Amazon's Kindle versus Sony Reader -eBooks for Travel

I'm an avid reader. But it's a pain to carry an assortment of books and novels - especially now with tightened airport security limiting the size of your carry-on. Narrowing the choice of assortment to bring becomes tougher.

Beach ReadingMy solution? eBooks - primarily dominated by Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader. They are an electronic pad that holds and displays the pages of a book as you would peruse on paper. Both come with an array of snazzy features, but the lightweight portability with loads of memory capacity allows you a wide assortment of reading selections.

Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader

Amazon Kindle - 6" and 9.7" respectively priced at $259 and $489 US.

Amazon KindleStorage capacity of 1500 and 3500 books each with wireless eBook downloads in 60 seconds from wherever you are in most countries (uses their Whispernet transmission on cell networks). At 1/3" thick and about 10 oz, the battery life is now upwards of 2 weeks of reading. Selection available from Amazon is in excess of 400,000 books, International newspapers, magazines and blogs.

Sony's Reader  - 6" and 7" versions priced at $299 and $399 US. (Mini handheld also available)

Sony ReaderStorage capacity of 350 books with books accessible for download through their eReader program and Google Books online-net access through your PC/Laptop is required. The 7" version adds wireless download capabilities. Sony's Reader measures 0.4" thick and weighs roughly the same at 10.2 oz. Sony's battery life boasts 7500 page turns or two weeks before recharging.

One of my concerns for both Sony and Kindle is the screen and eye-strain. Both use an E-Ink technology, however, that delivers a paper-like reading experience making it easy to read even in the sunshine. Selection seems extremely wide across both readers. Amazon's vision for Kindle is "to have every book ever printed, in every language, available in 60 seconds from anywhere in the planet" - that's pretty awesome!  

Download rates for books are substantially cheaper than their paper cousins (usually about $9.99), and Newspaper subscriptions are about $10-$15 monthly (New York Times is $13.99 monthly).

A few of the concerns found by early-adopters of this new emerging technology relate to file format limitations and cross-eReader functionality. The range of file formats seem to mostly be solved with all reading the major defined formats of supports Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP.

The challenge still relates to cross-reader access. What you download in Kindle is not transferrable to Sony's Reader and vice versa . Add Barnes and Noble's Nook to the mix and another new proprietary format adds a wrinkle. Eventually, like MP3's and the music industry these will all standardize to a common format or universal compatibility, but it's a concern for the time being.

With such a vast reading selection, the environmental paper savings and the light-weight portability of the device and materials, travelling seems to have gotten a whole lot simpler for readers. Looks like I'll be searching out my Clive Cussler, Malcolm Gladwell, and Erik Qualman in eBook formats for my next adventure.

Do you have a preference or have you tried one or both, we'd love to hear your perspectives? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or drop us a line.