I bought my wife the Sony e-reader 505 for christmas and she loves it. I spent a lot of time researching to see if you get the same books are with the kindle. They were pretty much equal with what books were available. Plus it will read PDF, and you can conver Word files not that she does either.

I don't understand the amazement with the Kindle. I connect via wi-fi, download books, read, play games, sync my email, and my calendar with my Palm T/X. Which cost me less than a Kindle. I'll get excited when color e-ink becomes an affordable reality.

Did anyone else notice that the Foxit eSlick was left out of the graph?

Thanks, Enone for your comment! I've added the eSlick to the table and made it so you can click for an enlargement.

You can download a free Mobipocket converter that converts many document formats to the kindle-supported .prc format. Unfortunately, the converter is Windows only, but it runs fine on my machine in Parallels. You can get the software from the Mobipocket website (www.mobipocket.com).

There's sometihng I'm not getting about the Kindle. Yeah, that wireless is fine and dandy, but it says it uses Sprint's 3G... does that mean it will work in Europe or not?

No Sony Reader PRS-505 love? The 700 isn't an upgrade, it's a different model. Sony still sells both. The PRS-505 is cheaper and has a better display since there's no touch screen.

You forgot the iRex DR1000... largest available screen today. You can read magazine pdf files with no trouble.... and if you are really into DRM, it does mobipocket.

@Jen: Kindle isn't for sale in the UK atm, but if you do import it you won't be able to use the whispernet service cause it's ran by sprint.

I'm waiting for the color e-book, everyone to have one which means lower prices, touch screen kindle and also I'd like to have it connect to any book store, not just amazon. Maybe Barnes and Noble or Borders?

My netbook can read e-books too, and browse the web, do email, stream video, audio, play games, etc. It costs less than the Kindle and its kin, and does more.

@ Joe: And which is your netbook? And kan you turn in upright and detach the keyboard, so it wont get in the way=

"connect via wi-fi, download books, read, play games, sync my email, and my calendar with my Palm T/X. Which cost me less than a Kindle"

And your Palm sucks for gaming compared to a Gameboy. Get the point? The Kindle is ideally suited for reading -- long, long, battery life, with e-ink tech being better on the eyes than traditional LCD.

I'll stick with the Sony PRS-505. I have an ebook so I can read books, not email or connect to the internet or play games, phone people. Even the mp3 capability is wasted on the Sony, I have an mp3 player for that. The Sony is SO easy to use and carry. I love that it uses simple txt files as well as a number of others. I can write up a list of things I need to buy, a recipe collection, phone lists and add them with a simple drag & drop. I love the expandable capability with the 2 memory cards, not that I've been able to fill them yet! Who needs back light? It's supposed to be a paperback in electronic form. If you want to read in the dark, turn on a light. Why drain your battery faster? I can't and won't live without my 505 :)

Want to improve an ebook reader? Make a version that folds open with a screen on each side, like a real paperback. Increased font sizes, color images, increase battery length...

Beware of DRM when buying ebooks from Amazon or Sony.

Also not mentioned was iPhone. Get the Stanza app and you can convert just about anything to .epub.

I agree with EMMA. The biggest fault with the Kindle is not the technology of the reader - it is the DRM on Amazon e-books.

It's a shame that you didn't include the Sony PRS-505. I've compared the 505 and the 700 in the Sony store, and when I buy one, I will probably buy the 505. Frankly, I found the 700 to be a disappointment. The touch screen dramatically reduces the contrast on the screen, making it harder to read, and I didn't find that the touch screen worked all that well anyway. About 1/3 of the time, it didn't change the page when I swiped my finger. I don't know if I was doing something wrong, or if it was a problem with the unit itself. The sidelight didn't bright enough to do much, although it may be more useful in a darkened room. Also, the 700 was larger and heavier than the elegant 505. All in all, just based on my testing, I felt that the PRS-505 was far superior to the PRS-700.

The graph doesn't cover memory--how many books and PDFs and whatnot can the device hold?

Also: K2 touts 16 shades of gray. What do the others have? Are any of them in color?

And as an aside, my primary interest in an ereader would be to look at PDFs. The ones I'm interested in are full color with pictures and tables and the whole bit. Do any of them do a good job with that, I wonder?

what about the EBookwise? a nice little machine at only about $130.

I also purchaced the EBokwise reader 'bout 2 years ago. It's made by EBook Technologies. It has an internal modem or you can connect it via serial port to a PC. You don't have to purchace titles exclusively from Ebookwise.com or Fictionwise.com either. It's sooo much cheeper and does the job!

Wow, I have never read such a biased report, Did you just buy some stock in Amazon?

I wonder why the Franklin Electronic Publishers eBookman with the Mobipocket Web Companion is omitted?

