The Kindle vs Sony Reader battle is not getting any less fierce. The upper part of the best ebook reader lists are always dominated by Kindle and Sony, and the two are fiercely at it, too. Amazon continues to come out with its Kindle upgrades, and Sony continues to advance its Sony Reader PRS series.
The two e-book readers bear plenty of similarities but are also very different. Each one also seems focused on coming up with more and more innovations to topple the competition. Kindle has come up with their 3G and Whispernet connectivity features, while Sony has converted the regular ebook screen and made it into an impressive touch screen.
In terms of size, the Sony Readers get the upperhand; the Kindle is bulkier, bigger, and heavier, and Sony Readers have done away with the navigation controls that take up much space on the Kindle due to its touch screen.
It may seem as if Sony is winning, but Kindle makes up for the loss in terms of features. Kindle does not require a computer unlike the Sony does, so frequent travellers and those who value sheer convenience will definitely go for a Kindle.
The Amazon Kindle is currently the most popular ebook reader in the market. In the Kindle vs Sony Reader fight, Amazon’s main advantage is its almost phenomenal entry into the market, thanks to Amazon’s popularity and its hyped up advertising. Another excellent advantage is Amazon’s supply of over 360,000 ebooks in the Kindle library. And with up to 4 GB of memory on the Kindle DX model, you can store thousands of ebooks and bring it with you anywhere.
According to users, Kindle’s battery lasts a bit longer especially if the wireless feature is turned off. This wireless feature, however, is another one of Kindle’s best offers which Sony has not achieved yet. Through the Kindle, you can connect via 3G and Whispernet wireless and even buy books right on the device. This means Kindle is definitely the pick-up-and-go unit; you don’t have to worry about whether you’ve loaded all your important or favourite books into the unit.
When it comes to usage, the Kindle also comes with six zoom levels to make font sizes more comfortable. It also comes with full controls that some consumers still prefer over the touch screen navigation. The scroll wheel and cursor beside the Kindle screen also offer convenient page turning without affecting the refresh rate of the screen.
The Sony Reader offers several different models, such as the PRS-505, PRS-300, PRS-600, and the PRS-700. One key advantage is the modern touch screen of the Sony offer, as well as its dual support for both SD and Memory Stick Duo, which you can read at the same time. The Sony Reader is also lighter and thinner, making it more portable.
Although the Sony Reader cannot connect to the Internet like the Kindle does, it offers everything that’s important to digital book reading. The models with no touch screen, however, have better and softer controls than the Kindle because they were easier to navigate.
The Sony Reader only comes with three zoom levels, but readability is still excellent. To make up for this, Sony offers a wide mode display. The Sony Reader does require a PC so you can load books into the device, but once that’s done, the light and slim unit can go with you where you need to go along with your most favourite reading collection.
Despite the tough Kindle vs Sony Reader competition, there are several similarities between the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Readers. The two devices use the same E-ink display technology and similar microprocessors. In terms of readability, the two devices are fairly equal and offer good font capture.
Aside from that, both have good enough memory capacity, which can be further extended with SD memory cards. Both devices can be actively used for two weeks on a single charge, and both can play audiobooks and preview images.
Both also offer dedicated content sources; Kindle offers all of Amazon’s ebook library, which offers more than 300,000 ebooks to select from, while Sony offers the Sony eBook store called Sony CONNECT with around 20,000 titles to choose from plus up to 100 free classic titles.
In spite of these similarities, there is no denying the fact that the Kindle vs Sony Reader fight will continue to get fierce.
