Cris Jolliff

A Side by Side Comparison: Kindle 1 Vs. Sony PRS 500

WHY EBOOK READERS?

I’m fascinated by emerging technology. Ebook readers aren’t exactly new, or even newsworthy, but I had an opportunity recently to paw at some of the best offerings available to mankind at the moment, and thought I’d share my thoughts on the whole experience. They offer a lot of convenience (carry an entire library of books in one book’s space), and a lot of new qualities (e-ink, which looks almost exactly like printed words on paper, and requires power only when refreshing/changing the page), but it remains to be seen, a) which is better, and b) why I would bother with either one.

HARDWARE

Over all, I preferred the look and feel of the Sony. I enjoyed the “smug factor” of waving a Kindle under the noses of friends and family and watching them salivate and “Oooh” at it, though…at least until I explained it was on loan and wasn’t really mine.

Kindle 1

Kindle 1′s greatest criticisms stem from its hardware. Its page buttons are enormous, and sit right at the device edges, where any stray thumb, finger, or stray bump in your sweater will cause a page turn (heh, heh…”The Sweater Bumps” is the name of my new band). This quickly became a nuisance that wasn’t soon forgiven or forgotten. The keyboard is larger than I expected to need on an ebook reader…it’s not a text machine or an email device, so why the huge keyboard, Amazon? Typing on the keyboard still isn’t very comfortable, in spite of the largeness (too big for thumbing like a smart phone, too small to use like a laptop), so surfing for book titles or looking things up wasn’t really all that much fun. The scroll-wheel and “magic” chrome LCD sidebar are cute, but ultimately not very compelling.

The styling has been described many ways (most amusing was that it was being called the “snow-speeder” after the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back vehicle of the same name). It’s a bit goofy-looking, and feels cheap and chunky. As it turns out, my initial opinion of the hardware turned out to be dead right. Not only did I manage to break the screen by dropping the device (and the “book cover” was no help at all, since it doesn’t lock properly to the device), but Amazon has just released a complete redesign of the hardware. By the way, that drop was totally accidental.

Sony PRS 500

Although I preferred this device’s look and feel over the Kindle’s, it had its faults as well. Again with the large, clunky keyboard. This device had several options for page turning, none of which interfered with reading in any way, or caused any inadvertent page turning. I know it sounds like I’m harping on this, but 1) page turning is what drains the batteries on these devices, and 2) it’s a nuisance to keep finding yourself on a page you’ve either already read, or have no idea how you got there. Its “book cover” was locked solidly to the device’s rear cover, and required an alarming amount of force to remove (I was concerned I would break it before it gave and released normally). Mog smash.

The styling was sleek, and understated, as you’d expect from an experienced gadget company like Sony. It feels slightly heavy for its size (like every piece of fruit or vegetable you were ever told was ready to eat), which projects a sense of quality and resilience. Although this device was dropped, too (not by me, thankfully), I managed to break it a different way, so read on. Also, the white case on the Kindle makes the displayseem to be brighter than the Sony. It’s a total illusion, as it turns out, because both use identical e-ink displays, right down to their dimensions.

SOFTWARE

Kindle 1

The Kindle has a few advantages here, and they are big ones. First, the Kindle has a greater range of font sizes than the PRS 500.  Next, the Kindle’s biggest advantage: no leash. Wireless access not only to obtain more books, but for a number of web-based products like wikis, RSS feeds, and even subscription-based newspaper and magazine websites. Its use of Sprint’s Data Network (Amazon calls this “WhisperNet”) gives its users a dramatic range of freedom.

You can also manually load files to the device via USB-to-MicroUSB connection from any computer (no software required), but file type is a serious restriction here. Only its proprietary format and technically one other (.prc/.mobi, but only unprotected ones) can be read by the device, although I was able to find third party software that could make conversions from most other document formats. This is ironic, considering how web-friendly it is otherwise. No .html or .txt books? On the plus side, you can send documents to Amazon, who will (experimentally) reformat them and send them to your Kindle for a modest fee.

