Amazon Kindle Wireless Reading Device -Full Review

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

3G Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle; no annual contracts, no monthly fees, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Global Coverage: Enjoy 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries. See details. Check wireless coverage map.

Paper-Like Display: Reads like real paper without glare, even in bright sunlight

Carry Your Library: Holds up to 1,500 books

Longer Battery Life: Now read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of 4 days

Built-In PDF Reader: Your Kindle can now display PDF documents natively. Native PDF support allows you to carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go.

Read-to-Me: With the experimental Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable

Large Selection: Over 540,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including 96 of 112 New York Times® Best Sellers, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. For non-U.S. customers, content availability and pricing will vary. Check your country.

Out-of-Copyright, Pre-1923 Books: Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are available to read on Kindle, including titles such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island. Learn more

Low Book Prices: New York Times® Best Sellers and new releases from $9.99.

Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy .

The Kindle Store: More Than 540,000 Books

At Amazon, we've always been obsessed with having every book ever printed, and we know that even the best book reader is useless without the books you want to read. We are fortunate that we have tens of millions of book customers at Amazon, and as a result, we know the books customers want to read and we prioritize getting those titles. With over 540,000 titles, the Kindle store contains the largest selection of the books people want to read including New York Times® Best Sellers and new releases from $9.99. Along with today's bestsellers, the Kindle store offers thousands of free popular classics including titles such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island. Kindle customers can also discover and download over 1.8 million free, pre-1923, out-of-copyright titles from other websites.

Kindle loses points for:
1) text contrast (the deal breaker)
2) creaky, plastic.
3) size. (although if I had not compared it to Sony, it would have been fine)
4) No directory organization for books - no hierarchy. This is minor, because you can save all your books at Amazon.com and load and unload them as you please. You don't have to have 300 books all downloaded, at all times.
5) charging $30 for an accessory (cover) that is really needed for the product.
6) headphone jack at top of unit? where should the cord go?
7) Amount of time you have to hold the `off' switch before powers down.


Kindle gets points for:
1. Dictionary support. Great feature.
2. book samples
3. Ease of downloading, and the integration with Amazon.com for shopping.
4. Search. Yea! Awesome feature.
5. Note taking ability.
6. easy free download of classic books.
7. E book pricing is low....most are $10 or less

Sony gets points for:
1. Compact size and sturdy - well made.
2. No frills face, easy to focus on reading only.
3. hierarchy of books, alphabetical sections (e.g. by author A-D).
4. lower overall price, with nice leather cover.
5. headphone jack at bottom of unit.
6. Easy to read, great resolution.

Sony loses points for:
1. The Sony store is cumbersome to navigate, and slow.
2. Fewer book choices. (100K vs 240K)
3. No availability of sample books
4. `100 free classic' books offer: getting these books downloaded and into e-reader was frustrating - too time consuming, and the books are already free on Amazon. (offer expires 3/31/09).
5. Books cost more - about $2 more, sometimes $3 or $4 more than Amazon.
6. Is charged by USB to PC, not a wall charger. A charger is an extra $30. I don't think I'll need one, when am I ever away from a computer...never.