Amazon Kindle vs Sony Reader?? Or any other contenders out there?

[PacificMistletoeandnoWine]

I am confuzzled.

Tried to do some homework on the above which made my confusion worse.

Kindle DS or Reader Daily Edition?? Or one of the earlier ones?

I have asked Santa for one of these, have never had an electronic book reading thingmy, quite like the idea of the Kindle being able to read your book to you ie in the car like an audio book, but also like that the Reader allows you to buy books from different retailers.

Any techy/geeky people out there with strong opinions on the subject? Or are you using one or the other? Or even a different one?

Please share your experiences - Santa needs to get a move on and order !

TIA.

Neither.

I use my iPhone. You can download books from a variety of websites in eReader format to read. Or download an audio book on iTunes.

And you can email, text, MN and even phone someone with it too.

Hmm, yes, I considered that as well but the small screen for reading put me off.

I am an avid reader, but a rather reluctant mobile communicator (she says on an on-line forum ).

Actually, I know this doesn't help you, OP, but I vote for the iPhone too. I got all evangelical about it on another thread a while back so won't go over it again! But whichever you choose, I hope you enjoy it

(the iPhone as a reader, I mean)

I tried to search MN on this because I am sure it has been done before but did not come with anything much.

So you are not too bothered about screen size, then?

Interesting.

I have a Sony eReader that my parents gave me last Christmas. I use it a lot and really like it but I often find that I go looking for a specific book and it isn't available in electronic format. I've only found two places to buy from, Waterstones and Mills&Boon (don't pull that face, they also publish some non-romance which I buy as well as the slushy stuff).

Amazon have many more books available for the Kindle, and you can download them without having to plug into a computer. But you do have to buy from Amazon.com and you pay a bit extra because you are considered to be buying from abroad. Having said that Amazon usually have better prices than Waterstones anyway.

I think if I was buying new I would go for the Kindle over the Sony, but it's not enough better yet to ditch the Sony I already have.

There is another reader that seems to be widely available, but I forget it's name at the moment and I don't know much about it.

It has been done before, I was on the thread. I'll have a quick search for you.

Here you go.

Oh, thanks for that, bran.

There is a new Sony Reader out with G3 capabilites as well, otherwise I would probably have gone for the Kindle without botherin you lot asking here.

Off to bed now but will check in tomorrow.
Ta again

Review here

Having compared them, I have to agree that if you are looking for something to replace buying books then the kindle size is probably better.

I use the iPhone eReader when I am out and about and don't want to drag a book with me, or when I unexpectedly have some time to spare.

I have used it at home to read books, but mainly because it is so much cheaper for me to download books than buy them in a bookstore. I live in Switzerland and pay a fortune for English books.

I think the volume of available titles would be my deciding factor. I did a test of 10 books that I quite fancied reading (so not exhaustive), 2 of them were available on Waterstones website for the Sony and 9 of them were available for the Kindle.

If availability hasn't strongly improved for the Sony by this time next year I will probably abandon it for something else, most likely the Kindle.

I love my Kindle. It's really easy on the eye to read, the screen refresh is very fast, and the battery life is fab.

I bought mine as I travel for work a lot, and read very fast, so wanted to have multiple books to carry around easily. So far, I've spent very little on books as classics are so cheap - you can get the complete works of Jane Austen for $5 for instance.

Thanks, everybody.

Leaning towards the Kindle, but wonder whether it is worthwhile holding out for the DX for larger screen size (currently only in the US).

Anybody else who'd like to share?