PRS-650 or Kindle 3

[etherealdust]

Hi there. I've been reading through these forums for about a year or more, but haven't registered till today. I finally decided to register so I can get some input on which reader would be best for my situation.

One of the primary reasons I can't decide between these two readers is because of the lack of an external memory in the Kindle 3. Since I want to primarily use my E-Reader for reading manga, this is a big negative. On the other hand, though the PRS-650 supports external memory, I've read that it can get rather slow if you have a large library and especially if its picture heavy and located in the external memory. What are your experiences on previous Sony models for reading manga/comics while having an extensive library in the external memory?

The only main drawback I see from the PRS-650 is the price. If you include tax, the 650 is about $100 more than the kindle. With such a price difference, it makes it harder to justify buying the PRS even though it's the reader that I would prefer.

Also, what are your opinions on the build quality between the kindle and Sony readers? How well do you think they would fare in a purse, which also holds an iPod and a cellphone, without a cover?

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by etherealdust

Hi there. I've been reading through these forums for about a year or more, but haven't registered till today. I finally decided to register so I can get some input on which reader would be best for my situation.

One of the primary reasons I can't decide between these two readers is because of the lack of an external memory in the Kindle 3. Since I want to primarily use my E-Reader for reading manga, this is a big negative. On the other hand, though the PRS-650 supports external memory, I've read that it can get rather slow if you have a large library and especially if its picture heavy and located in the external memory. What are your experiences on previous Sony models for reading manga/comics while having an extensive library in the external memory?

The only main drawback I see from the PRS-650 is the price. If you include tax, the 650 is about $100 more than the kindle. With such a price difference, it makes it harder to justify buying the PRS even though it's the reader that I would prefer.

Also, what are your opinions on the build quality between the kindle and Sony readers? How well do you think they would fare in a purse, which also holds an iPod and a cellphone, without a cover?

I have about 10 mangas on my sd card at the moment, and I don't have any problems with them slowing them down my PRS-505. I also have an additional 160 books on my reader. I can't comment on the Kindle, as I don't own one, by I have been super happy with my PRS-505, and will probably upgrade it within the next few months to either the 650 or the 950 (Because I'd like a touch screen. I still think that the 505 is fabulous). The build quality on Sony readers is fantastic, however I really wouldn't risk carrying mine without a cover. If you don't want to buy the official covers, you can pick up a sturdier pencil case or a DVD tin. I carry my reader in a PVC pencil case (in my purse, which is full of crap at all times), which cost me $2 at Target, and I have had no problems.

[etherealdust]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I have about 10 mangas on my sd card at the moment, and I don't have any problems with them slowing them down my PRS-505. I also have an additional 160 books on my reader. I can't comment on the Kindle, as I don't own one, by I have been super happy with my PRS-505, and will probably upgrade it within the next few months to either the 650 or the 950 (Because I'd like a touch screen. I still think that the 505 is fabulous). The build quality on Sony readers is fantastic, however I really wouldn't risk carrying mine without a cover. If you don't want to buy the official covers, you can pick up a sturdier pencil case or a DVD tin. I carry my reader in a PVC pencil case (in my purse, which is full of crap at all times), which cost me $2 at Target, and I have had no problems.

Glad to hear about you not having any problems with your PRS-505. Also, thanks for advice on using a PVC pencil case. I would never have thought of that.

[abigsmurf]

Originally Posted by etherealdust

Hi there. I've been reading through these forums for about a year or more, but haven't registered till today. I finally decided to register so I can get some input on which reader would be best for my situation.

One of the primary reasons I can't decide between these two readers is because of the lack of an external memory in the Kindle 3. Since I want to primarily use my E-Reader for reading manga, this is a big negative. On the other hand, though the PRS-650 supports external memory, I've read that it can get rather slow if you have a large library and especially if its picture heavy and located in the external memory. What are your experiences on previous Sony models for reading manga/comics while having an extensive library in the external memory?

The only main drawback I see from the PRS-650 is the price. If you include tax, the 650 is about $100 more than the kindle. With such a price difference, it makes it harder to justify buying the PRS even though it's the reader that I would prefer.

Also, what are your opinions on the build quality between the kindle and Sony readers? How well do you think they would fare in a purse, which also holds an iPod and a cellphone, without a cover?

I read a lot of manga on my prs-505 (read One piece from the beginning until I was up to date. All ~7000 pages of it). A volume of manga converted to 800*600 16 color greyscale takes up about 25megs. You'll really struggle to fill up 4gb.

My experience on how fast it was depended on how you converted it. PDFs are by far the slowest format, taking around 3 seconds to load a page. Other formats took about a second. This will only be faster on the Kindle or the 650 given how old the tech in the 505 is.

I actually read so much manga on it that I wrote a VBA script to help with conversion because the horrible inconsistent file structures most translations are in aren't handled well by Calibre.

It simply goes through every folder in the source folder in alphabetical order, copies all the images in them to a destination folder, renumbering them so they're in sequential order.

Crude and basic but it saves a huge amount of time and headaches, handy for joining individual chapters too.

[ProfCrash]

If you do a search on You Tube you will find videos of people reading Manga on their Kindles. That should give you a good idea about how the Kindle works and how Manga looks on the device.

[fyre182]

The only main drawback I see from the PRS-650 is the price. If you include tax, the 650 is about $100 more than the kindle. With such a price difference, it makes it harder to justify buying the PRS even though it's the reader that I would prefer.

If you live within the US, you can order yours from abt and not have to pay any shipping or tax. This should mitigate some of the pain of paying 90 dollars more for an e-reader.

http://www.abt.com/product/48670/Sony-PRS650BC.html

I also called sony and they offered 10 dollars off, after I told them my predicament regarding tax and shipping.

[phonetouch5]

my opinions is not for the build quality between the kindle and Sony readers.


gottouchphones.com

[jjw]

Originally Posted by etherealdust

Hi there. I've been reading through these forums for about a year or more, but haven't registered till today. I finally decided to register so I can get some input on which reader would be best for my situation.

One of the primary reasons I can't decide between these two readers is because of the lack of an external memory in the Kindle 3. Since I want to primarily use my E-Reader for reading manga, this is a big negative. On the other hand, though the PRS-650 supports external memory, I've read that it can get rather slow if you have a large library and especially if its picture heavy and located in the external memory. What are your experiences on previous Sony models for reading manga/comics while having an extensive library in the external memory?

The only main drawback I see from the PRS-650 is the price. If you include tax, the 650 is about $100 more than the kindle. With such a price difference, it makes it harder to justify buying the PRS even though it's the reader that I would prefer.

Also, what are your opinions on the build quality between the kindle and Sony readers? How well do you think they would fare in a purse, which also holds an iPod and a cellphone, without a cover?

I can't comment on the Kindle but i've been reading manga on the PRS-650 for a few days now and it's an absolute dream.

I've got a 4gb memory stick in with just manga and i'm using the internal memory for books. Right now i've got 4 complete series on it.

Once the images are converted to say PDF or Ebook format they load onto the reader as fast as a normal book. I usually put the whole series into one book and make a table of contents. There is a bit of load time when opening the series itself to read, a series with 2600 pages takes about a minute to open up but once it's there you can flick through the pages pretty much instantly.

Here's a video of me trying it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcvtGPiHJ6I