We say eBook, you think Kindle. Perhaps
because of the online store’s giant market, the Kindle has been marketed
directly to the eBook reader-base and online shoppers – an almost
unfair advantage. The PRS505 Reader, however, holds its own being an
eBook child of digital-book device founder Sony.
While both readers display online
books in 4-level grayscale (black and white), it’s the functionality,
downloading and storing of the books that determines which of the two
is better.
Weighing in at a hefty 290 grams,
the Kindle is wider and longer than the PRS-505 Reader at 19 cm by 13.5
cm. The lighter Sony Reader (250 g), may be smaller, however, has the
same 15 cm reading or display surface as the Kindle, with its keyboard
and page turning buttons, which, in light of the Sony’s touch screen
(available on from PRS700 onwards), seems almost redundant.
The Kindle’s battery lasts 30 hours
which is incomparable to the 7,500 page turns of the Sony Reader. Sony’s
takes longer to charge, which would be forgivable if it could connect
as effortlessly as the Kindle to the WiFi network and store more than
80 books (as opposed to the 200 of Kindle).
While the Kindle does also provide
access to online publications, such newspapers, journals and blog feeds,
the Reader supports more formats and costs a whopping $100 less.
