What should I get? PRS 300/600 or the Nook Wi-Fi?(Middle Eastern User)

[PaperConfederacy]

Hello, I'm a user from the middle east that's looking to buy an ereader, and I'm looking for some help. I did a bit of research and what interested me the most were the Sony PRS 300/600, and the B&N Nook, however, I'm open to more recommendations. The kindle is a no for me for various reasons( no epub support, amazon drm, no expandable storage). The kobo looked interesting, but with the nook having everything the kobo has and more for the same price I see no reason to buy it. I would like to ask for some help and I'm going to ask a few questions.

To set some things straight:
- I would be willing to pay up to 220 USD
- I already have the Aramex shipping service which gives me a US/UK address to ship things to my own country.
-I'm mainly going to use free public domain books, or *cough*pirated*cough copies of books I already own, I don't care that much for the stores, and the lack of formats is a reason why the kindle is a no for me( + the fact that there is no international support)
-I'm not using the ereader academically, rather just simply to read books and novels, extra features are cool, as long as they dont make the device cost that much.

What I'm mainly looking for in an e-reader:
- Good e-ink screen with no LCD Glare( The PRS 600 is lacking in this as far as I've seen, but how big is the problem in your opinion?)
-Good Battery that can last for a while
- The ability to hook up the ereader to the PC and load up my own files on it without much hassle.
-Having a dictionary is a +
-Wi-Fi is great and all, but I heard it's quite buggy in the Nook?(Does it even work on an international home wi-fi?)
-Ability to run a variety of downloable files( Now the nook is lacking in this category, but I heard calibre is a pretty good application and can fix and manage most of these problem)
- A expandable memory card slot would be great to have.
- Well priced.
- Decent page turn speed? ( I've heard bad things about this too)

Pros and Cons:

Nook Wi-Fi
Pros
-Slick design
-Firmware 1.4 fixed a lot of issues, I hear the page turn is fast now.
-6 inch screen and relatively cheap
-Can be hooked up to the comp directly?
-Has Wi-Fi( Does international Wi-Fi even work)
- Good book selection( I'm going to download most of my books so this matters less to me.)
-Split Touch Screen and E-Ink Screen
-Excellent price, 150 USD is a bargain
-Good selection of accessories and covers in the B&N store
- Supports epub
- 2GB + MicroSD
-Can hack into the android OS
-Supports non DRM-Epub?
-Chess and Sudoku are cool, and I hope they add support for more games in the future

Cons
-0 International support, but I still I think I can probably buy it through aramex.
-Will the Wi-Fi even work internationally or is it just US, I'm confused on this part, I think it probably will though.
- Doesn't run too many book formats, and I don't know how good the calibre software really is.
-Doesn't run pdfs well( I heard most ereaders cant, and they need to be converted first)
-Slightly heavier than most ereaders.

Personally I'm really liking the Nook, and would probably buy it if it was it pretty usable internationally, just plug and copy files from the pc, no DRM problems, and the Wi-Fi works. So hopefully someone can enlighten me on this and book availability of B&N free ebooks/google books etc.

Now for the Sony PRS 600 and PRS 300 in comparison to the nook:

PRS 600
-A better PDF reader
- Same Eink
- The Sony runs more formats than the Nook, RTF + TXT, and doc usability make it better at the nook at using such files, unless Calibre is pretty good in itself.
-Decent price tag at 170 USD
-Touch Screen is great but the glare is a big minus to me.
-More intuitive UI
- No WiFi is a minus
- 512 MB internal but SDHC support + pro duo
-Annotation system with stylus seems cool + search and other touch screen things implemented seem useful.
- Contrast is not that good.

The PRS 600 looks great, the only minus to me imo is the glare, I dont really know how bad it is exactly, so I hope someone could comment. It also seems like a smaller pain in the ass to deal with it and get it as the Nook is US only for everything.

PRS-300
-Pretty light
- Not as good at running pdfs in comparison to the 600
- No Glare
-Design isnt as nice to look at
- 5" screen is smaller
-Price is near to the Nook
- No touch screen
-The Nook seems better

Overall, I think I'm probably going to buy either the PRS-600 or the Nook, I hope MobileRead can help supply answers to my questions regarding the two devices and their capabilities. And which ones you would recommend regarding your personal preference. Can the Calibre software magically fix anything into a readable format, is the Sony PRS-600 screen that much worse than the Nook? How usable is the Nook internationally? How easy is it to get free public domain files on both?

