Some specific (kinda) questions about the Nook vs. Sony 600 vs. The Rest

[blademan88]

Hi all,
This forum has been extremely helpful so far and I've read many posts about the various devices! I think I've narrowed it down to either the Sony 600 or the Nook, but I have a few questions for you all!

I don't have the ability to look at either of these in person so please just give me your best opinion.

1) I've heard the Sony has issues with glare but how bad is it really? I plan to read in different conditions ranging from indoors (mostly), airplanes and outdoors. I don't mind if I have to shift my head at times a bit but if glare and issues can prevent the device from being readable in any of these conditions, that's a pretty big .

2) The Nook bottom screen seems like it would drive me nuts as the majority of the time (i.e. whenever reading) I would have to know that the little screen is purely wasted space that I could avoid by choosing just about any other device. What are people's thoughts on this? Bothersome? Convenient? Don't care?

3) The Sony Touch screen scares me in that I'm worried it will become worn down, damaged, scratched and ultimately unresponsive. Has anyone experienced this? Honestly, I'm leaning towards the Sony because of point 2 but this is by far my biggest concern.

4) Which device handles PDF the best?

5) Battery life! I've read the Nook is worse, any confirmations?

6) Any other devices I should consider? I'm looking for a 6" reader that I will use pretty much only for reading.

Thanks everyone in advance! Look forward to the responses.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by blademan88

2) The Nook bottom screen seems like it would drive me nuts as the majority of the time (i.e. whenever reading) I would have to know that the little screen is purely wasted space that I could avoid by choosing just about any other device. What are people's thoughts on this? Bothersome? Convenient? Don't care?

5) Battery life! I've read the Nook is worse, any confirmations?

2) When the bottom screen is dark you can swipe it to turn the page. This works great (nicer than using the buttons).

5) Because of the bottom touchscreen battery life is not as good as other readers. But you should get 4 to 5 days. Which is long enough for me.

[boswd]

can't speak on the the Sony but as to a side by side comparison the contrast between the two is pretty siginifigant. The Nook is much sharper .

as far as the lcd screen. Well I for one love it and was one of the main reasons for me buying it. The color touch screen navigation and the ability to display book cover art and book cover flow gives it a more todays tech as compared to the rest.

Also as noted you can set the sleep time on the screen, 10sec. 30 sec or 1 min. and it does go dark, so there is no distractions. Also as pointed out when it goes dark you have the option to turn the pages via a finger swipe over the dark screen. It's very nice and feels more natural than pushing a button to turn the page.

Battery life. It can be pretty good it depends on what you are doing. If you do a lot of navigation, like say reading a newspaper, or do a lot of shopping and web use on it , it'll drain in a couple of days.
If you are knee deep in a novel, putting it in Airplane mode, (turns off the 3G and Wi Fi) and obviously there will be little use for navigating around the home page so the lcd screen won't see too much action, then you can get alot more days. I can usually stretch mine out to about 8 days.


Overall I love mine, it's just fantastic and cant recommend it enough.

[cfrizz]

Hi. I have a Sony 600. The glare can be overcome either by moving your head or tilting the reader so that the glare goes away.

Even though you can swipe your finger to turn pages, I 99% of the time just use the 2 buttons at the bottom since my fingers are right there. The only time I touch the screen is at the main menu.

You should also be aware that Sony uses Adobe Digital Editions for control over DRM epubs & pdfs. I don't know what B&N uses for their epubs but it is incompatible right now with the current ADE version.

So if you bought a Sony you wouldn't be able to load any books purchased at B&N onto your Sony reader, nor would you be able to open & read it on your pc through ADEs reader. So you are stuck just reading in on your pc via B&Ns reader software.

Right now the only MAJOR bookstore that you can utilize is Borders for a Sony. However there are quite a few online bookstores to purchase ADE drm books from.

