Upgrade Sony, or switch to kindle?

[dnullify]

Hey all,

It's been a long time since i've visited this forum.
Well, after 3 years and over 200 books, my trusty PRS-505 is tiring out on me, battery-wise and I'm finally looking to upgrade devices. I'm considering the Sony prs-T1 and the kindle touch wifi.

The reason i bought the sony back when, was because of all the formats it supports, and it's form factor. However now it seems that both devices (only two i am considering) are pretty similar.

Hopefully i can keep this brief for you guys. After reading a couple of threads, watching a couple of reviews, and going over both reader's spec pages, i've got a couple of concerns, and i would appreciate your opinions.

Sony:
-plastic (my 505 and the kindle is aluminum. Does the t1 feel cheap?)
-epub only
-swipe to turn pages (seeing as the buttons are only bottom-left, and i generally hold my reader in my right hand)
-Buggy, less user friendly

Kindle:
-Not as many features as sony
-mobi format only
-No Collections (not easily, i know about the calibre plugin)

My library is mostly LRF, from a couple years ago, and more recently i've started downloading ePub files. I use Calibre, will buying a new device and importing all my old books be a pain? If not, then perhaps having a mobi-only device would not be too bad.

PDFs and web browsing aren't important to me, and screen quality is a toss up, so long as it is better than my 505 and i can consider it an upgrade, i'll be happy. I was comfortable with my 505. I really just want the better reader, as far as content (using calibre), reliability, and durability.

thanks,
Sidd.

[doreenjoy]

Welcome back to the forum.

I stuck with Sony because I'm hooked on the Collections feature.

[LuvReadin]

Originally Posted by dnullify

Sony:
-plastic (my 505 and the kindle is aluminum. Does the t1 feel cheap?)

Some people think it does - I'm not one of them. I prefer the lighter weight to my old 600. Besides, it's not really a fair comparison any more - none of the other ereaders have an aluminium case.

Originally Posted by dnullify

-epub only

No, it supports several different file types: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Reader

The Kindle, OTOH, does not. Personally, this was the reason I didn't go for a Kindle; I wanted a format that would work with other ereaders (without any messing about converting them). If you're happy to do conversions, it probably won't be a problem with either.

Originally Posted by dnullify

-swipe to turn pages (seeing as the buttons are only bottom-left, and i generally hold my reader in my right hand)

Yes, the swipe works very well - I don't tend to use it because I'm fussy about having fingerprints on the screen. I'm right-handed, and although I'd prefer to have the page turn buttons either side of the home button (beats me why they didn't), I don't find it a major problem, as the forward button is the one closer to the centre.

Originally Posted by dnullify

-Buggy, less user friendly

Not to deny that some people obviously have had problems, all I can say is that I've never experienced them. I imagine any of the newer ones will have been upgraded to the new firmware that sorted out many of these.

Originally Posted by dnullify

My library is mostly LRF, from a couple years ago, and more recently i've started downloading ePub files. I use Calibre, will buying a new device and importing all my old books be a pain? If not, then perhaps having a mobi-only device would not be too bad.

Well, that's the thing - you'll have to convert them for either, in which case the issue of file types may be less important. The fact that I couldn't use epubs without a lot of (to me) messing about meant I discounted the Kindle quite early on - your priorities may be different.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by dnullify

Sony:
-plastic (my 505 and the kindle is aluminum. Does the t1 feel cheap?)

FYI, the Kindle is plastic too not aluminum.

[ProfCrash]

The Kindle reads the following formats:

Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced(AA,AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.

The big difference is that the Kindle does not read E-Pub and SOny does not read Mobi.

Does this matter? Not really. If you are familiar with Calibre you know what you can remove DRM and convert books from EPub to Mobi and Mobi to EPub.

Amazon also has the largest e-book store out there so you are probably in good shape to find the ebooks that you want to read. It is rare that Amazon does not have a book that has been released as an ebook.

There are other sites that sell Mobi formated books that you can use on a Kindle. ie you are not locked into Amazon's bookstore.

I love my Kindle. I have been very happy with it and with Amazons Customer Service. There are many people out there who love their Sonys. Given that you already have a series of books for the Sony, I would stick with that. Then again, the Kindle is less expensive and has better customer service.

I don't think you can go wrong with either device.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dnullify

Kindle:
-No Collections (not easily, i know about the calibre plugin)

You are wrong. The Kindle does support collections.

[dnullify]

thanks for the replies guys,

Is there any particular advantage between mobi and ePub?

I didn't realize that the kindle touch wasn't aluminum. I just assumed, based on the picture.

So, Are they basically equally user-friendly?

If the kindle touch had page turn buttons on the side, like the $80 kindle and it handled collections through calibre (easily), then it'd be a no-brainer. I don't mind converting files, i've been using calibre for ages.

How much of a pain is it to navigate and organize collections in the kindle? i've got hundreds of books, and pretty much rely on organizing my books by series and such.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dnullify

thanks for the replies guys,

Is there any particular advantage between mobi and ePub?

