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Saturday, November 8, 2008

Kindle vs Sony Ebook Reader Reviews

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the brand new e-book reader launched by Amazon. The most popular e-book reader around has been the one launched by Sony.

The price difference

One of the main differences that really stands out between the Sony E-book Reader and Kindle is the vast price disparity. There's a whopping 100 dollar difference with the Sony reader being priced at 300 USD and Kindle having a price of 400 USD. While the Sony reader promises a host of freebie features like free viewing of PDF files, no internet connection needed, free access to blogs as well as RSS feeds and even a memory card included in the welcome kit, this reader from Sony sure has plenty of upsides to it. However, Kindle isn't far behind what with the capacity to contain more than 200 titles and an SD card slot that is included with it. However, you do need to pay 1 dollar for every blog and RSS feed respectively which is quite a bit expensive.

The format

While the Sony Reader allows you to view PDF files free of cost, the Kindle charges a 10 cent fee for every PDF file that you would sync into the device. Also Kindle tends to read HTML, plain text formats and images from the SD card but doesn't do too well with DOC, RTF and PDF formats. But then again even the Sony Reader cannot read DOC formats directly.

E-ink technology

As far as the 6 inch LCD screen display goes in the Kindle, the display uses the revolutionary e-ink technology using 'Vizplex' film on the surface. However, both the Sony Reader and the Kindle have used the same technology. The plus side to this technology is that 40% of received light gets deflected and uses reflected instead of transmitted light which makes both devices easy on the eyes.

Printability

There is no need to print any document because Kindle offers portability in taking along all personal documents at anytime in any place, thereby eliminating the need for printing. The 10 cent fee is applicable for wireless transfer of word documents. However, if users do not wish to shell out this fee, free transfers can be leveraged. For this, the file or attachment needs to be sent to 'name'@free.kindle.com where name stands for the ID used for your Kindle email address. So if the Kindle email ID is smith@kindle.com then attachments need to be sent to smith@free.kindle.com and then the file gets converted and emailed to the associated Amazon account.

Battery life

The Amazon Kindle is by far a better choice when it comes to battery life. You can go for four days at a stretch without any need to charge the Kindle. Besides, this is its good network coverage in almost any area which makes for good portability. Turning pages is as easy at the click of a button which means that even if you are reading the e-book in bed, operating the Kindle is much easier than the Sony Reader.

James Kara Murat the contributor of PrintCountry Articles. Read more about the subject at Kindle vs. Sony Ebook Reader Reviews, and related resources can be found at PrintCountry Miscellaneous Printer Information.

2 comments:

Tomlin said...

sorry!
Your price figures
are quite out of date

Unknown said...

Not to mention:

Reading blogs is free (either with the built in Sprint wireless web access or uploaded via the USB cable and using an aggregator like feedbooks.com/news); having them wirelessly delivered to you as they update is what costs money (just as you pay for text messages on a cell phone, as that is essentially the level of technology used).

Reading PDF and DOC and HTML files on the Kindle is also free. Use something like mobicreator to convert to the Kindle format or email them to your @free.kindle.com address and they appear converted in your email account. Then copy to the Kindle using the USB cable (which is the exact same way you get them onto a Sony reader). If, however, you don't want to use the free cable transfer, you can pay 10 cents per document to have them sent via Whispernet to the Kindle (and added feature not present on the Sony or likely in the near future, as the newest version does not have any wireless or cellular ability), although currently it appears no on actually is being charged for this service.

The same happens with non-drm books you want to read on the kindle (literally millions of free books are available, plus many non-drm mobi format books) - copy them to the Kindle for free using the USB cable or for a 10 cent charge, have them sent via Whispernet (handy if working off an internet connection not your own and you don't have the USB cable/connection available).

The Sony does handle PDF in a native format, without conversion, but the PDF file has to be a reflowable version or made for the small screen. Perhaps it even does pictures in those docs a bit better (but neither is really designed for graphics viewing), but the conversion process ends up making the two about even (plus, since the converted file is like any other on the Kindle, you can take notes on it and save pages as clippings, to retrieve later on your computer).

The Kindle may cost $60 more than the older Sony models, at $360, but is actually $40 less than the newest version (the 700 is $400). Given the huge difference in prices in the Sony store versus the Kindle store, you'll make back not only the difference, but the entire price of the device in a year or two, if you are an avid reader.