One of the main differences that really stands out between the Sony E-book Reader and Kindle is the vast price disparity. There’s a whopping 100 dollar difference with the Sony reader being priced at 300 USD and Kindle having a price of 400 USD. While the Sony reader promises a host of freebie features like free viewing of PDF files, no internet connection needed, free access to blogs as well as RSS feeds and even a memory card included in the welcome kit, this reader from Sony sure has plenty of upsides to it. However, Kindle isn’t far behind what with the capacity to contain more than 200 titles and an SD card slot that is included with it. However, you do need to pay 1 dollar for every blog and RSS feed respectively which is quite a bit expensive.
The format
While the Sony Reader allows you to view PDF files free of cost, the Kindle charges a 10 cent fee for every PDF file that you would sync into the device. Also Kindle tends to read HTML, plain text formats and images from the SD card but doesn’t do too well with DOC, RTF and PDF formats. But then again even the Sony Reader cannot read DOC formats directly.
E-ink technology
As far as the 6 inch LCD screen display goes in the Kindle, the display uses the revolutionary e-ink technology using ‘Vizplex’ film on the surface. However, both the Sony Reader and the Kindle have used the same technology. The plus side to this technology is that 40% of received light gets deflected and uses reflected instead of transmitted light which makes both devices easy on the eyes.
Printability
There is no need to print any document because Kindle offers portability in taking along all personal documents at anytime in any place, thereby eliminating the need for printing. The 10 cent fee is applicable for wireless transfer of word documents. However, if users do not wish to shell out this fee, free transfers can be leveraged. For this, the file or attachment needs to be sent to ‘name’@free.kindle.com where name stands for the ID used for your Kindle email address. So if the Kindle email ID is smith@kindle.com then attachments need to be sent to smith@free.kindle.com and then the file gets converted and emailed to the associated Amazon account.
Battery life
The Amazon Kindle is by far a better choice when it comes to battery life. You can go for four days at a stretch without any need to charge the Kindle. Besides, this is its good network coverage in almost any area which makes for good portability. Turning pages is as easy at the click of a button which means that even if you are reading the e-book in bed, operating the Kindle is much easier than the Sony Reader.
