What's the #1 item you check before buying an ereader

[jocampo]

I did not make any comment after I created the poll, just to avoid any biased opinion but I can see a trend now.

And it surprised me a bit that book's availability is not one of the main features when choosing an ereader, not as per this poll. Which makes me think: or users simply do not care if they will find their favorites books online or not... or DRM cracking replaces that fear or obstacle.

I really weighted the book's availability criteria a lot and was the main reason why I sold my Nook and bought the Kindle 3 instead, giving the case I was not able to find, natively and without DRM removal, the computer books I like and need.

[GlenBarrington]

It has to fit in a man's shirt pocket. So far, that means only one reader works for me!

[Maggie Leung]

Convenience / ease of use. That's true of any electronics I buy.

[bevdeforges]

For me it was the availability of English language reading material accessible from outside the US. (And, to be real honest, the ability to "fudge" the access to buy directly from the US as needed.)

To some extent, that made the ebook format key, since I can buy French books locally now, too, assuming I want to pay the prices they are charging here for ebooks.

Unfortunately, the UK stores' turn to the Agency Pricing thing has kind of messed up my original thinking, but I'm still happy with my Sony.

[alyxie]

E-ink was my first criterion since I am getting tired of getting eye strain. With my almost unlimited desktop access, I have no problem reading ebooks but the glare gets to me. But what really sold me to the Kindle was the 3G connectivity. I'd like to have access to some online content like news and blogs and while I do have internet on my desktop, it would be nice to be able to be able to read them inside my room occasionally without having to transfer anything or rely on sometimes poor internet connection.

EDIT: Oh, and book availability is not a problem for me since read and reread a lot of fanfiction and programming books & manuals. Both of which are readily available whichever ereader I pick.

[dougf4]

IMO there should be one more category.

"The rush I get by showcasing my Amazon labeled product."

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[rhadin]

I chose supported ebook format because I already knew that I was interested only in an eink device, that is, a dedicated ebook device, and for the most part the devices I was considering all weigh approximately the same.

The format also eliminated some devices. For example, I didn't consider a Kindle because I knew I wanted an ePub-supporting device. In the end, I stayed with Sony because I was (and am) very happy with with the Sony 505.

I briefly considered the Nook, but I have to admit that compared to the Sony, it looks chintzy. The real deal killer for me, however, with the Nook was how B&N treated me as a long-time club member -- shabbily.

I still remember being told by B&N that it couldn't give club members their discount on the Nook because they were already selling it at breakeven. This was when the Nook cost $249. Didn't take long for B&N to put the lie to that rationale.

OK, I've drifted. I prefer the ePub format because if 6 months from now a new device should hit the market that is a must-have device, the likelihood is that it will be ePub compliant, not Amazon compatible (absent one of Amazon's applets), which means I could buy the device and still access all of my ePub books (of which I have more than 1,000), something I would have great difficulty doing if I were to go from Kindle to something else.

[shanghaichica]

I have a Sony reader (PRS-300) but bought a K3 mainly because of the online kindle store, superior pearl e-ink display and whispersync technology.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by dougf4

IMO there should be one more category.

"The rush I get by showcasing my Amazon labeled product."

Sorry, couldn't resist.

"The feeling of superiority I get by looking down on people who have Amazon products."
Sorry, I couldn't resist either.

Snark aside, the premise of this poll doesn't really apply to me. There really was never *one* reason for buying the K3 - it was the combination of the Amazon store, the tight integration between the store and the reader, and the screen, size, and ergonomics of the reader itself.

If a reader had the Amazon store but used a cumbersome side-loading process to buy new books, I probably wouldn't have bought that reader. I didn't buy a K2 because I didn't think that the screen was good enough yet, despite the Amazon integration. And despite the pearl screen and Amazon integration, I didn't buy DX because I find the form factor inconvenient for how I use my reader.

Note, too, that when I was in the market for an e-reader, I didn't approach it from the perspective that I: (A) wanted an e-reader; but (B) needed to choose which one. Instead, I thought that I *might* be interested in an e-reader, but that I wasn't sure that I was, and so I wanted to see whether the available offerings were such that it would be worth it to me to make that investment.

Rather than there being one thing that convinced me to get an e-reader, it's more like there were several things that did, but the absence of any one of them might have led me to not get an e-reader.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

It has to fit in a man's shirt pocket. So far, that means only one reader works for me!

It's all relative. If Bob Keeshan was still alive, I'm sure he'd find a pocket for that iPad!

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by shanghaichica

I have a Sony reader (PRS-300) but bought a K3 mainly because of the online kindle store, superior pearl e-ink display and whispersync technology.

How are you enjoying it so far? New Pearl e-ink display aside, are you enjoying it more than your Sony 300? I'm curious, as I've never seen a Kindle in person, and I've been thinking about perhaps getting the DX. I'm still undecided, though.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

How are you enjoying it so far? New Pearl e-ink display aside, are you enjoying it more than your Sony 300? I'm curious, as I've never seen a Kindle in person, and I've been thinking about perhaps getting the DX. I'm still undecided, though.

