eReaders' survey (as of May 22, 2011)

(click on the above images, to view them clearly in new page/window)

> Very good website/blog for e-readers' reviews: http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/

e-Readers

Almost all the e-readers have audio (music), browser (for internet), mini-USB slot (for connection to PC).

Some also as micro-SD card slot.

Amazon Kindle-3:

(1) WiFi: $ 139 (Rs. 7000), (2) WiFi + 3G: $189 (Rs. 9500)

- Both 6" screen (diagonally)

- QWERTY keyboard

- Provision to make notes

- 16 levels of grayscale, makes you forget color! (Take it with a pinch of salt!)

Sony 'Reader Daily edition' (PRS950)

- 7" Touch screen (with stylus - but finger/nail also works fine!)

- $ 300 (Rs. 15000/-)

- Highlight. You can write "on the screen/pdf itself". It will be saved in 'bibliography-summary'.

- Dictionary. Select the word, right-click, click on dicitionary.

- Wireless: WiFi only (you can't download using 3G)

- Memory: expandable up to 32 GB

- Link

Onyx - Boox 60 (Boox X60)

- 6" Touch screen (with stylus).

- pdf: highlight, area-zoom, annotation

- Wireless: WiFi, CDMA, GPRS, 3G

- 16 level grayscale

- 4 models. Min cost $280 (Rs. 14,000/-)

- 300gms

- Memory: Int: 512 MB, micro-SD: 32 GB

- Link

Indian e-Readers:

1. Wink (by EC Media)

(1) WiFi: Rs. 9000, (2) WiFi + 3G: Rs. 13,750

- Both 6" screen (diagonally)

- Not 'color' yet.

- No Touch screen. QWERTY Keyboard

- Stores in Pune:

Croma, Pulse mall - I checked out the 5" (12.7cm) model. Not bad!

Koregaon Park: Reliance, Reliance Leisures Ltd, CTS No. 15/A 7/15 8/15 9/15,

Koregaon Park Near Taj Blue Diamond, Mobile/Phone No: +91-8108304945

2. Infibeam's Pi2

(Source: http://www.infibeam.com/Pi/Pi2.html?track=nl131 )

- Screen: 6", Resistive Touch, Black & White 8/16 grayscale, 600 x 800 pixels, 166 dpi, 122 x 91 mm, No backlight

- WiFi. Browser available.

- Rs. 10,000/- (as of Aug'11) + assured gift (which is 10 vouchers of Rs. 1000 each, to buy ONLY BOOKS / eBOOKS)

- Thickness: 11mm

- Weight: 235 gm

- Internal memory: 2GB

- AC adapter, 4 hrs charging time

- OS: Linux 2.6.28

- Memory: Internal memory = 2 GB (expandable up to 32 GB i.e. 10k books; micro-SD card); RAM: 128 MB

My choices:

1. Sony Reader Touch (7")

2. Onyx Boox X60 (6")

A User's Review on Sony's 'Reader' (source: Sony Reader's website):

I do wish the Sony had an option to use the digital keyboard for note-taking like you can use it for searching, etc, though. That would be nice (and more legible, as my touchscreen handwriting is atrocious!). The Sony 650 doesn't have wireless or 3G connectivity like some of the other devices out there now. This isn't an issue for me because I browse the internet more on my laptop or phone so it would be pretty redundant for me to have it on my reader as well. When put side by side, the font used on the Kindle seems to be darker with more contrast than the one used on the Sony 650. This seems like it's merely due to the choice of font style, not due to the Sony's screen being inferior in any way. As one reviewer has already mentioned, the sync software available for the reader is terrible. It crashes often and it makes browsing the Sony store very slow and cumbersome. I don't use it if I can possibly help it, not even when I had my 505. I use Calibre for my syncing needs. It syncs beautifully with the Sony reader, especially for tags and collections - all with a few clicks of a button. You can manage your ebook library, convert ebooks, download rss feeds so you can read blogs and news on your reader - it's just an amazingly useful program. One of the main reasons that I sent my Kindle back was because it was nearly impossible to make collections on it in any sensible way. Using Calibre to sync your collections saves time and a lot of headaches

For the first few days I did have a problem with my Sony 650 freezing at random times. It would always come back again when I did a reset, but it was happening quite a lot. I found out that it was due to a large PDF file on my SD card. I used Calibre to convert my PDFs to ePub format and reloaded everything onto my SD card again. Since then, I haven't had a single frozen screen, no matter how fast I try to flick the pages or access the menus. I'm assuming that one of the PDFs was just too large for the reader to handle as-is.