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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader Reviews (cont...)Date: 2008-02-03 Some limitations, but the ebook really is awesome Well the first thing I have to confess is I didn't have to buy the Sony 505, it was a gift from my girlfriend so I didn't have to spend the $300. But after having used it I can happily say I would have spent the money myself if it hadn't been a gift. Since there are many other reviews on the various features I'm just going to touch on some of the key areas that I think are important. Pro's: - The Prs-505 is only slightly larger than a paperpack book, which means it feels very much like reading a paperback and you can easily hold it one-handed while reading. - The controls are pretty intuitive so using the reader is very straightforward - The leather case is good quality and thick enough so you don't have to worry about easily damaging the reader. - There are buttons for turning the page on both the left and right sides of the reader, which is great for us left handed people. - You can set things in landscape mode if you want even larger fonts and wider margins. - Even though the reader is about the size of a paperback the screen still gives you about 80% of the area of a page. This is a nice tradeoff of size vs space. (And yes the screen could always be larger, but it works well when comparing it to the paperbacks I read.) - There is enough internal memory to store 100+ books, which even on the longest of trips should be enough. - The battery life is phenomenal! I don't have a single other handheld electronic device that lasts near as long (cell phone; PDA; laptop; etc. etc.) - The reader can read many other formats besides the Sony LRF format (see cons and additional notes below for more on this). - Depending on the format there are multiple zoom levels. With the standard LRF format there are 3 font sizes, with the largest being large enough for just about any eyes. - There are now thousands of ebooks so you're not limited to only a few titles now. - It can play mp3's as well, which means one less device to carry around. also the sound quality is excellent if you have some decent earbuds. Cons: - The screen is not black-on-white, but more of a very dark grey on a slightly greenish-white tinted page. Very similar to the pages in a paperback that's a few years old and has aged a bit. Addendum: I've been using the reader in bright daylight while walking and it's sharp and even easier to read then a paperpack. - The reader may handle many different formats, but doesn't handle .lit which is a popular format - Even though the reader supports many formats it definitely has limitations. PDF is an example of where it supports it, but you'll find that the font sizes are too small (even zoomed), and when turning pages it is very slow. - The leather cover doesn't have any way to secure it closed, so it's much easier to damage the screen accidentally. Addendum: Actually I was surprised to find that the cover has some very light magnets to keep it closed. They aren't powerful enough to to keep it shut if you shake it, but enough to to keep it shut under ordinary use. - The Sony ebook site isn't very slick and is a little hard to navigate at times. Also their prices are a bit high considering there is zero printing costs. i.e. Many of the new books are almost as expensive as a buying the paperback it is replacing. Also even though they are currently giving away 100 free "classics", these are public domain and most can be downloaded for free elseware. (Plus if you have to buy one of the classics off their site they want $1.99, which is just gouging in my opinion) Additional comments: - So there are a lot of complaints that the reader doesn't handle PDF's very well, and that is very true. But the easiest answer to that is to convert the PDF into a different format (the Sony .LRF format of course is optimal). There are many 3rd party programs/utilities that convert PDF's into different formats. - If you are trying to convert a .Lit format file to .Lrf I highly recommend the (free) "libprs500" program. It does an excellent job of converting the files, and also recognizes the sony reader so you can manage and directly upload files to the reader. - Since the Sony reader is suppose to replace paper books (though hopefully it will never fully replace them!), expect the same lighting requirements to read it that you would a paperback. If you're in a dim room and would have problems reading a paperback, you'll have problems reading the sony. - If you buy additional memory for the Sony Reader (great for music files), don't leave the memory in the reader when you wont be using it. With the add-in memory inserted,the Reader seems to drain power faster. Well I hope this review will help in your buying decisions. Date: 2008-02-02 Awesome! This little reader simply rocks! I started out w/ the prs-500 - and have since given that one to my girlfriend/upgraded to the prs-505 - she enjoys reading books on it just as much as I do.. This 'book' is small, lightweight, and doesn't require holding the pages down when reading (i.e. when reading at lunch/etc..). It's a nice looking package too, especially compared to the Amazon's ugly offerring. Date: 2008-02-02 A better reading experience After having owned and used this device for a few months now, I can honestly say that I prefer it over paper books. I recently got some paper books as gifts, and having read those after mainly using the e-reader, I became painfully aware of the page turning, of having to use two hands to hold the pages, of having to use bookmarks or folding corners... all those little things I never thought I'd really care about, but they all seem rather annoying now. With the e-reader, I only have to use one hand, I never have to shift position to flip pages, and it always remembers what page you're on, even if you're reading multiple books. I was a little worried about the contrast at the start, as the 'paper' is greyish, rather than white, but it turned out not to bother me. As with any book, you want to read in a fairly well lit area. Another thing I was worried about at first is getting the screen dirty, which pretty much happened the first day. With regular paper, you don't really care as much, since you can just flip the page, but with the e-reader, you're essentially using the same page over and over. After that initial mishap though, I simply take more care around food and drinks, and haven't had an issue. The reader comes with a