[OrcaBlue]

Originally Posted by blademan88

1) I've heard the Sony has issues with glare but how bad is it really? I plan to read in different conditions ranging from indoors (mostly), airplanes and outdoors. I don't mind if I have to shift my head at times a bit but if glare and issues can prevent the device from being readable in any of these conditions, that's a pretty big .

I think it's really depends on the users. Some could not stand the glare. While others can read on it just fine. Personally, I found that it's not a big problem. If you don't place the light source directly behind or above the reader; the reader looks great.

If you're outdoor, the screen looks very clear.

Originally Posted by blademan88

3) The Sony Touch screen scares me in that I'm worried it will become worn down, damaged, scratched and ultimately unresponsive. Has anyone experienced this? Honestly, I'm leaning towards the Sony because of point 2 but this is by far my biggest concern.

I have been quite abusive with my PRS-600 reader. Throwing it in my bag without cover. So far so good. I am planning to pick up a cover soon though.

Originally Posted by blademan88

4) Which device handles PDF the best?

I don't own a "nook" so I can't say much about its PDF support. However, with PRS 600, you can zoom in on the PDF in landscape mode for maximal width. What I learn is that you can actually press down your finger on the image and drag the image around. It's quite responsive. Feel almost like a iphone style of image dragging feature. You can use the stylus but it's not the same feeling.

[makani]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Hi.
You should also be aware that Sony uses Adobe Digital Editions for control over DRM epubs & pdfs. I don't know what B&N uses for their epubs but it is incompatible right now with the current ADE version.

So if you bought a Sony you wouldn't be able to load any books purchased at B&N onto your Sony reader, nor would you be able to open & read it on your pc through ADEs reader. So you are stuck just reading in on your pc via B&Ns reader software.

Right now the only MAJOR bookstore that you can utilize is Borders for a Sony. However there are quite a few online bookstores to purchase ADE drm books from.

I was wondering about getting books from B&N for my sony 505. I downloaded a trial read part of a book and it opened just fine on my sony. I saved it to my computer and transfered the file to the sony reader program and then to my reader. I assume that there would be no problem with the entire book either.
Has anyone actually purchased one and had a problem with their sony?

[jdarnold]

As mentioned, the touch screen on the nook can be used for "turning" pages when dark. It takes a little getting used to, and there are some annoying spots where it can't be used for turning pages, but for books it works great.

The touchscreen is less wasted space than on, say, the keyboard on the Kindle. It also works very well for scrolling around web pages when you use the browser.

PDF support is pretty rudimentary at the moment and one of the biggest feature improvement requests. There is no zooming. You can change font sizes but it usually just blows up the formating.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by makani

I was wondering about getting books from B&N for my sony 505. I downloaded a trial read part of a book and it opened just fine on my sony. I saved it to my computer and transfered the file to the sony reader program and then to my reader. I assume that there would be no problem with the entire book either.
Has anyone actually purchased one and had a problem with their sony?

Let me clarify since I just tried it again. If you download one of their Public Domain titles, you will have no problem opening it in Adobe or in the Sony. It is ONLY books that you have to buy, that will not open in ADE or in Sony's reader.

You said you transferred the book, did you try to open it? And was it a public domain title?

[makani]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Let me clarify since I just tried it again. If you download one of their Public Domain titles, you will have no problem opening it in Adobe or in the Sony. It is ONLY books that you have to buy, that will not open in ADE or in Sony's reader.

You said you transferred the book, did you try to open it? And was it a public domain title?

The book sample I downloaded was [I]the surgeon[I] by Tess Gurritsen. I was able to open it on my sony 505, however I did not buy the entire book which is why I asked if anyone had any problem with a complete book download for their sony.

[simplyparticular]

I owned both the Nook and Touch for comparison, so here are my thoughts:

1. I found the Touch to be best in bright light from the side - daylight or artificial. As soon as light was mediocre or direct towards the screen, the glare/reflection became more noticeable. This made it a no-go for me, but you have to consider your uses.

