The following is copied from my blog entry on the PRS-505

This review is based on several weeks of use with a personally purchased PRS-505. I understand that SONY just announced an upgraded reader - The PRS-700, but I feel this review can easily be extrapolated to provide you with an idea of how the 700 would compare.

This review is unbiased and written from the perspective of a middle aged individual who enjoys casual book reading.

I will not dwell on the specs or features of the product. These are easily obtained from the SONY website itself or from the many reviews posted on the web by others. In that sense this is more a discussion of my feelings about the product than a formal review that simply rehashes much of the product literature.

First, some observations about e-ink and the vizplex display that both the SONY and Amazon kindle share. The "paper like" qualities you may hear about are simply somewhat overstated in all the literature and in the many reviews published on the net. The e-ink background is simply not paper "white" like one would expect (or hope for). To me it is more like the color of pages from an aged paperback book.

Advantages to this screen over an LCD device are numerous for sure- it is static (no refresh or back lighting to strain the eyes); can be easily (and perhaps optimally) viewed outdoors; uses very little power. So little that a battery charge lasts up to several weeks (you'll read over and over on other reviews how power is only consumed when a page is refreshed and that a single battery charge will last for over 7,000 page flips etc.); doesn't get warm with use (again typically little or no power is being consumed thus little heat is dissipated; no blinking lights or distracting fans or noise. In short, it is pretty much as passive as a paper book in your hands.

Some disadvantages of this particular screen and technology - The display is only 6" on the diagonal. Keep in mind the entire reader itself is smaller than a typical DVD case. This is something that many perhaps won't fully realize until they have the product in their hands. It does not scroll text. Instead It "flips" pages by refreshing the entire screen at once. The refresh cycle is roughly 1 to 2 seconds from the time a button to flip a page is pressed.

Font size selection is limited to 3 magnification levels, but I suspect this is adequate for most users. The font type itself is fixed. I suspect others might wish they had some flexibility there.

Like with a standard paper book, proper lighting is key to viewing the text comfortably. I would say the display is at its best outdoors in plain dayllight. Unfortunately most of my free time these days happens in the evenings and indoors. I find that my bedroom lighting is not entirely sufficient to allow me to comfortably read the device. I also suspect that the supplied binder blocks some of the light as I hold the reader with it, yet I am hesitant to bend it back all the way while reading since I suspect doing so will, over time, ruin the cardboard that gives it structure.

I have therefore resorted to using a clip-on LED reading light (the PRS700 solves this by including front mounted LEDs integrally into the unit) with the device for my nightly reading sessions.

Since the PRS-505 lacks wireless access, the only way to get reading material into the unit is via the supplied USB cable or by pre-loading a memory card (memory stick and SD- thank you SONY card slots are both available)

The software that ships with the unit to facilitate the loading of ebooks unto the reader is functional if unexciting. It seems sluggish on my PC, but I will assume this is a function of my PC for now.

I have only tried the Sony online book store to download a couple of the classic titles included with purchase (an ongoing promo lets you download 100 classic titles for free with purchase) These are mostly titles that are available elsewhere for free anyways, but gets you to practice the experience of getting a book from the SONY site in the hopes that you will plunk down some cash for a non-free book soon thereafter.

If you are like me then you probably did not buy this reader to then purchase or re-purchase every single book you intend to read on it. You are therefore, likely to spend a considerable amount of time locating, downloading and converting e-book formats to transfer them unto the PRS-505. In fact, I can easily say that I have spent much more time doing just that than actually reading on the device.

I found a free third party app titled Calibre was extremely useful for this purpose. It too seemed sluggish at times on my PC, but it appears that the developer is constantly improving its functionality and overall user experience (based on the number of releases just in the past month).

The bottom line. These e-ink based eBook readers. taken with a broad brush, take a small subset of what a laptop or desktop pc can readily do (in this case display text and play mp3s) and try to approximate the experience to that of reading a traditional book.

I suspect the makers of these products are looking for customers who read voraciously, travel a lot and are looking for the latest titles and can devote a lot of money to that pursuit. Amazon realized this and made it very convenient for that type of individual to keep their Kindle reader current and loaded with material by providing free wireless access to their book store. Sony's USB tether removes much of that spontaneous buying instinct.

