Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader by Sony
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Digital camera reviews of Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader
Digital camera Review: Decent Sony Product
Summary: 4 Stars
It's pretty easy to compare features between the Sony Reader and the K2. The Sony doesn't have a permanent wireless link to a network to download books and fetch other content and it does not have a keyboard to take notes or edit anything. The Sony also costs less and has better battery life. The purpose of this reader is really to do one thing well, to output e-ink and let the user read for hours on end and go without charging for weeks. I think it does that part well and displays text clearly.
The Sony's body is made of metal, this little reader is heavy and the buttons are metal, as well. It doesn't feel cheap or feel like it could bend in half. There are two options to expand the memory, SD cards or Memory Stick, and there's a built in low-end audio player with no playlist ability.
The nitty gritty is the software is pretty simple to use and reads a good number of formats. I have seen hiccups where some files with images in the file would throw an error on the reader. After playing around with formatting and deleting some objects embedded, things went pretty smoothly. Using this reader is like any other personal digital device, there are going to be some trials involved to get it just the way you'd like. There are also 3rd party apps to create/convert files to suit the reader better, and once again would require some trial and error.
Reading PDF's is definitely not perfect despite the firmware update issued for the reader. There are 3 options to view the text, S/M/L and sometimes the images will not display and formatting may be lost. This is not the fault of the reader but the PDF's are just too complex. If you own Acrobat Pro, you may be able to experiment a bit.
Overall this is a good reader for the price and robust build, Adobe Digital Editions recognizes the hardware right away and I was able to easily download an ebook from the library and view it on the reader (it displays how many days you have left to read the loaned book).
Digital camera Review: Do your eyes and the forest a favor and get this product.
Summary: 4 Stars
GOOD
First off the screen is looks much better than the predecessor so if you're reading this and trying to decide between the PRS-500 and the 505, trust me go with the 505, the text is much sharper and clearer due to the lighter screen and better grey scale. However both have far better contrast for text than the leading PDA. The .txt (regular text) and .rtf (rich text format) work well with the reader. I never have to worry about the battery life either. It can go weeks at a time on 2 hr a night reading without even breaking a sweat. Plus every time you connect the USB to the computer to add books it charges. Also the screen never 'burns' like your plasma or LCD's. It's due to the nature of how the view screen was constructed, so you never have to worry about burning your screen. It does show pictures and you can listen to music on it while you read.
BAD
Due to the size of PDF files, they kill this thing. Plus it doesn't zoom with PDF so unless you've got $300 worth of PDF software to reformat your documents, you will be hard pressed to find any PDF documents that you can read well. The software was kind of 'different' than I'm used to so it took a little while (5 minuets) getting used to the little quirks. The type of finish on the product they use is a magnet to any kind of oil or grime on your hands. So wash your hands before using. Your limited to the Sony store for the new books that you want to read but I found their collection to be well encompassing. Also on the side note of how Sony offers 300 books for free when you buy, do not consider that a factor when deciding to purchase this device. Those same 300 books can be downloaded from any location free of charge due to the copyrights to those books being expired.
OVERALL
It came with several excerpts from random books. I quickly deleted these and started loading my own. I also added my personal recipes so I can cook with less clutter. I do a lot of online reading from public authors and story forums. Before the reader I always had to stop because of the enormous strain I would put on my eyes reading off of a backlight display. Now I feel like I can read forever.
Digital camera Review: Dont buy it thru SonyStyle
Summary: 1 Stars
I do not own one of these. I cancelled my order thru SonyStyle because they were taking entirely too long to send me my reader. (it's been over a month, I've heard from others who got theirs within days who ordered at the same time)
Sony's customer service is basically useless. I've requested that they cancel it 3 times now...and now I cant get into the SonyStyle website to check to make sure the order was cancelled. They sent me an email saying that they were responding to my request for a new password. (what? I didnt ask for one) and that particular password will not work. So, I requested a new password and guess what? It doesnt work either.
You can get the reader a lot cheaper probably thru sellers like this one, but do not go to Sony Style's website just so you wont have to deal with slow shipping, conflicting information and the possibility of being screwed over.
Because of the bad service I've gotten, I probably will never attempt to buy from Sony ever again...and I used to be a big fan of their products. Never again, they probably will still have great products, but their customer service needs a lot more work.
Digital camera Review: Downloads
Summary: 1 Stars
Would be interested to know whether there are any other stores where you can download digital books that can be viewed on this device. Is one able to download Kindle books to a Sony?
I bought the 505 and the selling store ommited to tell me that one has to have a US credit card to download books.
An expensive placemat! If anyone can help I would be most grateful.
Digital camera Review: E-Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Although this E-Book purchase was a Xmas present for my Wife, It turned up in my hands because she is not electronic savy. I used it during an airline flight, and found it to be very easy to read and use. It is not clumsey like an ordinary book. It is easy to carry and handle. And it brought comments from fellow travelers who watch me use it while in flight. I never lost the page I was reading even when I forgot to mark it. It came back to the page I was reading after turning it back on. Downloading the books took a little lesson, but after that, it was simple.
I highly recommend the product, especially with the 100 books that came with it.