2. I let the screen go dark and use it for silent page turning. So it isn't "wasted" for me, although the smaller size of the Touch was more comfortable in my (small) hands.

3) The Sony models feel like they are built liek tanks. I don't think wear would be an issue, as long as you don't just shove it in a bag. I recommend a sturdy case for non-reading storage.

4) The Touch has a zoom mode that makes it easier to read PDFs with graphics/charts. Both handle text reflow the same.

5) The Nook's touchscreen definitely impacts battery life. I can get 7-10 hours on the nook (2-3 days) versus weeks on the Touch. However, the Nook comes with a wall charger. The Touch is sold separately for speedy charging.

6) The Kobo and Kindle are options to consider. I don't know how usable PDF is on either of them.

I kept the Nook and sold the Touch because of the screen glare. I miss it, but the screen just wouldn't work for my use.

The Touch is on display at Office Max, Target, Best Buy, Sam's and BJ's Wholesale.

[blademan88]

Hi everyone just wanted to post an update since you all gave such wonderful advice. I'm going on a trip Friday till next Sunday so I made sure to wait until this week to get my reader because both Sony and the Nook have 14 day return policies, so my decision should be covered

But as for the actual decision, I was just about 100 percent certain on the Touch when I went to Best Buy only to discover they no longer carry it and only had 1 left that was very far from my house. I started thinking about my decision then and if to order it ASAP online or go back to the B&N and check the Nook again. When I went back to look at the Nook I realized that the screen is simply better, no debate about that. I stood in the store for about an hour before deciding that the screen is simply the most important thing because I will be reading 95% of the time I use it at least. So last night I became the proud owner of a Wifi nook! Can't really mess around with it until I get home from work today but I'm excited for that.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it really helped my decision.

[ski_power]

Hi, even I'm contemplating on a 600. If someone could post a video specifically highlighting the glare I'd be grateful. I've seen a kindle first hand so it would be easier to compare.

[blademan88]

Originally Posted by ski_power

Hi, even I'm contemplating on a 600. If someone could post a video specifically highlighting the glare I'd be grateful. I've seen a kindle first hand so it would be easier to compare.

I managed to play a little with the 600 and the glare was definitely not the worst thing in the world but at least with the lights in the store it was still also definitely noticeable. It wasn't something that turned me off that much and I was almost set on the 600 but when it came down to it I figure the screen clarity should far and away be the most important criteria for me and there wasn't much debate in my mind that the nook was clearer (not necessarily by a lot, but at least a little for sure).

[Fly_Hyer]

I bought the 600 and returned it the next day. I loved everything about it, it was intuitive to use, the touch aspect of it was great, touch a word and you have the dictionary definition was superb. But.... while the screen was certainly readable, the somewhat duller screen and the annoying glare was enough for me to return it. Reading is the thing after all and when I finally settled into reading a book it was not the clearest screen that I have seen (nook, kindle, sony prs-300) so back it went (sigh). If i was just navigating around that would have been the reader for me.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by makani

I was wondering about getting books from B&N for my sony 505. I downloaded a trial read part of a book and it opened just fine on my sony. I saved it to my computer and transfered the file to the sony reader program and then to my reader. I assume that there would be no problem with the entire book either.

I don't have a Sony, but I can tell you that the ebook samples on B&N's website are not DRMed, so they're just plain ePubs.

If you bought the full book, you would probably run into problems since B&N's DRM scheme is different from regular ADE, although I have heard that compatibility with the B&N DRM is something that Adobe might be adding to the next version of their ADE.

However, if the books happened to be non-DRM (a few sometimes show up, generally promotional erotica freebies from Samhain and Ellora's Cave, as far as I've been able to determine), or you were willing to liberate them, then you should be able to use them on the Sony until it's officially compatible with the B&N ePub DRM.

B&N are running a free annotated classics promotion this summer, so you could always try "purchasing" a few of them, see how everything works out for you in terms of ease of use.