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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: 2008-07-01 Excellent Product! I have had my PRS-505 for almost 2 months now and overall I love it. Although I have not used any other ereaders (e.g. Kindle) I can highly recommend the Sony PRS-505 with no reservations. Pro's: A) Display is very easy to read and easy on the eyes B) Solid - case is made out of metal, not plastic C) Virtually unlimited storage using memory card slots D) An INCREDIBLE # of titles available. Just do a search on the web. Although I do NOT advocate pirating books, I have been able to find an ebook version of EVERY hardcopy book I own. There are also many free ebooks available. E) Freeware programs available to convert other formats (lit, html, text, rtf, etc) into .lrf format - In particular I highly recommend Calibre Cons: A) A little awkward to hold compared to an actual paperback - page turning keys could have been located better. Hands can get tired after a couple hours of reading. B) Despite what Sony says, actual battery life is around 2000 to 2500 page turns. In reality this is plenty, marketing lies just irritate me. C) Limited warranty - the PRS-505 only comes with a 90 day labor/12 months parts warranty. The first PRS-505 I received died within one week. Sony promptly replaced it with a brand new (non-refurb) unit, but considering how much the unit costs, and the many negative reviews of Sony's support on the web, the limited warranty doesn't inspire me. D) PDF support STINKS! Only works with the smallest PDF files. Basically unusable. This is a shame because a lot of my work manuals and books are in PDF format and it would be nice to be able to use the PRS-505 to get work done when I am traveling. E) No option to turn pages automatically. I love this thing so much I use it at the gym. It would be nice (although I admit this is being picky) if I could set it to automatically turn the page after 5 or 10 seconds. Other e-readers have this functionality. Other thoughts. Some people have complained about no internet access or wireless support. Personally I don't find the lack of either of these items a big deal. I already use my cell phone to get email or look up directions on the internet, and I always have my cell phone with me. Downloading books to my computer and then transferring them to the PRS-505 isn't a big deal either. Blue tooth support for headphones would be sweet - especially at the gym - but isn't a big deal either. So to finish, if you are looking for an e-reader, I personally give the PRS-505 a big thumbs up. Although I have never used the Kindle, the PRS is quite a bit cheaper and there is a ton of books available for it without having to go through Amazon or for that matter the Sony ebook store. Date: 2008-06-30 no shelf necessary I love this because I no longer need to find shelf space nor take up valuable storage areas for books. I have read approximately 12 books and have only charged once. I would recommend it to everyone. Date: 2008-06-29 Could have been perfect I wanted to have an eInk device for a long time. Mainly to read scientific articles and e-books. With these ideas in mind I started to keep an eye on such devices. Basically, some time ago there were 3 decent devices: Amazon Kindle, Sony PRS-500 (previous model) and lBook eReader V3. Now, I live in Europe and I don't see any point in purchasing Kindle, but for US residents it is certainly an option lBook reader was my favorite, but at that time it was sold in Russia only and its price was about 450$ without shipping. Later in spring I read favorable reviews about Sony PRS-505. At that time I was visiting the US, so, i decided to get one. The design and construction is nearly perfect. Unfortunately, the single minus is a major one for me - PDF handling. Nearly all PDF documents found on the web are formatted to be A4, but reader's screen is too small to display A4-sized page to be read comfortably. So, one has to convert every PDF either to fit on a smaller page (luckily Sony provides a special dimensions guide) or convert it into Sony's native LRF format (there is a free tool called pdflrfwin). There are also some features I miss. First of all, I would really like to see a "Find ..." (though, I cant tell how often I would use it). Also, it would be great to be able to automatically sync/download RSS feeds into reader (there are some services, but these are not mature yet and again you have to perform some tasks manually - additional burden. at the same time sony could embed something similar to podcasts feature in iTunes to their syncing software). To conclude, I really hope that software would be updated to handle PDF better. Other than that, the device is pretty solid, but of course there are ways to improve overall usage experience. Date: 2008-06-26 Great So Far! I received my reader a week ago and couldn't be happier!! Not only is it a great way to read books, but also, Sony is a very professional company to work with! There software for the reader is extremely easy to use and simplier than itunes!! I purchased this to just read popular books and the Sony Ebook website has a great assortment of popular and best seller books. The price on new release books is a little high - but just wait and they become reduced to a price that doesn't hurt your wallet! Of course this is perfect for me as I live on a sailboat in the Virgin Islands and room to store a ton of books is very limited. Just to let every understand, if you don't want your battery to run down go into advanced settings and shut your reader down completely!!! This keeps the battery up and ready when you are! Date: 2008-06-20 Good product, horrible battery I have no issue with product, if the battery had held up. 4 months have past, and the battery no longer holds a charge. I have it fully charged, don't use it at all. Next day, battery is dead. Sony expects me to pay for the dead battery...which after four months, is a little annoying. So, great product that is now a high tech brick.
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