I am considering buying an ebook reader, at the moment the choice is between a sony and iliad...I would like to see them both before making a decision. I didn't check in any shopping mall in Shanghai since I am going to HK in 2 weeks I am thinking about buying one there...can you suggest a shopping mall in HK where I can find wide choice ebook readers?

Not directly on point but I hope you considered Amazon's Kindle. I can't go anywhere without mine. And the new DX is coming out soon, which looks great for newspapers and magazines.

Good concept, but you still do not own the book

http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/drm/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218501227

I still have problem with having a device for this and another device for that. I still like my palm ( phone, translator, game, mp3, ebook, sms, web ) all rolled into one. Not as nice a screen as the kindle for reading, but functional

Don't get the Sony, and the Illiad is overpriced.

Take a look at the ones available locally first to see if its a good enough solution. The ePaper screens are all the same, so its a matter of differing driver firmware and OS.

www.mobileread.com is a better bet for checking out whats available.

The Hanlin v3 eReader is about 2300RMB +- 200 here.

I've pondered buying one, but find that iPhone or Laptop are just as useful for my purposes, and they also have color screens.

Color eReaders are expensive, and the full screen refresh times are in the 10 second range, vs 3 seconds for b/w.

I will probably be getting one in 20 years, when they get the tech cheap enough.
I'm envisoning comics being distributed like that - my holy grail is a hi-res color device - something at least 1900 x 1600pix that can do cbr's natively with swipe gesturing for page view similar to the iPhone photo app.

My 46" 1920x1200 is a good substitute for the moment though, although japanese small text scanlation manga is a little small to read still.

Thats still a few years away though.

Good point about the ownership issues (though a good argument could be made that Kindle did not have the right to delete the content the way it did). I use Kindle mainly for the convenience in accessing current newspapers, magazines and other light reading from overseas. I do not see it replacing my more long-term library. I view ebook readers as still being in the early adopter gadget phase - not necessarily a good long-term investment.

I think what people don't think about is that content is king. I have the Sony ebook reader 505. All of the readers have content issues, but to a large extent Kindle and Sony Reader rule in my view. Go to the websites and look at what format is supported and then look at Amazon, fictionwise.com, Sony Bookstore (not really Borders FYI). Mobileread is an excellent source of information.
Sony is about to ship two new readers, a 5" and 6", so hold of if your planning to buy a Sony anyway. They are out of stock on Sony Style web site.
How does a Kindle use get conent in Shanghai, can you download Amazon content through USB?
JR
I actually just picked up a orig Kindle off craigslist at home for cheap money and will now use both for content reasons.
I can't understand anyone reading a real book on an iPhone, I love my iPhone as a computing plaform and games but not reading a 3-500 pg book.
Color ebook is fantasy island right now for battery drain reasons if nothing else. I am closing out a two month trip here and i will say that aside from my iPhone (games and translation not as phone), the Sony reader is the best buy I made de3vice wise in two years. I have bought books from Sony connect and fictionwise for it. Just make sure you understand formats and DRM issues in choosing a reader and in buying your content.
I have also been told there are all sorts of ebooks out there in torrents as well.

JY - Yes, when outside the US I buy online, download to the PC, and then transfer it to the Kindle by USB. It takes a couple of minutes. In the US, dowloads can be set automatic over some mobile network (I think Sprint) - which is great for newspapers and magazines.

@jrobards -

Color ebook readers are available.
Refresh times are slow - 10 seconds approx (3 sec per color, similar to the grey scale current limitations for ePaper).

Battery life is similar to the b/w ePaper ones - something in the thousands of page turn range.

Suggest take a look at whats out there before you make blanket comments

All the readers can be used with USB to place content.
Its actually less of an issue now, than it was previously for content, lots of software from 3rd parties to freely convert between the differing mobile book formats.
Lots of them also take out the DRM crap too, which is useful for blocking things like Amazon's deletion of customers purchase books/data. Its not the first time they've done that either, according to some of the writers on Slashdot.

The reason I say the Sony is not good is software. The other readers are slightly more open. Mobileread forums are full of complaints about that side of things.

thanks for the suggestion, I will take a look at Mobilread forums. I plan to use it to read books so quality of the screan and content availability are very important issues for me.

@Canucks'nShanghai: The reason I did not consider Kindle is that I am not from US so I don't know if it is possible for me to order a Kindle without an american credit card or american address...