Sony PRS 500

Unlike the Kindle, you have to plan ahead with this device, and load everything you think you might want to read before you walk away from a computer. It’s got plenty of storage space, and like the Kindle 1, it has an SD card slot for expanding memory. Unlike the Kindle, and to my pleasant surprise, it reads a startling number of formats, including .pdf and .txt files. This makes dumping your own material on the device quite easy. Be warned with pdfs, though, if they are not resized to a smaller page size, reading them will require a lot of extra manipulation. If you have Acrobat Pro, this isn’t a problem, but not everyone can or will do this. The fact that it accepts a much wider range of formats (.lrf, .pdf, .txt, .rtf, ePub) makes it a good fit for people seeking to carry/convert their own works. Book purchases must be done via USB-to-MicroUSB, however, and software must be installed on the host computer before any transactions can be done (think iTunes and iPod).

So how did I break the Sony, you ask? I know you’re paying attention, so here goes: I just ran it dead. My loaner didn’t come with a wall-mounted charger, nor did it come with a warning like “Don’t drain it dead or it’ll never work for you again, dumb ass.” Sadly, that’s exactly what I did. Once it went back to its owner, who had the charger, it was easily enough recovered, but if I had been using that thing on travel without its charger, I’d have been one sad sack!

FOR PIRATES ONLY

I was able to quickly and quietly find a rather large supply of books to read via my friendly neighborhood bit-torrent website. It goes without saying that this was a) illegal, and b) fun as all hell. I took my ill-gotten gains (mostly in pdf and/or rtf formats), and downloaded some free software to convert them for both devices. Although the Sony takes .pdf and .rtf, I found I disliked the look/feel of those documents in the Sony, unless I converted them. Needless to say, none of the stuff I downloaded contained DRM, so there were no problems installing anything I downloaded.

As an additional experiment, I obtained a DRM-encrypted book from an associate (we’ll call her “Unwitting Accomplice” to preserve her anonymity). That content was formatted for Kindle, and was copied into the Kindle via manual cable connection, and played just as well as paid-for content and my DRM-free pirated content, so the pundits who cry foul at not being able to pass along books, once read, can bite me. Not true, simply put.

CONCLUSIONS

At the end of the day, I’m still not convinced I need any kind of eBook reader. It is novelty alone that would compel me to buy one at all, and at a nominal price of $200 for the Sony PRS 500, even it isn’t in my disposable income range. That means the Kindle, with it’s massive $360 price tag, is right the hell out. When you add to that cost the fact that books for either device still cost in the $10 average range (which is still more than an average paperback novel), it’s not a very convincing sales pitch.

I believe where this technology will find its niche is in replacing horrifically expensive printed textbooks and other educational materials, but only when the devices are capable of rendering higher resolution graphics (black and white is totally acceptable, but grainy charts and formulas are not!).

As of this writing, Kindle is in its second hardware iteration, having overcome a lot of its initial releases hardware shortcomings (no word yet on how easily Kindle 2 is destroyed, when dropped. If I get my hands on one, I’ll let you know). It looks slick, is reportedly much thinner and lighter, and probably makes the person holding one feel even more smug, when waving it under a peer’s nose. Cost is the same as Kindle 1, for those keeping score.

Sony hasn’t been idle, either. They released a PRS 505 with a few minor tweaks (slightly faster pagination, more memory, batteries that don’t stay dead when you run them dead, even if you don’t have a wall charger from your friend who forgot to mention, “Oh, by the way, don’t run it dead.”), and a sweet PRS 700 model that includes, among other improvements, annotation (apparently Kindle already had this…like I cared/noticed?), touch screen (sweet!) with gesture-based page turning, and a battery-draining backlight for reading in the dark (also sweet!). These features come with a hefty $399 price tag, though. I hear the downside of the touch screen is that the screen is now more glare-sensitive than standard e-ink screens. Watch for the tech guys to find a way to overcome that hurdle, or else say bye-bye to the touch screen yet again. I think most buyers will decide glare is more annoying than the touch screen is attractive.

Incidentally, I have a pocket eBook reader installed in my smart phone (freeware, duh), and guess what? I don’t read books on that thing, either! Surprise! ::sigh:: I guess I’m not the bibliophile everyone thinks I am.