Forgive me for jumping in here, but with free access to Wikipedia and the Web (don't try YouTube!), combined with the ease of taking notes and copying text, I think you'd appreciate a Kindle. A major drawback, and perhaps in your case perhaps a deal-breaker, is that the plain text file into which Kindle dumps all your notes and clippings doesn't render Greek symbols (although they show up fine in Kindle books). You can read books in Greek on your Kindle, but forget copying passages in Greek to your PC.

I'm sure you could copy text written in Greek letters to a word-processing app such as Pages on an iPad (though I've never tried it for a book with Greek symbols), but it's a much more expensive device. I have no idea if you can copy and export Greek texts on a NookColor, or even if you can export text period.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Forgive me for jumping in here, but with free access to Wikipedia and the Web (don't try YouTube!), combined with the ease of taking notes and copying text, I think you'd appreciate a Kindle. A major drawback, and perhaps in your case perhaps a deal-breaker, is that the plain text file into which Kindle dumps all your notes and clippings doesn't render Greek symbols (although they show up fine in Kindle books). You can read books in Greek on your Kindle, but forget copying passages in Greek to your PC.

I'm sure you could copy text written in Greek letters to a word-processing app such as Pages on an iPad (though I've never tried it for a book with Greek symbols), but it's a much more expensive device. I have no idea if you can copy and export Greek texts on a NookColor, or even if you can export text period.

Jump in all you want! I appreciate the information. Also, I've always wondered what would happen if someone tried to access youtube on an e-ink device. . I've narrowed down my choices to the new Pocketbook 902 or 903, or the Kindle DX. Both are very attractive devices with pluses and minuses. The thought of free 3g is really growing on me - my parents and in-laws don't have internet connections, so I could check my e-mail at their houses using the Kindle in case of an emergency (I don't have a smart phone, and I'm not very interested in getting one.) I really think I'd appreciate a Kindle, the only thing that is holding me back it that I wouldn't be able to make handwritten notes on it (which I would need for Greek letters, Croatian words with diacritics, etc.) and I'm a bit worried about the PDF handling. The PB is new enough that I haven't been able to find a video showing how it handles PDFs. I'm O.K. with the Kindle not being able to read epub, that's what I have my Sony for. (I've also decided to upgrade my beloved 505 to the PRS-950 next time I'm in the states, after the new year.)

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Jump in all you want! I appreciate the information. Also, I've always wondered what would happen if someone tried to access youtube on an e-ink device. . I've narrowed down my choices to the new Pocketbook 902 or 903, or the Kindle DX. Both are very attractive devices with pluses and minuses. The thought of free 3g is really growing on me - my parents and in-laws don't have internet connections, so I could check my e-mail at their houses using the Kindle in case of an emergency (I don't have a smart phone, and I'm not very interested in getting one.) I really think I'd appreciate a Kindle, the only thing that is holding me back it that I wouldn't be able to make handwritten notes on it (which I would need for Greek letters, Croatian words with diacritics, etc.) and I'm a bit worried about the PDF handling. The PB is new enough that I haven't been able to find a video showing how it handles PDFs. I'm O.K. with the Kindle not being able to read epub, that's what I have my Sony for. (I've also decided to upgrade my beloved 505 to the PRS-950 next time I'm in the states, after the new year.)

I like the way my PRS-600 handles PDFs better than the way my Kindle does, but the responsiveness of the virtual keyboard on the Touch leaves a bit to be desired. In addition, the Sony's note-taking and annotation functions are sluggish and inexact, and the limitations as to how much text can be copied in a single instance is maddening. The newer generation of Sonys may have overcome these limitations; I can't say, having no experience with them. Overall, I strongly prefer my Kindle, but the inability to clip foreign language symbols is not its most endearing attribute.

Many of the quotations I post here at MR were originally copied from books that reside on my Kindle.

[janvanmaar]

And it surprised me a bit that book's availability is not one of the main features when choosing an ereader, not as per this poll. Which makes me think: or users simply do not care if they will find their favorites books online or not... or DRM cracking replaces that fear or obstacle.

I really weighted the book's availability criteria a lot and was the main reason why I sold my Nook and bought the Kindle 3 instead, giving the case I was not able to find, natively and without DRM removal, the computer books I like and need.
__________________
Please buy an e-reader based on the kind of books you read and like, not on the device's brand or name.

You should take into account your sample - majority of people on this forum are computer savvy - current DRM cannot be a big obstacle for them (and only minority considers removing it for their own usage an issue). The results of the poll would probably be significantly different if you had a more representative sample.

However, from my own experience, the availability of books I want is pretty mixed - some of the books I want are only available with epub drm, some others only with azw drm. Furthermore, it is impossible to predict the format of the books you will want in the future. So one would basically have to end up with several devices, only being able to read specific titles on specific devices if he wanted to play according to the drm rules. I certainly do not want to be a prisoner in that world and would choose not to enter the paid ebooks world at all if I could not remove the drm from them.

Ah, just to answer your original question - the device_quality/price ratio was the most important parameter for me.