Kindle or Sony Reader?
E-reader giants compared: Kindle and Sony Reader
Two of the best selling e-book readers, the Kindle and the Sony Reader have continued to gain popularity with bookworms outside of the US. A third popular e-reader, the Nook is not available outside of the US due to current support restrictions. Both the Kindle and Sony Reader utilize the e-ink pearl technology. While many e-book readers and tablets on the market come with back-lit LCD touch screens, the e-ink pearl technology gives the Kindle and the Sony Reader an anti-glare, paper-like screen contrast that can be read in bright sunlight or in low light. The e-ink technology gives you longer reading hours and less tired eyes.
So what is the difference between the two? Kindle is already on the market for a number of years and remains the best selling e-book reader to date. The Kindle by Amazon has the advantage of piggy backing against Amazon’s massive library of e-books. Others like Sony are playing catch up in the rapidly growing e-book reader market. Although Sony’s Reader library of e-books is not large, the Reader utilizes the EPUB e-book file standard enabling it to read e-books available in the wider market. Has Sony achieved what they have set out to achieve with their Reader? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, we give you a side by side comparison of the two devices below.
| KINDLE | SONY READER |
| DIMENSIONS | |
| Kindle Wifi and Kindle 3G+Wifi:
Height: 190.5 mm
Width: 121.9 mm
Depth: 8.5 mm
|
Touch Edition:
Height: 168 mm
Width: 118.8 mm
Depth: 9.6 mm
Pocket Edition:
Height: 145 mm
Width: 104.3 mm
Depth: 8.5 mm
|
| WEIGHT | |
| Kindle Wifi: 240.9 g
Kindle 3G+Wifi: 246.6 g
|
Touch Edition: 215 g
Pocket Edition: 155 g
|
| SCREEN TYPE | |
| Kindle Wifi, Kindle 3G+Wifi:
E-ink Pearl
|
Touch Edition:
E-ink Pearl Clear Touch
Pocket Edition:
E-ink Pearl Clear Touch
|
| SCREEN SIZE | |
| Kindle Wifi and Kindle 3G+Wifi:
6 inch diagonal
|
Touch Edition:
6 inch diagonal
Pocket Edition:
5 inch diagonal
|
| WIRELESS DATA | |
| Kindle Wifi: Wifi only
Kindle 3G+Wifi: Wifi and Free 3G
|
Touch Edition and Pocket Edition:
No wireless
|
| BATTERY LIFE | |
| Kindle Wifi:
1 month (wireless off)
3 weeks (wireless on)
Kindle 3G+Wifi:
1 month (wireless off)
10 days (wireless on)
|
Touch Edition and Pocket Edition:
2 weeks or 10,000 page turns.
|
| AUDIO | |
| Kindle Wifi, Kindle 3G+Wifi:
MP3, AAX with read-to-me feature, stereo speakers and audio jack
|
Touch Edition and Pocket Edition:
MP3 with audio jack and mono speakers
|
| FILE FORMATS | |
| Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, HTML, DOC, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion. | Touch Edition and Pocket Edition:
Open e-book file standard (EPUB), PDF, Microsoft Word, TXT, RTF, BBeB, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP
|
| USB | |
| Yes | Yes |
| MEMORY CAPACITY | |
| 4GB internal | Touch Edition:
2GB internal with expandable SD memory.
Pocket Edition:
2GB internal, not expandable.
|
| E-BOOK CAPACITY | |
| 3,500 books | Touch Edition and Pocket Edition:
1,200 books on internal storage
|
| E-BOOK ACCESS | |
| Over 810,000 books (550,000 priced at £6 or less).
First chapters can be read for free.
Over 1.8 million free out-of-copyright titles.
Exclusive Kindle e-book publications by authors.
|
Over 100,000 titles from partner E-book stores and free e-books. |
| SHARING | |
| E-book library access from local library. | E-book library access from local library. |
| ARCHIVING | |
| Online backup | Expandable SD card (Touch Edition only) |
| SECURITY | |
| Password protection | Not available |
| OTHER FEATURES | |
| Text-to-speech
Never gets hot
Organise books into categories
Real book page numbers
Adjustable text size
Rotatable screen
Image zoom
Web browser
Built-in dictionary
|
12 built in dictionaries and 10 translation dictionaries
Touch Edition available in black, silver and red
Pocket Edition available in silver, pink and blue
Page bookmarking
|
| WARRANTY | |
| 12-month limited warranty with Amazon. | 12-months standard |
| PRICE £UK | |
| Kindle Wifi: £111.00
Kindle 3G+Wifi: £152.00
Includes free delivery.
|
Touch Edition: £199.99
Pocket Edition: £159.99
|
| AVAILABILITY | |
|
Sold worldwide through Amazon
|
Sold worldwide at local Sony stores
|
