Others have described well its portability and capacity for a large selection of books. The internet connection is best for buying/downloading the books and reference sources such as Wikipedia. News blogs are offered at $2 per mo., but not really worth it, I thought. You can load it with MP3 music to play aloud or through the earphones. You could use it for Yahoo mail or gmail in a pinch, but it's rather clumsy at that (or my fingers are too big). You can play video poker and other games on it to pass the time if you're not reading, which is its forte. It will convert text to speech on most books or you can even buy the audio books.
I suspect that technical diagrams or finely drawn material is best left for a textbook or full screen computer.
Here's a thought: Borrow one for a few days and see how you like it. My wife got mine and has kept it. ;o) I had to buy another one.
I would love to borrow one but I don’t know anyone who has one. I guess I could try the local library or my school’s library.
If I could try one out for a few days, that would help ease my mind over spending $130 which, for a college student, is quite a bit of money for one purchase. It also doesn’t help that I am quite anal about spending money as it is.