These e-ink readers serve a small niche market for now (in a sense, I see them as gadgets for the elite). Admittedly, given their pricing models (these things retail for $300 and up) there is significantly much more bang for the buck to be had with a nice lightweight laptop or even a PMP (personal media player) - the apple iTouch and the new Archos players come to mind.

Before purchasing this product I did research just about every other commercially available ebook reader product. Having said that, once you know what you are in for, I am partial to the Sony reader vs the offerings of the other makers at this time.

For one, the aesthetics of the SONY beat the Kindle with little argument from any sides (pun intended). The products from Irex (the Iliad) in its various incarnations are not as reliable, require shipment overseas for any potential repairs, are much pricier and are simply not as portable or efficient as the SONY and Amazon products. Unless you need pen input capability in a reader I see no reason to go with one of these devices. Bookeen and other similar devices from Asia are essentially "also rans" and in some cases further reduce the already small viewable screen area.

Other devices are simply "vaporware" at this point and we will have to see what comes from them in 2009 (products from ASTAK and Plastic Logic come to mind).

What I (and just about everyone else I know) am clamoring for is something similar to the SONY reader in terms of weight, power consumption and unobtrusive operation (quiet, cool), but with a somewhat larger color display that can be easily viewed under various lighting conditions and can communicate wirelessly via WiFi. Pen and touch input capability would be a plus as well as voice recognition. In short, a lightweight tablet PC that is dedicated to playing/displaying media and browsing/interacting via the web. Steve Jobs will probably rescue me some day.

I welcome your thoughts about the Sony and other e-readers and particularly how your experience compares to mine.

PS - I should mention that SONY offers a $100 to $150 cash back credit from time to time for opening up a SONY Visa credit card and charging your first purchase of $299 or greater making their reader a relative bargain at a net cost of $200 or $250 depending on the deal you grab.

Product stopped working after 7 months. Sony store where it was purcahsed refused to take it back and sent me to customer service. Customer service wanted to charge me for a replacement and when I balked they sent me to a customer service manager that negotiated the rate down but still wanted to charge me. In addition -- being forced to send the unit back at my cost.

Given the cost of the unit I would have expected better build quality and better customer service. Will bite the bullet and get it fixed but lack of quality and service will keep me from purchasing a Sony product in the future.

I bought the Sony Reader knowing full well that it was not supported in Germany. Still, first the horse, then the carriage. The Sony Book Store does not support purchases in Europe. Up to now, I have not found any

E-book stores with a good selection whose titles suppport the Sony Reader.

I would like to use the Reader to read German, but there are very few interesting legal E-books in German to support the Sony. For European use, which it was not made for, I would not recommend it.

The Reader itself is satisfactory, though page turning needs patience.

It is thin, relatively light weight and the size of the whole gadget is very close to the size of the readable area (which is good !).

The screen is of a good quality, the display is very clear. And I love the

fact that there are only a few buttons.

The librarian software that is installed on the PC is a bit clumsy, but I don't think I will ever need to use it. In Windows, The SONY Reader appears as a "removable storage" device, and you can simply drag&drop electronic books from the PC to the SONY reader.

I wanted to create a quick review of the Sony Reader as the other Amazon reviews helped me a lot with deciding whether to purchase:

I spent over a month researching and considering the pro's and con's of this device, both as a technology and as in comparison to Amazon's kindle. I spent almost 4 hours each day commuting and was tired of carrying heavy books with me. I decided to buy and ebook as it would allow me to carry around many books in a lighter package than a standard paper-back. I purchased the Sony Reader as it was smaller and cheaper than the Kindle.

I have not been disappointed. Over the past two weeks I have purchased books online, downloaded free books and converted documents and web pages for my Sony Reader. I have found it to be just as easy on the eyes as a paper-back book, but easier to read as there is no physical page turning involved.

Here would be my point of view on the negatives that I have seen in other reviews:

Poor battery life: I have probably allowed the device to charge for 3 hours over the last two weeks, while I have been copying books onto it. Over those two weeks, while commuting, I am yet to see the battery indicator go below Full.