I didn't realize that the kindle touch wasn't aluminum. I just assumed, based on the picture.

So, Are they basically equally user-friendly?

If the kindle touch had page turn buttons on the side, like the $80 kindle and it handled collections through calibre (easily), then it'd be a no-brainer. I don't mind converting files, i've been using calibre for ages.

How much of a pain is it to navigate and organize collections in the kindle? i've got hundreds of books, and pretty much rely on organizing my books by series and such.

The Kindle Touch is a "high-class" produce. Like the Sony, it's well-build and feels solid and well-made, unlike the "cheap plastic" feel of the K3.

The touch screen on the Touch works extremely well. Unlike the Sony, you don't have to "swipe" it - just tap it. The merest brush of a finger suffices to turn the page. It's just as easy to use as page turn buttons.

Calibre plugboards are a much, MUCH better way to organize your series than collections. I used to use collections on both my Kindle and Sony (I have both), but now I exclusively use plugboards. Works much better. If you do want collections, it's easy enough to do on the Kindle.

As I say, I have both a Sony and a Kindle Touch. I much prefer the Kindle.

[dnullify]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The Kindle Touch is a "high-class" produce. Like the Sony, it's well-build and feels solid and well-made, unlike the "cheap plastic" feel of the K3.

The touch screen on the Touch works extremely well. Unlike the Sony, you don't have to "swipe" it - just tap it. The merest brush of a finger suffices to turn the page. It's just as easy to use as page turn buttons.

Calibre plugboards are a much, MUCH better way to organize your series than collections. I used to use collections on both my Kindle and Sony (I have both), but now I exclusively use plugboards. Works much better. If you do want collections, it's easy enough to do on the Kindle.

As I say, I have both a Sony and a Kindle Touch. I much prefer the Kindle.

What do you mean by plugboards?

So, the kindle feels like a better device? I mean, the sony seems to have more features, but i doubt i'd use most of them. For example, i don't annotate books as i read, or use .pdfs very often at all. And i've never bought a book from amazon either.

The reason i wanted page turn buttons is because i don't like the idea of touching the screen for every single page turn. I don't want to smudge the screen.

[ProfCrash]

You can annotate on the Kindle and you can read PDFs. PDF support is not great but it is there.

The only feature I know of that the Sony has that the Kindle does not is more English to another language dictionaries come preloaded on the Sony. Other then that, they pretty much do the same thing.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dnullify

What do you mean by plugboards?

Plugboards are an extremely useful feature of Calibre which allows you to modify the title of an eBook automatically, according to a template, when the books is transferred to your reader. I have mine configured so that if a book is in a series, Calibre automatically prefixes the title with the series name, number within the series, and a hyphen. Thus, in my Calibre metadata for Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" I have the series name set to "Poirot", and the number to "1". When I transfer the book to my Kindle, the book title automatically gets changed to:

Poirot 01 - The Mysterious Affair at Styles

This makes the use of collections for series essentially redundant.

So, the kindle feels like a better device?

As a device, the Kindle and Sony are very similar. What puts the Kindle squarely in front for me are the Amazon bookstore, the ease of buying books, and Amazon's GREAT customer service. Eg, if I buy a book at Amazon, I can return it for any reason within 7 days of purchase. If I buy a book at Sony and find the it has poor formatting then tough - all sales are final.

[ProfCrash]

hmmm I might have to messa round with Calibre some.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Calibre plugboards are a much, MUCH better way to organize your series than collections. I used to use collections on both my Kindle and Sony (I have both), but now I exclusively use plugboards. Works much better. If you do want collections, it's easy enough to do on the Kindle.

As I say, I have both a Sony and a Kindle Touch. I much prefer the Kindle.

This is sort of OT for here, but I'm curious, Harry. How do you use plugboards to organize your series? Certainly, I use a Calibre plugboard to change the on-device title to reflect the series. But I keep a LOT of books on my Kindle. I can't imagine not having collections to reduce the total number of pages on the home page.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Plugboards are an extremely useful feature of Calibre which allows you to modify the title of an eBook automatically, according to a template, when the books is transferred to your reader. I have mine configured so that if a book is in a series, Calibre automatically prefixes the title with the series name, number within the series, and a hyphen. Thus, in my Calibre metadata for Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" I have the series name set to "Poirot", and the number to "1". When I transfer the book to my Kindle, the book title automatically gets changed to:

Poirot 01 - The Mysterious Affair at Styles

This makes the use of collections for series essentially redundant.



As a device, the Kindle and Sony are very similar. What puts the Kindle squarely in front for me are the Amazon bookstore, the ease of buying books, and Amazon's GREAT customer service. Eg, if I buy a book at Amazon, I can return it for any reason within 7 days of purchase. If I buy a book at Sony and find the it has poor formatting then tough - all sales are final.

Are you able to change the title without stripping DRM?

--
Bill

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Are you able to change the title without stripping DRM?

I wouldn't know; I remove the DRM from all the books that I buy.