Kindle now, or wait for something cheaper

[Fallingwater]

I've been lusting after e-ink readers for a while now, and we're finally at the point where good ones can be bought for €150 (yes, yes, I know you US people have them much cheaper, but I'm in Italy and we always pay more for electronics - a sad but unavoidable fact). Case in point: a Kindle Wireless (not 3G, I have no use for that) costs €145 ordered from Amazon themselves.

On the other hand, color e-ink seems to be about to hit the market Real Soon Now, and when that happens prices of grayscale e-ink devices are bound to plummet. Since I've no use for color whatsoever (most of my ebooks are in plain-text format), that would be an awesome time to grab a grayscale reader for much less than they cost today.

That, however, would mean using the netbook for reading for a while still. I can endure that, but not for too long. So I guess it all comes down to how long we'll have to wait for color e-ink to arrive.

What do you guys suggest?

 

[NutBucket]

I don't believe you'll want first-gen color e-ink. Everything I've seen says that the colors are washed out and dull. If you want a reader now, get a Kindle. If you want color, get a Nook (are those available in Italy? Maybe buy from US and hack it). If you want color e-ink, wait until at least gen 2 IMHO.

 

[Malak]

Have you tried a kindle app on a phone? I think the kindle is neat, but after seeing you can get the app on phones I ditched my plans to get a kindle.

 

[gorcorps]

I don't believe you'll want first-gen color e-ink. Everything I've seen says that the colors are washed out and dull. If you want a reader now, get a Kindle. If you want color, get a Nook (are those available in Italy? Maybe buy from US and hack it). If you want color e-ink, wait until at least gen 2 IMHO.

Read the post again. He said he doesn't want color eink but wants to know how much the current ebooks may drop in price when color comes out.

 

[Fallingwater]

Have you tried a kindle app on a phone? I think the kindle is neat, but after seeing you can get the app on phones I ditched my plans to get a kindle.

I tried ZXReader on my Nokia 5230 and I use my netbook for reading often, but I'd rather not use a backlit screen for reading. It beats paper, sure, but e-ink is more pleasant for me.

 

[gorcorps]

So is there also a delay in getting new tech in Italy? Seems to me like the color e-ink stuff would saturate the US and Japan pretty quickly, but may trickle a little slower through Europe. If so I'd get a Kindle now if you really want one. I haven't been using my Nook much lately (don't know if that's available in EU) but I do enjoy having a bunch of books sitting in one place ready to read. I have several series loaded up on there that I've never read but may get curious about one day.

 

[Dulanic]

Have you tried a kindle app on a phone? I think the kindle is neat, but after seeing you can get the app on phones I ditched my plans to get a kindle.

That is kind of apples and oranges. There is nothing similar about reading on a phone and reading on a larger e-ink device. I have a K3 and a phone, I have tried reading with the kindle app on my phone and I just... can't. There is no comparison. Eink devices with no backlight really can't be topped when it comes to hours and hours of reading... no eye strain at all.

I'm kind of excited to see some color eink devices, but honestly I own a kindle to read... that's it. If I wanted to do other things, I would have bought a nook color and rooted it, but I wanted a dedicated reading device that is comfortable and easy to use with no eye strain or glare. I don't much care for the color part as I am reading... not viewing pictures.

 

[Fallingwater]

So is there also a delay in getting new tech in Italy?

It used to, but that's no longer the issue - tech is now released more or less everywhere at the same time. It's more a problem of price.
See, EU laws require almost every item sold to have a 2-year warranty (though some somehow manage to only give you 1), as opposed to the 2 months in the US. This translates to higher prices: you usually get the same number, but in Euro.

The Kindle is a special case, it seems - possibly for market reasons (I imagine Italy constitutes a fairly small market for legal e-books) we can't buy Kindles straight from amazon.it. There are a fair number of other readers around (the Bookeen ones seem to be selling fairly well), but they tend to be more expensive and with less features - which is why I'd rather buy a Kindle shipped from the US on Amazon.com than a Bookeen or Sony or whatever else they're selling over here.

Believe me, I wish we followed the US system where you can get an extended warranty if you want, but if you don't need it you can pay less. I void the warranty of most of my gadgets by hardware modding them soon after I get them, so you can see why I dislike our method.

 

[ultimatebob]

I've used a Kindle, and the display just seems rough to read for me. I guess that I'm just used to black-lit color screens.

Honestly, I'd probably recommend use the Kindle app on a tablet like the iPad instead. You get a better book selection that way, and eBooks downloaded for the Kindle can easily be moved between devices.

 

[Fallingwater]

I care nothing for the Kindle app. In fact, I care nothing for the whole Kindle service altogether - I'll have no DRM-infected media of any kind, and while I know it can be stripped from .azw files I have no intention of financing those who want to sell any sort of DRM whatsoever.
As for the iPad, in the interest of not flaming I'll just say that it's entirely incompatible with my positions regarding electronics and computers.

All I want is an e-ink device that can read txt, pdf, mobi and jpegs, and the Kindle happens to be the cheapest one with (from what I'm reading) the best interface.

Backlit screens aren't an acceptable solution, otherwise I'd just get a supercheap Android tablet like the Eken M001 and have done with it - or I'd just keep reading on my netbook. It must be e-ink if I'm to buy it at all.

As for display roughness, I'll just say that a few years ago I read several books on my Palm IIIx's 160 by 160 b/w screen it wasn't pleasant, but since I managed to read books on that I don't anticipate e-ink giving me any trouble at all.

 

[RobDickinson]

I have a kindle.

The screen is superb to read on, its much more convinient and better than a book overall.

It does have downsides.

In my area of the world (amazon asia pacific) amazon suck at getting new books out. There either not available or very slow or expensive, even when the book is available on say amazon Australia - I'm in NZ ffs.

The interface is horrid. Great for actualy reading a book, but ordering and navigating is wretched, no synopsis, no way apart from collections to order/filter books.

The web browser is poor , but usable for mail.

Wish it coped with epub too.

I'm happy with it for the price but it does have some limitations, I have ~1000 books on it and to be honest I dont think it was ever designed to cope with that many (even though it can store 3500). mainly due to the interface.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

139 is cheap enough

 

[Fallingwater]

Wish it coped with epub too.

Calibre can convert epub to mobi so you can read them on the Kindle.

 

[Barn]

you can also use this online converter
http://www.2epub.com