nice leather cover, which protects it day to day. While I do totally love it, and am avoiding paper books from now on, here are a few caveats (and I'd give it a 4.5 if I could): -Batteries: A regular book never runs out of batteries, but the reader can. I'm not sure why, but it actually uses battery when it's not turned on (the manual mentions something about keeping things in memory, and needing battery for that). It's happened to me once or twice that I picked up the reader after a few days and found that the battery was mostly drained. Sony claims a 7000 page turn battery life, but you won't find anything even close to that. -Pdf's: This is not really an issue to me, since I use the reader for reading books, but I did try loading some pdf files onto it, and it's pretty useless for that. It's very slow to browse them, and the text is too small to read. -plane rides: I fly a decent amount, and never before did I have to 'turn off' my book for takeoff and landing. It's kind of annoying that you have to turn off all electronics for those times. I'm sure there's nothing in the reader that would actually mess with whatever they're afraid it would mess with, but alas, I follow the rules. To finish this up, I really think that e-books are superior to real books. As far as sony's e-reader goes (they all use the same screen technology, so the only difference is the package and interface), the case and cover sure are pretty (certainly the best looking e-reader, in my opinion), and it's easy to navigate. A dictionary would have been a nice addition, and I hope it's something they consider adding (I'm guessing it wouldn't take more than a software update, but I'm guessing...) The sony/borders ebook store seems to have all the same books that you can find for mobi pocket or kindle. Any book that I was able to find there I was able to find for the sony reader, and any book that I couldn't find on the sony store, I couldn't find for the other ones either (No Harry Potter!!!). Be sure to check out project gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) for tons of free books. Also, when I bought my reader it came with 100 free classics from the sony store, which is a great deal if you can still get that. Date: 2008-01-31 Almost excellent I got my ebook 4 days back, just before a business trip. I quickly registered with the Sony site, bought 3 books, loaded them, some MP3 tunes and some photos of the family (including the cats) and off I went. I sat in the plane for two hours simultaneously listening to my music and reading - and it was fantastic - same for the return flight. It seems some people just don't understand the electronic ink thing. You HAVE TO have a useful light source to read - just like a real book (surprisingly). On plane the overhead light was perfect and I had no issues with the contrast. So I'm delighted with the ebook. So far, battery life has been excellent. The reason for 4 stars? 1) The Sony CONNECT web site for buying books is pretty awful. It works, but it's a very poor cousin to the Amazon or iTunes site 2) The screen could be a bit larger. It's like a small paperback and would be perfect is it was half an inch larger. 3) It would be great if I could pause the music while in the reading mode. Maybe I missed it, but it seems I have to go back to the audio section to do this. Summary: If you read fair amount but a) don't want to carry around bulky books and b) do something for environment and save a tree or two being cut down so you can read a book once or twice, buy the Sony ereader. Date: 2008-01-25 Wanted a Kindle......got this for $199 on Sony's website!! Okay, so I fell into the hype of the Kindle.....I wanted one really badly, but I don't like to wait for things so I did some research and ended up getting this Sony since it is available! I read a lot of the "reviews" for the Kindle and saw that mostly they were people's comments that didn't actually own one. I searched through all star ratings to get a feel of what some of the glitches were with the Kindle and decided that if I were to buy a Kindle it would have to be a second generation Kindle which I DEFINITELY don't want to wait for!! Then I read a bunch of tech articles comparing the Kindle to this Sony device. I decided that although the wireless downloading capabilities of the Kindle are very desirable, I wouldn't use it that often to make it worth the more expensive price tag. If I were planning on having newspaper subscriptions where the Kindle would wirelessly deliver them to me daily, then I would have held out on a waiting list for the Kindle. I would only be downloading probably one or two books a month and I guess a USB transfer would be fine for that little use of the wireless feature. PLUS if you order the sony reader from the sony website it is only $299 right now and with signing up for a new Sony credit card you get $100 back on your 2nd statement which makes this reader only $199 from Sony....they also offer 12 month interest free and payment free financing if you want, and $100 free "classic" books downloaded free. I couldn't pass it up! For that value I will be able to use this Sony until the second generation Kindle comes out or maybe by then I will be desperately in love with this one! (mine is this blue one with a free pink "skin" and 14 free romance novels---probably won't read them, but getting more free stuff is always good!!) UPDATED: 4/16/08 Okay, so I've had the Sony PRS-505 for a couple of months now, and I've got to say that I still LOVE it!! When I ordered it, I mentioned that I wouldn't be reading more than 1 or 2 books a month on it, and it is so easy to purchase and download the books from Sony's Bookstore, that I have read 6 books already!! I have a whole bunch of future books to read in my Wishlist! The battery lasts forever! The book I am reading now is 650 pages in small font and I am 2/3 of the way through it with only 1 quarter of the battery gone. I read a couple hours a day and force myself to put it down. I love to take the reader out of the leather case (which it has never accidentally slipped out of) and put it in a ziploc bag and read in the tub! Some reviews were bummed about no AC charger coming with the reader, but it comes with a USB charger which takes no time at all to charge it with my laptop, or I charge it with my iPhone AC charger if I don't have my laptop handy. If I could change the star rating to a 5 I would. I love the Sony and am not regretting choosing this over the Kindle.
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