Why should I get a Kindle over a Sony Reader?

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by mdibella

If only Amazon supported ePub, I honestly think the war would be over because I really do think the K2 is the most comfortable one to actually use.

I tend to agree with you, especially since they have announced they are going to provide some type of folder/tag support. Although, I wish they would also improve their PDF support and include a zoom feature with images as well.

-----

I decided on the Kindle primarily because there was a larger selection of book available and for a cheaper price. I figure I'll upgrade from time to time, so availability and price were my biggest concerns. (Plus AZM files can be liberated if I ever decide to go with another ereader.)

I upgraded to the Kindle DX because I wanted the large screen that can support PDFs. I really do love this ereader. I just downloaded a cookbook called the The Epicurean written by the head chef of Delmonico's and was written in the 1890s. It is profusely illustrated and extremely cool, but you really need a large screen ereader to appreciate it. There are a lot of PDF books like this available. The Kindle DX has become my primary ereader.

One last thing. I have found Amazon's customer support very helpful. For example, I purchased a cookbook that was missing the list of ingredients in each of the recipes. They refunded my purchase without a problem.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Not new to me but maybe to you since it did not come across as sarcasm (especially based on your tone throughout the thread). Maybe you need a little more practice.

You're right! I should be more sarcastic more often Especially with regards to Amazon!

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

To be more precise... the nook actually has two displays. One is an eInk screen that has no backlight. The second is a small LCD thouch screen on the bottom part of the Nook. This is used for navigation, text entry, and various other data entry tasks.

However, you do not read off the LCD screen and it will turn off (or you can turn it off) after a few minutes of inactivity.

There are a few nook videos that you can take a look at:

http://cnettv.cnet.com/showing-off-n...-50080524.html

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/20/b...irst-close-up/

(hmm.. there was a video on the second link earlier, not it doesn't seem to show up. Strange.)



BOb

everything you posted jibed with what was in my head. I needed to reach out and touch a reality point that indeed, the reading screen itself wasn't backlit.

Originally Posted by AprilHare

You're right! I should be more sarcastic more often Especially with regards to Amazon!

actually your tone in this entire thread has been uncharacteristically antagonistic

[crutnacker]

I have been online since the late 1980s when I was a teenager. It's amusing to me that in 25 years people are still having "My hardware can kill your hardware arguments."

I'm looking for pros and cons to make my decision, not bloodshed over the fact that you like your device more than someone else likes their device.

The more I look, the more I see Kindle as the best option for me. It isn't because I think it is the most appealing device. To me, the SONY looks nice and has more potential sources for media.

But ultimately, it comes down to the user, not the device. I want this to read new books, not to read PDFs or other documents. This means I want a competent device that allows me to access new books at the cheapest prices. Right now, that ultimately seems to be the Kindle, especially with the increased competition. I could include the nook in that, but I haven't been that impressed with B&N's prices or selection vs Amazon, and the videos I've seen of the device make it look very slow.

If I had a lot of specialized documents to read or time to play with reformatting, I probably would go with the SONY.

So let's not bash each other's devices. We can all admit there are strengths and weaknesses for each. I love my iPhone and think it is the best I've ever owned, but I wouldn't pretend it is best for everyone, or "BETTER" than a Blackberry.

That said, thank you everyone for your input. It's been helpful in making my decision!

Oh yeah, and Commodore 64's kick Apple II's butt!

[dmaul1114]

I went with a Kindle over a Sony for the following reasons.

1. Easy and convenience of the wireless store. It's great to just be able to buy through the device when traveling. And great to just buy with one click on the website (or send a sample with 1 click) and have it download when I turn on the device.

2. In checking both stores I found the selection to be about the same for the few books I was interested in. Think there was one Amazon had that Sony didn't. But the prices were a little cheaper on Amazon for all the books I compared last spring.

Those were my reasons. I'm not bothered by DRM at all, as anything I buy on e-book is just something I intend to read once. If it's something I fall in love with and will want to re-read periodically, I'll pick up the hardcover. That' hasn't happened yet.

The points about the selection outside the US are valid though. If you're not in the US, the Kindle isn't a very wise purchase.

[ricou]

Hi,

I purchased a kindle 2 one week ago. Currently I own, an iliad book edition, a cybook gen 3 and used to have a bebook as well.

I dropped the bebook and it broke, which is why I got a Cygen in the first place...
I dropped the cygen and I thought it broke too (eInk stains on the screen, unrecoverable on the bebook, but recoverable on the cygen, since it worked fine two days after) which is the reason why I purchased a Kindle 2.

The Iliad is used solely for pdf and it is comfortable for casual reading as well (assuming you hold it with both hands), otherwise it is too cumbersome.

So my main use for Kindle 2 is reading while commuting (train, bus, tram), where it is often required that you hold to a railing, meaning you only have one hand free.