I absolutely love the Sony 505.I looked at the Kindle but didn't like that conversion nonsense and wasn't really interested in a keyboard, which added bulk and weight to the unit. With the Sony and a neat little program called calibre, I can convert many books to larger font. Sony's library is extensive and they have best sellers and new books almost as fast as the printed versions. Thanks for the comments on the 700. I'll stick with the 505. The only negative I find with the 505, the page turn buttons are stiff and require a lot of pressure.

I like the concept of the e-reader, and the various forms it comes in...however, as a lifelong book devourer, I have already found the platform for My e-books in the palm t/x (there is a whole commmunity of palm owners using it for e-reading , and with even the newest palm relatively the same price as the cheaper reader, yet capable of far far more than these featured devices seem to be capable of).
Unless My chosen venue breaks, or just dies from overuse, I would not willingly get into the whole fiasco of proprietary formats, high prices, and just plain foolish competition arena.
The flexi-screen sounds interesting (My wife said she would not ever subscribe to e-readers as she likes the feel of holding a real book in her hands (hope the flexi-screen at least has multiple pages for "page-turners" ).
Idea: maybe places like amazon and chapters etc, should install a "memory chip" dispenser (a vending machine that is connected to the webpages of publishing houses and e-book distributers) that would allow one to purchase e-books, load them onto a memory stick, then dispense them right at the kiosk, so anyone with a reader that uses the memory stick, can simply change the book library on the go (memory cards and sticks are becoming so cheap that the overhead would be embarrassingly small, making the potential profit margin huge).
Just a thought though, there was no mention of expandable memory slots on the featured e-readers....does that mean no card slot? no way of expanding the memory capacity?
And why does the led lit screen cause so much of a power problem? Why not just have the led system connected to a separate ,replaceable battery (say, a button cell), that way your onboard, charger specific battery, lasts longer.
So many ideas...so little ways to express them where they can do good lol....happy reading everyone ;)

I've never owned an e-book reader, and probably wouldn't consider buying one, for the following reasons:

1. Too damned expensive. As a device with one relatively simple function, they cost too much. Until I can find one in the twenty to thirty dollar range, forget it. I don't think they'll ever get popular unless dirt cheap. Remember old Gillette and his razor? Gillette sometimes gave away the razor, to make money on the blades. Although he lost money on the razor, you were stuck with years or a lifetime buying blades, which more than made up for the loss. If e-book readers were sold at or below cost, the resulting book sales would still bring a profit.

2. At that price, I'd be afraid of dropping or losing the thing.

3. The screwing around with proprietary formats. That's something that should be invisible to the reader. Let the machine do it in the background and without prompting.

4. I usually have two to four novels going at the same time. Do the readers bookmark and let you switch from one to the other?

5. Hard-copy books are loaned out to others, especially when finished. Certainly, I sometimes read a novel two or three times, but over the course of many years. For practical purposes, once read, it lies around for years and is often loaned out or given away. Can you do that with current e-book readers?

6. There's a lot of getting used to, when it comes to changing from hard-copy to a machine. It's a relatively unimportant factor, but is still there.

7. As brought out before, there's the matter of other machines being not only capable of reading e-books, but also many other functions. Unless these readers, with one simple function, are very cheap, they can't hope to compete. For instance, if I can buy a netbook cheaper, there's no incentive to buy an e-book reader.

Charlie

I have a kindle as does my mom. It has an option of changing the font size and the books cost less in the long run. And you can get memory cards... Also you never have to order a book more then once and have the option of turning off the wifi switch.
I tried using a Sony ebook a few years back and it was next to impossible to get it set up. Had to instal a cd... Anyway with the kindle it works with both mac and windows.. Not many others can say that. And yes you can read books on your iPhone but it Raises your phone bill. Not to meantion if your in a 3g dead zone your out of luck.

This is just my oh ten cents

Oh please, I LOVE my IPhone but reading a book on that tiny screen? get real.

I own a Kindle and have pre-ordered Kindle 2. I think Sony probably has the more stylish product, and I like the idea of a night light component, landscape mode and especially a touch screen. But Sony doesn't make it easy to understand the value of its product. The image of it on its web site is small and it doesn't provide enlarged or spin views. More importantly, I can't figure out how to view its bookstore, which, it appears is only available to owners who install their software. How insane is that! If I don't know what books are available, why would I choose Sony over Kindle? And apparently, it doesn't sync with a Mac. Sheesh. The Kindle, on the other hand is clumsy to use and hopefully K2 will not be som much. I hate the keyboards and which they were virtual like Sony. And I especially wish I could swipe the screen to change a page, Like Sony. But the instant availability of books through wireless download is critical to my choice of it as the superior product. Sometimes, I have a sudden whim to read a particular book, and Kindle will even send me a free chapter sample! I wouldn't even look at another product at this point. Sony's ereader will rest in Heaven with the Betamax soon if it doesn't work a synergy deal with Barnes & Noble or Borders, each of which is suffering against Amazon's competition.

eReader for Palm is a great alternative to all of the devices above. The app itself is free so if you already own a palm, iPhone, iPod touch, PocketPC , or windows mobile device try it first. You might think the screen is small, but the default text appears in a very readable size and can made bigger or smaller. I've been using it for over a year and it's great.

