Following in Sony’s footsteps, Amazon has just launched their “Kindle” device.
Like the Sony Reader, the Amazon Kindle uses an electronic paper display.
Here’s a comparison of the two:
| Sony Reader | Amazon Kindle | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $299.99 | $399.00 |
| Screen | 6″ 8-grayscale 600×800 E-ink | 6″ 4-grayscale 600×800 E-ink |
| Storage | 256MB? | 256MB |
| Expansion | SD card | SD card |
| Native Formats | BBeB Book, TXT, RTF, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, AAC | Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible, MP3 |
| Weight | 9 oz. | 10.3 oz. |
| Size | 6.9″ x 4.8″ x 0.3″ | 7.5″ x 5.3″ x 0.7″ |
| Inputs | 0-9 keys, page next/back, 4-way d-pad | keyboard, page next/back, scroll wheel |
| Wireless | none | EVDO (free access) |
| Text Sizes | 3 | 6 |
At first glance, the Sony Reader looks better, with a $100 cheaper price, a newer version of the E-ink screen, a sleeker design, and support for more file types natively. However, by adding free EVDO wireless and a keyboard, the Amazon Kindle lets you buy books and download content from the reader itself. Plus Amazon may have the weight to get more publishers on-board with the idea of eBooks than Sony can.
Either way, some competition is a good thing, and will hopefully drive the price down and the quality up. $300 and $400 are still too pricey for the average user.