Looked at the New Nook

[Poppaea]

The screens are the same the resolution is different. I can read one whole font size smaller on the 350 as on the 650. Also there were vast comparisons made between the Sony and the Kindle and it turned out, the Kindle screen was not better, it just looked better due to the different font they use. When someone uploaded the same font on their Sony and made side-by-side fotos, they looked alike. It is somewhere here on the forums but I am too lazy to search for it (its 32°C here).

As the Nook has a variety of fonts the Sony does not have, I am quite sure this is what makes a difference at first glance and nothing else.

Why should a big company desert to cheat on their custumers? They want to stay in business and given their prices they will know pretty well, they have to rely on their being said to have the best hardware available.

[Leyor]

Hmm maybe worth it to put together a font pack to share with this forum and first time users? Or we already have that?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Leyor

Hmm maybe worth it to put together a font pack to share with this forum and first time users? Or we already have that?

[negris123]

Originally Posted by dordale

A few things--I find Sony's dictionary implementation much superior to the nook's. With Sony, you double click on a word and get a brief definition at the bottom of the screen--then you can expand that to full screen if you want. You can then scroll back and forth through the dictionary and look up words by entering the word. With the new nook, you can look up a word, but after getting the definition on the screen, there's no way to scroll through the dictionary and I couldn't find a way to look up a word by simply entering it on the screen.

I own a Nook Color and now the Touch and that is my main complaint about those devices. I wish they had better dictionary implementation. Now B&N is selling dictionary apps for the NC where you can search for the word you want, but I think this should be included in the stock reader.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

The screens are the same the resolution is different. I can read one whole font size smaller on the 350 as on the 650. Also there were vast comparisons made between the Sony and the Kindle and it turned out, the Kindle screen was not better, it just looked better due to the different font they use. . . .

Actually I have done comparison checks with a Kindle using documents with various embedded fonts and although these do make the Sony look a little better, even with similar fonts, the Sony's Pearl screen still doesn't have the contrast of the Kindle (or new Nooks).

If you just restart the units and look at the startup graphics, which have nothing to do with 'fonts' then the slightly whiter whites and noticably darker blacks are obvious

I agree that if Sony had been smart enough to add some slightly bolder fonts as user selectable options in the last software upgrade, then the difference would not be quite so glaring, but as it is, pretty much ANYONE who takes their 650 down to their nearest B&N and puts it side-by-side with a Nook Touch is going to be in for a big shocking disappointment.

Sorry, Poppaea, as you know, I'm a fan of the Sonys also, but in this case, there is BOTH a small but REAL difference in contrast that is being magnified and made more obvious by SONY'S STUPIDITY (in not having some alternative bolder user selectable fonts, which I agree, would have gone a long way towards masking this problem).

[Poppaea]

Next time have a look at the spechs. The Sony screen is a Vizplex 220. I'd be interested what the Nook says it has.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Next time have a look at the spechs. The Sony screen is a Vizplex 220. I'd be interested what the Nook says it has.

The nook touch has the same, Vizplex 220.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Next time have a look at the spechs. The Sony screen is a Vizplex 220. I'd be interested what the Nook says it has.

Yep, this is indeed the same as the new Nook Touch, but I HAVE 'LOOKED AT THE SPECHS' as you say, and you know what the fine eInk folks have done Poppaea?

Just as I have seen in some other markets, they have set such a CRAPPY MINIMUM SPECIFICATION, that they can pretty much ship ANYTHING and call it 'Pearl'.

The Vizplex Pearl specifications only guarantees a 10:1 contrast ratio, which is absolutely PISS-POOR.

Most of the screens may hit 20:1 or better, but if you only get 10:1 don't blame us.

This leaves it up to the manufacture to hold the line on quality, and reject batches of Vizplex if they feel they are not up to their standards.

From my admittedly limited experience, it doesn't look like Sony has been as vigilant as they should in this regard. I have seen old Nooks that supposedly didn't even have 'Pearl' screens that could easily match my Sony.

When you pay a premium price for a product like the Sony, you would expect exactly the opposite (i.e. that mass-market Kindles and Nooks would have lower quality Pearl screens) but, sadly, this is the exact opposite of my experience.

[RajS]

If I might make a suggestion - I learned the hard way when painting a room how much of an effect the surrounding or background colour makes to the perception of the interior colour of a patch of paint.

In my view - it's pretty unlikely if they are the same screen that they are selling batches with different specs. It's not impossible that some are faulty but I would expect B&N and Sony to get the same part.

I would however suggest taking a Sony and wrapping the border with something a similar colour and reflectivity to the new Nook and seeing then if there really is a difference. In my view the surround will make a difference to perceived contrast.

That opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Best regards.

[elemenoP]

well my Sony has a black bezel and so does the Nook touch... so maybe it's that really fat bezel on the Nook that makes the contrast look better? I guess I would have to hold the Sony and the Nook in an all-black room in order to really tell.

If you lived here, think how great the contrast on your ereader would be:

http://personal-shopping-service.com...luxury/?p=7101

eP

[RajS]

Did you find that there was a difference?

[elemenoP]

oh. I haven't actually compared them myself yet, I just wanted to be a smart-ass! I do plan on it, though.

sorry about that.



eP

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by delphin

This leaves it up to the manufacture to hold the line on quality, and reject batches of Vizplex if they feel they are not up to their standards.

If the delivered screens meet the specifications the manufacturer of the reader cannot reject them.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by RajS

... In my view - it's pretty unlikely if they are the same screen that they are selling batches with different specs. It's not impossible that some are faulty but I would expect B&N and Sony to get the same part.

If you download the Sony Service manual, you will see that if the Vizplex screen is ever changed, the PRS-X50 readers actually require that custom tweak values must be read off of the screen and entered into the service firmware screen to insure that the reader will function properly with that particular screen.

So apparently, not only do various batches of Vizplex screens vary, but indeed, the reader must be tweaked to match EACH screen.

Making sure that the resulting combined reader and screen works as a package is the manufactures responsibility, and perhaps it is in this area that Sony dropped the ball.

Sure my PRS-650's screen has better contrast than some of the older Sonys, but that isn't saying much, because, frankly, some of the older Sonys looked like CRAP.

No offense to any 505 lovers out there, but the first time I saw a PRS-505, my first impression was 'For 300 bucks the screen contrast sure as hell should be better than this!'.

With the Sony PRS-650 things were a little better, just enough better to close the deal with me (a little better contrast, price dropped about $100 to less than $200).

For the record Sony -- it's not good enough to just make the screen on your PRS-650 look a little better than some of YOUR crappy previous models, I want a Vizplex Pearl screen that looks as good or better than ANY eInk screen out there on ANY eReader, and from what I have seen, this is just NOT the case.

My 650 does have good enough contrast to make it usable, and I do like the touch user interface a LOT better than the Kindle (which I have always thought was garbage), but I do wish that Sony had done better with the screen.

In fairness to Sony, it may just be that most of the newer screens are better, and my reader got a early marginal screen, and that this could have just as easily happened with a Kindle, it's just that I have never seen a single case where one of the newer Kindles (even some of the early ones) didn't have a snappier higher contrast screen than my Sony.

[elcreative]

Look harder...