Kindle Touch v. T-1. Need advice!

[forcrp]

I stumbled into this place after seeing the extremely useful comparison chart for e-readers when I was trawling for info. Sorry about the extremely lengthy first post here; any help is definitely appreciated. Thanks anyway!

Here's the background. Kindle Touch(out only after Nov. 21st) or the Sony PRS T-1(price now down to $129).

I decided that it would have to be either of these since I live in India and it'll be close to impossible to get support/hardware help for anything else. Having said this, I still plan to get a friend to buy it from the UK, US or Dubai because shipping costs can be anywhere from $25 to $40 extra and are potential deal breakers. I have a limit of 200$ to spend for the new reader. It would definitely be great if I could get any and all accessories also within that budget. Otherwise I'll just have to get something else locally.

Requirements:
I read loads, mostly pure text, so black and white is fine.
It has to be touch. The Online store is of no consequence to me since I have all the books I'll read.
Wi-Fi is a yes.It'll be great if the browser was half decent; not looking for anything special. As long as I can check mail and Wiki.
I don't need it to play games or watch anything(plus I can't pay that much). So colour's ruled out.

And here's the mental battle.

T-1.
It could be just my bias, but somehow I only keep finding less-than-impressed reports of the T-1. If anybody could clarify specifically why(w.r.t the requirements listed), it'd be great. I've also read stuff like -clunky interface-slow refresh rate-plastic casing sucks, etc.Since it runs a heavily modified version of Android, it's a bonus for tinkering interests.


Why not Kindle
With their non expandable memory, limited/choosy format support(requiring conversion), I'm not sure I'll have the freedom I want. And with their Nov end release, I'm not sure when I'll get my hands on it.

Why not Nook
Somehow I didn't consider it. Hate the U shaped button and the other two play audio and have web browsers.

So my primary concern is the reading experience, smoothness, stable firmware. Disclaimer: I'm sure some of the stuff in this post may be wrong/outdated. If so, I'd love to know.

Questions
What exactly is the Special Offers edition? Will my screen ALWAYS have a strip at the bottom(or where?) with their ads or is it limited to some mode/time period? Roughly how much of screen space might it swallow up?

ppi- I understand why it matters and the Kindle has 167. What about the others? And is there any noticeable difference in clarity?

[CRussel]

No one has had their hands on a Kindle Touch yet, so comments are limited. But on the Special Offers-- ads are ONLY on the screen saver and the home screen. Not while reading a book. All reports are that they are not intrusive. Also note that the special offers editions are only available in the US at this point.

Reading experience? Both should be quite acceptable. Certainly my Kindle is excellent, and the new Touch has an even better processor, so no issues there.

Expandability? Honestly, who cares? You'll never fill one of these up with your books as long as they're not all PDFs, and if it's PDFs you're dealing with, a 6" ereader isn't a good solution.

Browsing? The Kindle browser is pretty limited, but I can use it to check mail, etc. Even to Exchange Web Access. It doesn't handle pop-ups, however, so if that's a requirement you may have issues.

[gari189]

I've had a T1 for a couple of weeks now. Not frozen or crashed on me. Page turn is v fast more of a blink than a flash. Refresh rate for web-browsing is pretty poor though. Looks are pretty much a personal thing. I think the T1 is a really nice looking piece of hardware - I know some don't like the glossy finish but you don't notice it when you are reading.

I was all set to buy a Kobo but when I saw one in store I thought it looked a bit cheap. Pics of the new Kindle made me think that looked a bit naff but once I saw one instore it looks better in real-life and its tempting. But once I saw the Sony instore, that was my mind made up.

Research is good but look at them and handle them if you can to make up your mind......

[David58117]

I have the Kindle 4 nontouch and also the T1 - and I greatly prefer the T1. I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones who has not had any issues with theirs, but I like the screen on the T1 better, and notice I usually prefer epub formating vs mobi. The Library lending via device is handy as well, and the T1 has more options for text.

I think the build quality of the Kindle is better however and it feels more sturdy. I have no idea how the new Kindle will stack up, but with what's out right now - the T1 gets my vote.

[forcrp]

Again, thanks for all the responses and the helpful info. I've tried the Nook Touch and the Kindle(the version with the keyboard, but not the D-pad) and decided that touch interface would be better. I liked the Nook but the page navigation buttons seemed very, very stiff and badly made. I actually ventured to search for the Cybooks and Kobos but it simply seems too alien for this side of the world. They're even advertising some of them as Europe-only releases and stuff like that!

The Kindle 4 is available for around $125 in the grey market(the model with Special Offers) and the only official ones from Amazon are the K4 Graphite models which cost a total of around $220. Unbelievably ugly rates for shipping and customs. I haven't been able to get my hands on the Sony though. the US site is slashing prices, the UK and Aussie sites seem to have disproportionately high prices considering the exchange rates and Sony's India site doesn't list it , not even as future releases or coming soon. A mail to their customer support resulted in a very prompt reply that they didn't even have a time frame for the India release. So it'll be a gamble but I have a good feeling about it.

The T-1 is down to $129 and I think I'll go for it. I'll have to wait a while though. Shipping it to India from Sony, BestBuy or similar sites brings it up to a minimum of $248, which is the listed price for a Nook Tablet. And this comes with a 30 day time frame(payment+clearing+delivery). I'll just wait until my friend gets back from the US and brings it with him.

Now all I need to do is dig around and find out if I can get the light+covers elsewhere to save a bit more on it. Even otherwise, I'm extremely happy about my hopefully-soon-to-be-e-reader. I guess I'll go with black. The red looks too pink-ish.

And I also found out that if the Sony reader is bought online through the Education Store, there's a discount of 10%! So the whole reader-light-adapter thingamajig combo comes to around $180

It's really helpful when you have access to a few real responses in comparison to stock reviews, et al. And admittedly, I overdid it on this one. And the whole non-availability in Asia issue is so irritating I could write a book on it. I understand how the rep systems work in these fora, so I probably can't spread rep as of yet, but really, thanks a ton.

[jojoba]

Originally Posted by David58117

I have the Kindle 4 nontouch and also the T1 - and I greatly prefer the T1. I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones who has not had any issues with theirs, but I like the screen on the T1 better, and notice I usually prefer epub formating vs mobi. The Library lending via device is handy as well, and the T1 has more options for text.

I think the build quality of the Kindle is better however and it feels more sturdy. I have no idea how the new Kindle will stack up, but with what's out right now - the T1 gets my vote.

Ditto. I have both and prefer the T1 so far, for much the same reasons. It did crash on me a few times reading pdfs, though. I did a factory re-start and that seems to have helped.

[EowynCarter]

It has to be touch. The Online store is of no consequence to me since I have all the books I'll read.

What format are these books in ?