If you don't already own one of those devices, most don't cost as much as the readers above and they are good for more than just e-books. Food for thought.

I find my sony prs-505 useful for carrying around large books. It's just impractical to carry around a couple of computer books that are very thick. With an ereader I'm able to carry four books with me and it doesn't kill my back or crush my laptop (happened with my old ibook).

The books are cheaper in ebook format from amazon and sony. If I pay more for a paper copy of a book and loan it out to two friends who also loan me books it's much cheaper and I get to read more books. Much like CD's and letting people borrow them publishers are trying to get into a everyone pays to enjoy model. More money for them.

Adobe pdf files are great for books. I can read them on any computer and don't have to worry about if I'll be able to still see this file in a couple years. What does someone do to get access to all these books you are purchasing if your ereader dies? Get another one for hundreds of dollars? DRM means no ability to just view and read them on my computer if I need to wait till I can afford to replace my reader.

And why didn't they include the eBookwise e-book? Yeah it's old tech, but it works at $125!

I'll wait until I can use a memory card with them to expand how much I can put on it.

I've tried the Kindle--and several others--and I bought the Sony PRS 505. It is much better designed, easy to use for long periods of time, and is relatively open (unlike the Kindle, which has been called a portable DRM bookstore). On the 505 I can read the huge number of PDF and Word books that are out there. I travel frequently in Europe, and the Kindle will not function here. I am delighted with the 505. --David

For me, perhaps not others, the PRS 505 is nearly perfect. Light weight, small and thin, easy to hold, plenty of storage and battery life, reasonably rugged (although I just trashed the screen!), very readable, simple navigation, no conversion req'd for key doc types. An improvement over the 500, a device I no longer own because of Sony's much appreciated upgrade program. The glaring hole in the PRS-505 feature set is lack of WiFi. Also, they Memory Stick slot and earphone jack seem marginal, with SD's market dominance and prevalence of cheap and popular personal music players. They should ditch those features and use the cost savings to implement Wi-Fi. Sony's eBook Store and PC application are both a bit clunky and could stand improvement. The price is a bit too high and it would probably take forever (100s of purchased books) to cost justify (sort of like a hybrid car). But, it's priced right for early adopters (again, like a hybrid car).

If Wi-Fi is implemented, an RSS reader would be very helpful for organizing and reading daily publications or blogs. Don't need a browser.

I've tried reading in bed with my ASUS netbook -- doesn't work for me. My Wi Fi PDA is great for RSS, but the 505 would be better and the PDA is a non-starter for books because of the screen size.

One detail about Sony DRM is whatever right you purchase, it is transferrable from one Sony eReader to another. When I upgraded from the 500 to the 505, I didn't have any problem transferring the books to my new device. The Kindle might be different based on some other posts.

I have tried a few different models. Kindle is very good but at the end I choose the Bebook because they support more formats which gives you a bigger choice of free ebooks.

I have a Kindle2 and have gotten my mother one as well. If the machine dies or get stolen your whole downloaded library is available in your Amazon account. No worries there. The keyboard makes it very easy to search your whole library for words or phrases. Also, being able to annotate the books is great for students like me and I've even heard a few ministers say how helpful this would be. My favorite feature is the in=text dictionary that allows me to look up the definition of a word while reading. It just pops up in the bottom two lines of the screen. Second only to that is the sample feature. I like being able to read the first few pages of a book before buying (just as if in the store). Ultimately, what made me choose the Kindle2 is being able to buy books anywhere. As an avid reader I go through them so quickly I like to get a new book instantaneously. Plus with all the books that are out of copyright, I managed to get 50 or so books for free. That plus the manybooks.net site has greatly increased my library in the last two months. I personally have no use for pdf files on my Kindle, but for those that do the Kindle DX is probably the best option as it is larger and does not require pdf conversion. The downside of course to all ebooks is that you can't loan them to friend.

I am at present using the XO (One Laptop per Child) computer as an electronic book. If I decide to get an ebook, it would be the Bebook rather than a Kindle or Sony.

I agree with many others that posted, I think it was a BIG BIG MISTAKE not to include the prs-505 in the reviews.
Of all the comments , the prs-505 has been talked about the MOST out of all of them! And this reviewer FAILED to include it.
The kindle 2 is a great device , but I think the prs-505 looks better, has SD card and Sony card slots, has more formats and is not tied to amazon's site. It comes with cover , unlike kindle 2. It's probably comes down to kindle 2 and prs-505 , but I bought the prs-505 for 200 dollars from borders a month ago. So price goes to 505. The Ilaid is great device but at over 700 dollars is not priced to sell. the prs-505 is!

There is no comparison to the Amazon Online Reader, it has been designed as a perfect handheld device so one can loose themselves in thier reading, just like a real book.