Product Description

The Reader Digital Book holds about 160 eBooks or hundreds more with optional removable memory cards. Its portable size makes it the perfect travel companion, allowing you to read a variety of books whenever and wherever you want. With thousands of eBook titles available from the CONNECT eBooks Store, you can choose to download new releases, classics and popular book titles as well as view other document formats such as Adobe PDF10, RTF, TXT, BBeB and Microsoft Word. Its long battery life lasts up to 7,500 continuous page turns, and the amazing paper-like screen technology is easy on the eyes.

Product Details

• Color: Blue
• Brand: Sony
• Model: PRS-505/LC
• Dimensions: 6.90" h x 4.80" w x .30" l, .56 pounds
• CPU: PowerPC G4 2.1 GHz
• Memory: 2000MB SDRAM
• Hard Disk: 1GB
• Processors: 1
• Native resolution: 6"
• Display size: 6

Features

• Easy to read display - e-paper display with quicker page turns
• Premium design - Simple, yet sophisticated with easier navigation
• Compact and lightweight
• Integrated eBookstore with 20K titles
• Up to 7,500 page turns on full charge

Customer Reviews

Stil long way to go but it's best eBook reader on the market
Reviewing this device is a bit hard - why is that ?
Because it is the best eBook reader on the market currently BUT it has problems , but again on the other hand it has less problems than any other device :)
So let's begin :


First you need to know about it is that it's NOT LCD screen. Why this important ? - Two reasons:

a) I and many people can't read from LCD , the back lighting gives me a headache and my eyes get tired after several minutes , with this device I can read as any paper book. It has just white (well actually bit gray) screen and text looks black on it.
b) The battery holds much longer, and I mean really longer, with regular PDA or cell phone it runs out after 3-5 hours (depending on device and battery) but here it can sustain the device for month. How this happens ? - well this eInk technology does not require power to keep image on screen, just to draw it so battery get used mostly only when you turn the page and believe me you can finish several books with one charge.


I previously owned earlier version of this device called PRS-500 in this version they had fixed several issues I had with previous one.

- They made it appear as "Mass storage device" when connecting to computer so you can just drug-and-drop files there.

- They moved page turn buttons to the right side of the device so now you can hold it with both hands and pressing the buttons right hand is more intuitive.

- They moved the menu selection buttons from bellow the screen to the right so they match software menu positions - a much welcome change also since the right hand is closer to them and it's more intuitive, like in some ATM machines :) Also "Size" button (controlling the text size) moved to more convenient location.

- The bad thing is that dropped the charger from the set, you can still buy it separately but its a downgrade. Anyway , option to charge it from USB is still there :)

- The device use 2nd generation of eInk technology called Visuplex, with it screen looks much whiter , texts looks more vivid, updated much faster and it does not suffer from the "artifact" leftovers problem PRS-500 had (actually it only sound serious, they were visible only if you look for them)


The device is light, easy to handle and convenient to use.

It's a book reader, so what types of books can you read on it ?

1. You can read Sony's own .rlf and .rlx format files (books) bought at SonyConnect store.

2. You can read TXT files.

3. You can read PDF files (here there is a small problem since most PDFs are created in A4/Letter page size and displaying them on 6" device even in highest magnification looks too small, but you can hold "size" button for several seconds and it will rotate the screen 90° - now everything fits and looks nicely but amount of text on page of course reduced). Also turning page on PDF a bit slow.

4. You can read RTF and DOC files (DOC files actually only loaded thru Sony's software that convert then in a second to RTF)

Personally I use program called "BookDesigner 5.0" to convert everything I want to read into Sony's .RLF format and there are a lot of other converters. SonnyConnect is not the place with best book prices, at least not yet , may be now with some competition from Amazon's Kindle they might reduce prices. Also there are a lot of free stuff on the internet.

Now what the most impotent things about book reader ? - Well book reading experience :)
The device provide a very good one, the 6" screen for me when I first read about sounded too small but after actually using it it's a good size, ideal for traveling but at home (to replace paper books totally) I would prefer to have something like 8-9" , but again it's a minimum to feel comfortable even at home.
As for a negative sides one can mention that when you turn page it kind of "flashes" inverting it content, probably it's a technology thing , that' the way eInk screen clears itself and you do not notice it when reading but if you not reading but reviewing device :) you might notice it.
Also the page turning could be faster, its not too slow but it touches "bare minimum" of the time one need to read comfortably, especially this true for PDFs.

Device also can show gray images and play MP3 and AAC music (in music case running your battery out pretty fast , I guess no eInk for sound :)

There are two versions of the device - silver and "dark blue" (it's so dark that hard to notice it's blue and not black :) ) Personally I recommend to get the blue one - text looks much clearer in dark surrounding.

The cover also rather good, you feel that it actually protects the device and it feels good in hands.

Also if you are not English user there are firmware modifications to make this device show your languages. It's not thanks to Sony but to community of users (they added a lot of modifications also like clock, different icons, navigating pages with joystick etc) but at least this option exists.



Bottom line:
Adding the wireless, increasing speed a bit, supporting full unicode languages range and cutting price by 1/2 :) would make this device ideal.
Also it would be nice to have it in 8-9" flavor.
May be having it with touch screen would be nice as well, but sure not with ugly keyboard as on Kindle.

But anyway on my opinion it's the best device for reading eBooks, for example Amazon's Kindle looks ugly with all this buttons,weights more support only rather rare formats and huge page turn buttons that should make it easier to use easily pressed by accident (there is more but we not reviewing Kindle here :))

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.

Very nice device, but with some irritations
Sony's 2nd generation digital reader makes some perceptible improvements to the previous 500 model. My thoughts:
The display is clear but a little darkish under weaker room lighting. It will be great to make the page a little more white, although that is certainly technologically challenging. Although the reader plays pdf files, the small screen and limited enlargement make certain pdf documents such as text and instruction manuals very hard to read due to the small print. I thought the ability to read pdf was a plus but I was personally disappointed by the awkward way I had to read my loaded documents. Landscape reading helps some, but it is non intuitive.
Although gray scale levels have improved, graphics-intensive pdfs are still slightly not optimal. Page loads and page turning still tend to be a little slow, although not intolerable to the point of irritation.

The eBook library and especially eBook store is a clunky interface strongly suggestive of being designed by some second year engineering graduate with absolutely no concept of marketing and product/user environment packaging. The on-line store is not browser friendly and some title searches seem to go such a long time I wonder if the computer had hung. Overall, the eBook store is not going to be an asset to Sony as they compete with the sexier and more user friendly Kindle environment. There is much room for improvement here. Hint: find another programming team.

Engineering wise, the device is well engineered and very well packaged into a compact light weight design. Dimensional fit of the casing and switches is outstanding. It looks like it will last a long time of use. Definitely not some cheap import stuff. The light weight is comfortable to hold for long periods of time. The fatigue comes mainly from having to angle the book so that room lighting lights the screen optimally. A bit tricky if you have a dim bed lamp next to you.

11 Oct 08: The "clunky interface" of the eBook store is much improved after some upgrading. For example, it is much faster now. So my comments are no longer valid. Thanks!