Choosing a wireless e-book reader is getting tougher all the time! Well, maybe not all that tough but here’s a chart comparing the offerings from Amazon, Sony, and IREX.
|
|
|
| |
Device | ||||
Price | $299 | $489 | $399 | $399 |
Screen Size | 6 inches | 9.7 inches | 7 inches | 8.1 inches |
Touch Screen | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Rotating Screen | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Storage | 2GB not expandable | 4GB not expandable | 2GB expandable via Memory Stick and SD | No on-board memory, comes with 2GB SD card |
Wireless | Sprint | Sprint | AT&T | Verizon Gobi chipset for worldwide use |
Bookstore | Amazon | Amazon | Sony eBookstore | Barnes & Noble |
Content Availability | 350,000+ books newspaper, magazine, blog subscriptions | 350,000+ books newspaper, magazine, blog subscriptions | 100,000+ books One million public domain books via Google* Participating local library rentals* *not available over 3G | 750,000+ books “Users can purchase books, newspapers or magazines from a wide variety of sources”* *not available over 3G unless purchased through built-in bookstore |
Natively Supported Formats | Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible, MP3, MOBI, PRC | Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, Audible, MP3, MOBI, PRC | ePub, PDF, JPEG, BBeB, RTF, TXT | ePub, “multiple DRM solutions” |
Formats Supported via Conversion | PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP | HTML, DOC, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP | DOC, HTML, “other text file formats” | Not sure yet, will update when more info is available |
Web Browser | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Other Features (lists may be incomplete) | Bookmarks, annotations, dictionary, Wikipedia, search, audiobooks, iPhone sync | Bookmarks, annotations, dictionary, Wikipedia, search, audiobooks, iPhone sync | Highlighting, annotation, dictionary, handwritten notes with included stylus | Bookmarks, search, included stylus, “users will have the ability to download content to the device while traveling abroad next year” |
Available | Now | Now | December ‘09 | October ‘09 (Europe in mid-2010) |
The IREX one was just announced, so we’ll try to fill in more details as we get them.
