rblog

I recently completed my first book with the Amazon Kindle and the experience taught me a few things, both pro/con for the Kindle (and ebooks in general), but I think my overall assessment between the Kindle and the first generation Sony ebook (Sony PRS-500) is unchanged.

Kindle Advantages:
1. Book selection - the critical advantage. I think that Sony should immediately work with libraries to adopt whatever format the libraries want to use and counter Amazon. After all, Amazon sells books, Sony sells devices. If I could use an ebook with library books that will be the ebook I would choose. And Amazon would be unlikely to partner with libraries as that hits their core market.
2. Cool features - I like the additional font choices and I really like the Look Up feature. Amazon also offers search - the ability to find words/names in the text.
3. Purchasing ease - the ability to purchase books from the ebook is nice, not critical, but nice.
4. Book price - my unofficial survey showed that prices were lower on Amazon, but that may be temporary.

Kindle Disadvantages:
1. Next/Prev buttons - Sony obviously got it wrong by putting the buttons on the left hand side (works fine in Japan, but not in countries where we read left to right) - and they fixed it in version 2 (which I have not yet used). Amazon put the buttons on the correct sides - but they are so big that you can't carry the book around without inadvertently pressing the buttons! I have found that I put the book to sleep before carrying it somewhere. Also the Kindle doesn't have a History like the Sony, so if you really lose your place it is hard to get it back.
2. On/Off switch - Sony got this one much better - a slider on the left edge (I think Sony's can still be improved) - but Amazon puts it on the back - so you have to pull the book away from the cover to turn it on/off - and if often falls out of the cover.
3. Book cover/overall feel - Sony's feels sleek and elegant, the Kindle feels big and clunky.

Both offer fine reading clarity, although pictures are smaller due to the limited screen size (can't really wrap a picture across two pages).

Overall, I am still sold on ebooks - less clutter, ability to carry lots of books around, features like lookup/search, and no wasted paper. However, I did find at least one drawback to ebooks - it is a little harder to "go back a few pages to something I just saw". Of course, it is easy to hit the "previous" button a few times but I guess I am used to having a sense of where on the page I read something - something I haven't been able to recreate on the ebook.

Now, to the big question - which do I prefer the Kindle or the Sony PRS-500? It is almost a toss up. I prefer to read books on the Sony, but I prefer the books that are offered on the Kindle. All in all, I would lean toward the Kindle due to the book preference and the features that just slightly outweigh the better usability of the Sony. But perhaps I really need to try the Sony 505 :).