All my ebook worked like a charm.
I am not worried about any format being supported or not, you have Caliber to deal with those pesky issues.
I do not purchase a lot of ebooks (mostly read those available on the Internet), so the wireless is also not a need to have.
I do not care at all about the touch screen (glare, less contrast + fingerprint stains).

All the 6” ebooks had the same contrast. If I remember correctly, the bebook looked better than the cygen, but this is a matter of personal taste.
All were easily portable. The bebook had well placed buttons on each side that were really useful while holding it with one hand.
The cygen is more difficult to use because of the 5 way controllers located only on the right. In addition, it requires a lot of pressure to activate than the others.

But I can tell you that I prefer the Kindle the most !
It looks more finished (design) and has a better build than its “cheap” plastic looking opponents.
It is faster (page turning) and more reactive.
The wireless is a nice to have, I was bluffed with the fact that it also worked that quickly in my Country.
Now it supports pdf (although I would not need it, as long as I have txt and mobi).
Customer service is flawless (my international order took less than 5 days to proceed from door to door, and I could track the device all the way).
I can leave it turned on. The battery life looks great (that was not the case with my cybook, but the bebook also lasted 2 weeks)
It was cheaper than the alternatives.

On the negative side:
The only thing that really could be a hindrance, is the fact that it does not look easy to sort your book (you have to use the view that amazon made for you, like by author or most recent). But I am reading only two books in the same time, so it does not bother me at all. The bebook was great for that, you could sort by folder (which you cannot do with the cygen by the way).

It is a bit heavier than the other two, but as long as I can hold comfortably with one hand, this is OK (minor)
You should not forget to put it on sleeper mode when you store it, because otherwise you might not pick where you left off (minor)
I purchased the regular protective cover, it is nice, but I am not sure it would protect it efficiently (the other two covers did not really protect the readers either, though).

In the end I guess it will depend on the use you plan to have for it. If like me you only want to read ebook (not ebook) that you purchase or not. This is a great device.

I have no doubt that the sony is a great reader and that the nook will also fit the bill. But right now I think that Kindle two nailed it.

[jupstin]

The Dictionary was the ultimate deciding factor for me. I absolutely love being able to look up the (many thousands of) words that I don't know. Also, it's nice having fairly decent access to wikipedia for when I want to know more information about something than a dictionary can provide. It's especially helpful when reading about history since you can look up all those obscure people who you've never heard of.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by jupstin

The Dictionary was the ultimate deciding factor for me. I absolutely love being able to look up the (many thousands of) words that I don't know. Also, it's nice having fairly decent access to wikipedia for when I want to know more information about something than a dictionary can provide. It's especially helpful when reading about history since you can look up all those obscure people who you've never heard of.

It's for those two reasons I also prefer the Kindle. I've always looked up things I read about in books and it's great to be able to do it from the device. And I'm really happy with having a German-English translation dictionary.

[bookfanmd]

I have both and I prefer my Red Sony 505 overall. I use it much more than the Kindle 2 and it just feels and looks better to me. I really like the wireless delivery of the Kindle and all the free books Amazon gives out but if I could only keep one it would be the Sony without question. I researched both before I bought the Sony in May and part of the reason for choosing Sony was the cost difference at the time, I think the Kindle was $350 and the Sony about $285 on Amazon.com. Now the Kindle's price has dropped a lot and the Sony is hard to get. I bought the refurbished Kindle 2 for $219.

I use Calibre to organize my books and the Collections in the Sony is great. I buy most of my books at Fictionwise so unless they are multiformat some conversion is required for either reader. However, if you are going to buy most of your books at Amazon.com you really can't beat the Kindle for ease of use.

[pboss]

Kindle is in no danger of losing this battle until Sony gets their acts together. Winning the war for future e-publishing is going to take a lot more than just offering a good device and free public domain books. I prefer current bestsellers anytime over the bestsellers of 1787.

Sony just doesn't seem to want to do the heavy lifting. They need to reach out for new content pools by negotiating with Barnes & Noble or Indigo, persuading smaller publishers, etc.

The future is bright for Kindle.

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

After all, what would I care about inflated pbook and ebook prices in the long run when the books are so cheap now, when other companies 'don't have e-book stores'!

If inflated e-book prices bother you, I recommend against buying e-books in more expensive versions.

Of course, Amazon has the cheapest versions around, at least for me here in the US.

And I'm not sure what the 'don't have e-book stores' remark is driving at. If you're talking about me, I never said Sony didn't have an e-book store; I just said it didn't work with Macs at the time.

Hang on... Amazon e-books aren't cheap after all for international users...

Yes, I understand they're more expensive for international users, and that might tip the balance with regard to which e-book reader international users will pick.

