
If you don't care about the price, it's really a close match.
If you put screen clarity and crispness above all, iRex 800 clearly ranks first. It's extremely close or maybe even to my benchmark readers without touchscreen. Probably one of the main reasons for the higher price...
If you put the "cool factor" and design above all, to me Sony 900 definitely ranks first. Not just against iRex 800, but against most of all other readers (maybe nook comes close, but not quite).
In speed and usability they're about equal.
If you care about open OS and 3rd party applications, you probably can expect lots of efforts on iRex 800. Haven't seen anything similar on any Sony unit so far.

What I'd like to mention extremely positively: iRex' developers did join the discussion. They gave us tips right in this forum and even did solve one problem (initially, no folder support) for us.

[peaceridge]

Thanks mgmuller,

I've just finished reading the 44 pages of your irex 800 unboxing thread <whew>. Here in the US they have the same price. So, for me, I have come to the following comparison conclusions (I'm ignoring those things that do not matter to me or are acceptable as is) - please correct me if I'm wrong:

irex 800 - I really, really like the display size.
I also like it's ability to have many, many books on it - I do remember now (as you said) it took a very long time on my prs700 to index my books (because it reindexes everything whenever any books are added), so I now only have unread books on it - but I'd very much like to carry my entire library on my ereader. If the irex indexes just the newly added ones and is much faster that is a great plus for me.
And I do like it's open OS.

My only negative (given that I don't have one in my hands to compare the ease in holding one over the other) is its inability to zoom pdf files - that may not be as much of a problem as on my Sony 700 due to the irex's larger screen.

Sony 900 - I can get one right away. It does have pdf zooming capability.

I've also heard that the irex may become available around the middle of this month, so I'm going to wait a bit before finally deciding.

Again, thanks so much for your work in comparisons.

Lynn

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I prefer the form factor of Sony 900. Actually, that's one of the main reasons why I'm ranking it #1.
And I simply love Sony's minimalistic though elegant design.

Usually, I read with covers on the readers.
With Sony 900, that's no problem at all. Neither the reader, nor the opened cover to the left in any way are distracting or annoying.
With iRex 800, it's slightly different.
First of all, I urgently need another cover. I absolutely don't like the white one from iRex. Eagerly waiting for M-Edge, Noreve or whomever.
Second, iRex 800 is significantly wider and the opened cover the same. It's within the acceptable range, but to me it's at the upper limit (Kindle DX being above that limit).
Without the cover, it wouldn't be a problem at all, but that's not my usual reading habit.

To sum up:
If you don't care about the price, it's really a close match.
If you put screen clarity and crispness above all, iRex 800 clearly ranks first. It's extremely close or maybe even to my benchmark readers without touchscreen. Probably one of the main reasons for the higher price...
If you put the "cool factor" and design above all, to me Sony 900 definitely ranks first. Not just against iRex 800, but against most of all other readers (maybe nook comes close, but not quite).
In speed and usability they're about equal.
If you care about open OS and 3rd party applications, you probably can expect lots of efforts on iRex 800. Haven't seen anything similar on any Sony unit so far.

What I'd like to mention extremely positively: iRex' developers did join the discussion. They gave us tips right in this forum and even did solve one problem (initially, no folder support) for us.

[ziNde]

Hello,

I am looking for an ereader to buy, but i need help deciding which to buy. The reason i need your help has to do with the fact i don't really have acess to the devices in my country, and i can only get information through these kinds of topics or youtube. Still... i can't process all information.

I need an ereader because i am a college student and i find it very interesting to have a collection of technical books (engineering). So what i need is a device with a big memory (or ability to use memory cards), that can easily read .pdf files with lots of formulas. I also need it to be able to show pictures and diagrams in .pdf in a clear resolution. I believe it's better in this situation to have a big display (like 7'') because the content i expect to view is very graphic. Touchscreen is not very important, but the ability to underline text and write notes is great.

I don't really need a device that provides more acess to downloable content or that has better support to buy books. Most of the files i need are .pdf and i just need to transfer them from the pc.

Sony ereader PRS-900 or the PRS-600 seemed to be the best option at this point. What other solutions should i consider? Is there any other good device coming out any time soon?

Thanks for helping

[JerseyBiker]

Originally Posted by ziNde

Hello,

I need an ereader because i am a college student and i find it very interesting to have a collection of technical books (engineering). So what i need is a device with a big memory (or ability to use memory cards), that can easily read .pdf files with lots of formulas. I also need it to be able to show pictures and diagrams in .pdf in a clear resolution. I believe it's better in this situation to have a big display (like 7'') because the content i expect to view is very graphic. Touchscreen is not very important, but the ability to underline text and write notes is great.

The Nook should cover your needs. You can add a memory card up to I believe 16gb. You can underline text and write notes. I'm not sure if you can underline text in PDF files though.

~eddie