Thank you for taking the time to read, and I hope you can answer my questions.

[Muscon]

I am sorry to say that I can't help with answering any of your questions, as I am new to this forum as well.

I would like to say that I am in somewhat of a similar situation, I live in Australia, I am looking at an ebook reader, and am currently trying to decide between a PRS-600, nook and a kobo.
I pretty much have the same requirements as you too.
I look forward to seeing some of the responses with great interest.

[emai7s2]

I had a long look at the Sony PRS-300 and the Sony PRS-600 at a store yesterday.

I prefer the PRS-600 - it has two external card slots, making it easy to transfer data back and forth on SD cards, and the touch screen means it's possible to make freehand notes on documents, which is essential for me. I found the screen (at least in the store) to be perfectly acceptable. If you want to read fiction, the PRS-300 is probably ok, but if you want to actually work with documents, I think the PRS-600 is the better bet. I've never seen a Nook.

[BooksOnBowser]

Hi I bought a PRS300 first which gave me a taste for ebooks. I then went through the hoops to buy a nook.

The Sony is well built, feels solid in the hand and looks good, but the 5" screen is it achilles as it takes many clicks to work through a page, and I find myself clicking every 30 or so seconds. Battery life is excellent, i've seldom seen it drop a bar, although I do regularly connect to the computer to sort out books.
You can create collections which allows me to create categories like 'read next' 'already read'

The nook screen whilst a bit more reflective is larger and has a lot more font sizes to choose from, which means you turn the page less often. The battery life is poorer, although turn off the wifi and you will get several days out of it. Feature wise for me the ability to buy a book from B&N and have it drop off wireless to the device is great.

Sideloading is fine on the nook, I use ADE but you can use Calibre, but there is no concept of collections and no search in the 'My Documents' part, only in the B&N section. The coolest thing on the nook is the cover flow, and I have download over a 100 useless books just to get some stuff on the cover flow (hey they were free, ok?)

Nook is considerable bigger than the Sony which can fit in a jacket or jeans pocket if that is a factor.

I never liked the PRS600 and for the UK price, it is better to buy a kindle, even if you end up locked into Amazon's ecosystem.

[Noah98]

I think the prs-300 is a bit too small (5 inch screen) unless you really need a pocket reader. It is also overpriced.The prs-600 is a nice unit, but I feel as though the glare is terrible. I tried to like it because I wanted a touchscreen, but I could not get past the poor screen quality. I also feel as though it is overpriced.

Get a Nook, I think it will fit all of your needs, and you won't be disappointed. Also, Calibre is an amazing piece of software, so formats will mostly be irrelevant. It is super easy to use, and conversions are quick and painless.

[Logseman]

If you wish to expand your scope a little bit, I sincerely recommend you the Pocketbook 360, based on your list of requirements.

- Good e-ink screen with no LCD Glare( The PRS 600 is lacking in this as far as I've seen, but how big is the problem in your opinion?)
Check. The contrast is far superior to the PRS-600, which is, IMO, a tad troublesome if you intend to read outdoors.

-Good Battery that can last for a while
How about ca. 2 weeks in normal conditions?

- The ability to hook up the ereader to the PC and load up my own files on it without much hassle.
It is recognised by the computer as an USB stick. It's "plug-load-read" if you want it so.

-Having a dictionary is a +
Check. And more than one.

-Wi-Fi is great and all, but I heard it's quite buggy in the Nook?(Does it even work on an international home wi-fi?)
It has no wifi. For some reason, I've been unable to come in touch with a wifi-capable device, so I can't tell about the nook... or anything else.

-Ability to run a variety of downloable files( Now the nook is lacking in this category, but I heard calibre is a pretty good application and can fix and manage most of these problem)
If you're... a *cough* rebel sailor *cough* you'll know many of the books come in formats like RTF and DOC. The PB360 reads those formats. Plus, it reads ePub (with Adobe DRM and without), Mobi, Fb2, and even 4 image formats if you like to read comics or so.

- A expandable memory card slot would be great to have.
A microSD card slot is included. It reads cards up to 32 GB's. Have fun.

- Well priced.
A bit on the pricey side in comparison to what you have in mind ($200). I don't know how much it would be to ship to the Middle East. But you get what you pay for.

- Decent page turn speed? ( I've heard bad things about this too)
It depends a lot on how many things like dictionaries, software improvements (hacks) and so on you have installed in your device. However, the last firmware updates have improved this aspect dramatically.