As I stated earlier, I purchased a Sony PRS-900 in the U.S. (I'm in Canada) a month or so ago. Very nice device, good look. My primary goal was a larger screen to read scanned documents in PDF, which don't scale nicely. The 900 is not the device for that.
If this was my first reader, I'd be very happy with the device. However, I already had the PRS-500 (the first Sony e-reader) and the PRS-505 (a nice update). I really like the 505 - no touch screen, but a nice screen, size and look. The 900 and the 505 both have two memory card slots (Sony and SD cards) which is very nice, as you can really load up more books than is convenient (e.g. long contents pages, long time indexing etc.) but it is nice to carry around as large a library as you want.
The 900 had a couple of "fallback" areas - the screen was darker to accommodate the touch screen, and I don't like the change to the "history" function. On every device, there is a chance that you'll press buttons or otherwise end up back or ahead in the book you are reading, particularly if you share the device among others to show the functionality. The older devices had a history list, the last 100 pages you looked at - by looking at the list you could easily see pages 45, 46, 47, 48, 200, 201, 202 and jump back into the list on page 48, assuming the "error" was the jump to 200. On the newer device, it has a "back" button functionality, which could take several steps to find out where you were.
In Canada, the 3G functions don't work, so that "advantage" isn't applicable. As I like to use Calibre as my library, I'm not sure how often I'd use the direct-to-device functionality for purchasing books, but would certainly like the opportunity for live RSS feeds or newspaper subscriptions.
The touchscreen is OK, I'm not a convert, I prefer the button options to change pages. On the 505 there were two sets of buttons, on the 900 there is only one page change option below the screen, along with the touch screen. If this was my first device, I might like the touch screen, and I'll acknowledge that it is simply a matter of taste, not a design flaw from Sony.
All in all, I'd have not purchased the PRS-900, given that I already had the 505, the incremental improvements (primarily larger screen and updated OS) didn't pay off given the cost of a new device. Again, if it was my first, this would be less of an issue.
I did break down and order the Kindle DX, which arrived yesterday. 3G works in Canada (and other countries), so I've downloaded a few free books from the Kindle store. It really can't be much easier. Opened a few PDF files and they look good - a few were slow, but I haven't investigated why (e.g. format of document, perhaps it hadn't fully loaded/indexed yet). Calibre immediately recognized the Kindle and I was able to transfer my non-DRM books from there to the Kindle.
The screen is very bright and clear, so much so that it took a double take to see whether or not the screen was active or whether the cellophane screen protector it comes with (which has black text on it) was still in place. Screen refresh is faster than the Sony(s) that I've used. The device is heavy (I purchased the leather cover for it), but not so much that I'm uncomfortable reading off it. With the larger screen size, it does lend itself to "lap reading" moreso than smaller devices.
Kindle doesn't seem to recognize EPUB - not a big problem as Calibre re-formats for the Kindle simply and easily as part of the transfer, but my biggest "like" of EPUB was the consistent page numbering across devices, allowing for simple change from one to another (e.g. moving to my PRS-505 for nighttime reading as it has a cover with light) - Kindle seems to have its own page numbering format. I'll poke around the internet, perhaps this is a setting somewhere.
All in all, the out-of-box "wow" factor of the DX was much higher than the PRS-900 (the 905 (950?) is out in stores and looks like a nice cosmetic upgrade - Sony can feel free to send me one if they like). The fact that 3G works in Canada is certainly a plus over the Sony (not sure of the deal with the newer model Sony reader).
I'm not sure yet of battery life on the Kindle vis a vis the Sony - perhaps the biggest advantage of e-readers as a device class. Being able to go away for a weekend without worrying about a charger is very freeing (I often pack one anyway, but rarely, if at all, have had to charge on the road).
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