Scottish Elises

Anyone have one of the new ones?
... free 3G & wireless for life...

For around 150 quid and up to a months battery life (yeah right) it seems quite a good deal... If you like that sort of thing...

I'm not looking for a media device - just something I can read work docs on without having to print them off (can't read them off laptop - I'm a bit special that way)

my wife bought me one about a month ago. great piece of kit. i've now read 2 books on it and it now feels like second nature.

The battery life is amazing. with wifi turned off and reading about 1.5hrs per night i've still got a 1/3 of my charge left - only charged it once.

The interface is to notch too.

buy!!

Was looking at one of these for my father in law. He spends quite a bit of time on a boat in the South if France and thought it would be a great gift for him. I did wonder about it's surfing capability though as the bumpf calls it experimental!? Do you think he would be able to use this device for web browsing?

I might be completely wrong but I've always assumed the free connectivity was only for downloading books. Erica has a Sony pre 300 I think it is. The battery life is great the eInk screen very cool and easy to use. It's just like reading a book and I'm another special person that can't read from a laptop for long!

Chris

Just give in and get an iPad

Got my wife one of the Sony eReaders a year or so ago. She loves it and I love the fact we no longer need an extra suitcase for holiday books!

Just this minute ordered the top spec Kindle for Verian's Xmas present.

tut

Quite tempted but I'd save myself £40 and just get the wifi version as hotspots are plentifull enough.

But....can anyone shed any light on the web surfing capability?

Battery life is Kosher. Down to the screen tech which means it takes zero power to actually display the image. The only thing that takes energy is changing the display (you actually list the battery life as page turns, not hours, as that's not representative - could be 50 hours, could be 5 months, dependant on how quickly you flick through pages). Clever, clever stuff. Of course, with 3G and wifi, that takes power when you're using it, so will kill the battery.

We were totally sold on the tech when it was launched, but no colour e-ink yet and it seems that some people are prepared to trade off battery life for colour. The iPad, for example, uses a traditional LCD, but as the battery is massive (and it's heavy for what it is, compared to an eBook) it does have great life - I charge mine weekly and read with it most nights, plus surf, etc.

For reading and reading only, things like the kindle have it sewn up (so small, light and you can take it on holiday happily without a charger) but the market seems to want something more in a tablet device. Price-wise though, the Kindle is a great product - you can't compare it to an iPad (although there are some Android tablets coming out that could go closer on price)

What is the support like? Is everything published in Kindle formats now?

Not everything, no. Catching up though and they do also display PDF files and other mono things.

My Mother in Law has one and loves it................
I would agree with Shug's comments that it needs a colour screen and therefore current battery life will suffer

I feel it delivers a weird browsing experience in black and white ?

We bought one just prior to a trip to the USA. It's a great piece of kit and the free worldwide 3G works for web surfing too. Very handy when you're travelling.

Browsing is basic but perfectly usable, however some websites don't work so well and it can stall on really graphically intensive sites.

Shug wrote: The iPad, for example, uses a traditional LCD, but as the battery is massive (and it's heavy for what it is, compared to an eBook) it does have great life - I charge mine weekly and read with it most nights, plus surf, etc.

Sorry for a thread drift, but is the Ipad a better buy than a laptop if you're mainly an internet browser? I need to update my laptop and its mainly used for surfing, with about 10% working at home requirement. If the screen tapping was just too weird, can you plug in a traditional keyboard?

Cheers,

Greg