There's me thinking the ereader market in the UK was shaping up to be only a
'3 horse race' between the Sony PRS-505, the iRex iLiad and the Amazon
Kindle (when it finally arrives..sigh!), but today I've discovered another 'player' joining
the 'fray' in the shape of the sleek looking Cybook Gen3, from French company Bookeen.
With my ereader interest at this time peaking towards the Sony PRS-505 (the iLiad is well out of my price range at this time, and the Kindle is nowhere in sight), I spent some time comparing the specs of the PRS-505 with those of the Cybook Gen3 to see how they measured up against one another. Not surprisingly, given they're built on a similar technology, both readers are quite comparable:
- Both units are of a similar size, using a 6"
E Ink® display
- Both operate on an embedded Linux OS
- Battery life is similar, although Bookeen publish a '8000 page turn' battery life for the Cybook Gen3, while Sony only specify '6800 page turn' battery life for the their reader.
- Weight is similar although the PRS-505 comes in slightly heavier at 260g, compared to the Cybook Gen3 at 174g
- Both cover a wide range of document formats - PRS-505: EPUB, BBeB, PDF, Word, TXT, RTF; Cybook Gen3: MOBIPOCKET, PALMDOC, PDF, HTML, TXT
- Both support MP3 storage and allow playback when the reader is in use
- Both have SD slots (with the Sony reader also possessing a slot for its proprietary MemoryStick cards) to allow for mass ebook storage.
- Both allow screen orientation
So in terms of tech specs and features, there appears to be little to separate the PRS-505 and Cybook Gen3 from one another, but there does seem to be a distinct difference in the way the user navigates/interacts with the ereader. It's difficult to gauge either ereader's navigation/interaction system completely, but after watching video presentations of both ereaders in action, this aspect does become a little clearer.
It seems the primary navigational tool on the Cybook Gen3 is a 'rocker pad' (seen in the lower right corner of the unit). Scrolling, page turns, menu selections etc. all seem to be activated via this pad, which makes things simplified and uncomplicated. The use of on-screen pop-up menus for various functions also seem to be a heavy interaction device used by the Cybook Gen3 . The PRS-505 on the other hand, is set up with an array of buttons to facilitate its user navigation/interaction. Aside from large buttons to aid page turning, scrolling and bookmarking, a series of 10 contextual hotkeys assist navigation/interaction with the unit.
The other primary difference between the two readers is the price. The Sony PRS-505 retails at £199 (which at this time includes a CD with 100 FREE classic titles), while the Bookeen Cybook Gen3 comes in at £279. The question is, is the Cybook Gen3 worth that extra £70? Well without testing them 'in the flesh' that's a difficult question to answer. The extra buttons on the PRS-505 seem to make navigation, and
interaction a bit easier, but remember these are on the cheaper of the
two models. Does that mean then, that Bookeen are charging a premium for the slick, minimalist look of the Cybook Gen3, which seems to be the trend at the moment
Whatever the reason for their higher price, Bookeen certainly have one thing in their favour right now. Unlike the Sony PRS-505, which doesn't begin shipping until early September, the Cybook Gen3 is available to buy in the UK right now, via Pixmania
(note: although Pixmania use a .co.uk address they are a French
retailer, shipping directly from France. Try not to let that put you off
too much though. I've ordered a couple of times from Pixmania, and
everything has been flawless)
So the Cybook Gen3 joins the army of ereaders hitting UK shores in the coming weeks. These are seriously exciting times for the paperless book lover! Only a couple of weeks ago I was lamenting the dire absence of ereaders for the paperless operative in the the UK and here I am discussing a veritable flood of ereaders, all of which are at the fingertips of us paperless book-loving Brits. Good Times!
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