Rootkit. Oh yes. That 2005 thing, regarding CDs (don't ask me what that's supposed to do with ebooks, but hey).

Well, the folks who run Sony probably have a few years under their belt--to them four years ago isn't that long. And when I was choosing a reader, I thought Sony's attitude toward music DRM might indicate their attitude toward e-book DRM. But if you're comfortable with it, that's fine.

Of course, there were a lot of features I liked about the Kindle that the Sony just flat out couldn't do (dictionary, highlighting, annotation, wikipedia, wireless access to new books, web access). It wasn't *just* Sony's past use of DRM that tipped the balance.

The balance might be different now, even; I understand Sony has sort of implemented some of those features in its newest models.

I hadn't heard that International Kindles didn't have web access. I agree that's a pity.

I do notice that you haven't told us anything you like about your Sony. Surely it has some good points you'd like to bring up? Something more to recommend it than just "It isn't Amazon?"

[kelly1010]

I actually had the Kindle in my shopping card ready to click the ORDER button, until I found out that the Sony was compatible with epub and Adobe PDF library books. My libraries have much bigger selections of these two formats as opposed to mobipocket, and I felt I would use this feature alot. The sony was also $100 cheaper at the time. And the extra features that the kindle had weren't worth it to me. I have never been interested in converting formats or stripping drm, so I felt that the Sony was a better fit for me.

[Lilly]

I have both. Started with a Sony PRS-505 and 10 months later added a Kindle 1 (which I sold the day the K2 was announced), now I have a Kindle 2. It took a while to get use to the Kindle after using the PRS-505 exclusively for 10 months. But I wanted to give the Kindle a chance and used it exclusively for 3 months. Now I'm back to using my PRS-505 exclusively because of 2 reasons, organization and page numbers. I'm reading a lot of series, in fact I just discovered the Breed series (paranormal romance) and it has 19 books. I'm on the 11th book and I have them all in a collection folder in order with a description RTF document in the the #1 spot, so I have 20 files in the folder. It's so easy to go to the next book once I finish. I have smaller series in their own folders but this was a good example. The Kindle 2 has been picked up once the last 2 months (to update the new firmware). I also love the reflow of page numbers then location since I only read for my pleasure, I love knowing that a book is 300 pages in small font. The shuffling through pages is so simple, no bookmark necessary. For those the 2 reasons, I will be upgrading to a Sony Daily Reader and it will be my primary reader since I enjoy the Sony reading experience better then the Kindle. I do shop at Amazon for ebooks 60% percent of the time so the K2 is worth it.

[TallMomof2]

What I do for series (@Lily) is to add the series title and number of book to the beginning of the title. I do this with ease in Calibre and that way when I sort by title my series books are grouped together and in order.

For me I didn't care for how the Sony 505 felt in my hands. I have arthritis and am very sensitive to hand feel. I read my Kindle while it's in a case (that might have worked with the Sony but there wasn't a case with the display to try it out).

I bought a K1 the first hour it was available and happily used it until the K2 and the DX came out. Now, I mostly use the K2 and reserve the DX for non-fiction and PDFs. You can read PDFs on the K2 now but most of mine need a larger screen.

Page numbers aren't an issue for me since I've read on a multitude of handheld devices. Try reading a fiction PDF on a Palm, what a pain. You first have to scroll down to finish the page and then page forward to get to the new page. I'm accustomed to eReader and MobiPocket software so the presentation felt very familiar on the Kindle.

Have fun choosing your device!

[Deb]

I bought the Sony PRS-700 and absolutely love it. I did a side-by-side comparison of both on the web, and decided that I would be more than happy with the Sony. (Granted, Amazon is evil, so it had 2 strikes against it to start.) I know that the argument for having limited space on the Kindle is because you can download anything you want wirelessly, but I like having what I bought 'right handy'. Currently I have almost 600 books on my Sony, organized so that I can find them easily. I don't have the problem of hitting the page turn keys as they are placed in a convenient location. With the cover on, it feels like a real book (absolutely necessary for me - shoot, the Kindle doesn't even look like a book), I can adjust the font size as needed (probably available on the K, didn't check that at the time), I have the backlight when I need it (like when the power goes off in the office), it weighs about the same as a regular paperback (the ones I read, anyway) and it fits in my purse perfectly. With Calibre I can make sure the titles and authors are listed the way I want them, and with the memory card I can have up to 8k books on it.

Granted, your mileage may vary, but I find that as far as price goes, I can usually get as good a deal over all for my ebooks as are offered at Amazon, especially using InkMesh to do the trolling for me. And if it means not sending money to Amazon (which should have gone bankrupt in the 90s, but they were too deep in debt to have their bills called in) I'm willing to pay that little bit more. Bitter much? Oh, yeah.