Poor PDF support: This is a valid point. I am able to view PDFs on the reader, but they are slower and harder to read than normal books. However, I am only interested in the text, so export these to normal .rtf files, and they work great.

Slow page turns: It takes me more time to turn the page of a physical book than it does to hit the button and wait for the screen to refresh. I am a relatively fast reader and have not found my reading interrupted by the page refresh time.

Badly designed software: I did not find the software difficult to use at all. There is also some free software which performs a similar role and works very well.

Poor online book selection: I considered this prior to purchasing the reader. However, it is easy to visit the Sony book store and see if they have enough books of your taste to suffice.

Overall, I am very happy with this purchase so far and hope to continue to be so.

I've had the Sony Reader for about three months now. I'm not sure if they've updated it's practice, but Sony was sold out for quite a long time. I waited about two months for my Sony Reader to arrive. It appears that the entire reader market, including but limited to, Sony, Amazon (Kindle), Bookeen(Cybook), are facing serious supply issues. Many of the products have estimated waiting periods of 2wks to 1mnth. In which, I'll explain, why this isn't as big as an issue as it may seem.

This review will be longer than usual; I think it's important for someone making a $[...] purchase to be properly informed.

Cost: It's expensive. $[...] could buy a second-hand laptop or about 40 best-seller books. (Assuming you buy on Amazon of course!). Frankly, I think a lot of buyers of the Sony Reader should think hard about this issue. Are you buying it because you read? Or because you just want the new gadget in town? However, if you're stuck between this device or others because of cost, don't make a choice based on the cost. It's just not worth it.

Style: Sony (generally) makes elegant products. This was no exception, if not, better than its average product. This picture certainly doesn't do it justice, but once you hold it in your hand, the curves of the device were well-thought of. Perhaps the same could be said of the Kindle, but pictures of the Kindle cannot compare against the design style of the Sony E-Reader. It certainly attracts a lot of attention. I've had a lot of questions about it, especially when I'm reading anywhere. If not, a lot of people still look and try to understand what the device I'm holding is.

It is extremely light. It's lighter than most books I hold. Because the product is also extremely thin, it's weight and style give a certain "beauty" to it.

Design: The OS design is well-thought out, but not perfect. You can bookmark, and go through pages easily. But, it's still not perfect. However, to most average users, it'll easily satisfy any requirements.

Reading: The page-flip takes time for each page flip. IE, not instant. I don't know the exact time it takes, but I'm sure it's listed somewhere on this Amazon page. Some have complained about it, saying it's taking too long, but it takes less than the time it takes me to flip a page. Sometimes, I doubt those who are complaining this about the Sony Reader - especially when they say it causes them to lose out of place. I average about 500-600 WordsPerMinute(WPM) on more serious books and 600-700 WPM on novels, and I didn't notice this.

Reading. I find it perfectly fine. I love how it works in any natural environment. IE, just like a real book! Which implies that you cannot read in the pitch-dark. Somebody below complained about the "contrast" of the product. To be frank, I haven't even adjusted that. I just sit and read for the sake of reading.

+: I'm not sure if you enjoy reading on the bed, but I often love to read right before sleeping. Because I don't have to "flip pages" with this device (it's a simple button that I just press), I can rest on one side while reading. You can't really with most books, at least not nearly as comfortable.

Fonts: Small, Medium and Large. They do the task. Nothing fancy, although some have mentioned that you can change it.

Music: I have not tested this. At all. Which may seem odd, but I bought this device to "read."

Support: I have yet to call Sony. However, online communities regarding this device are tight-knit and welcome new members. [...] has massive forums supporting this device, along with Kindle and Cybook.

Battery Life: 7500 page flips. If you're a voracious reader, you should also be smart enough to realize if your battery is low for a few days to charge it.

Page Finding: Perhaps one of the most annoying parts about any Reader is that the flip page is not instant. So, let's say you're trying to find a specific phrase, you cannot just flip and flip pages. This is because the page flip isn't instant (1/2 second wait). This is due to the "ink" technology of the readers, which means that any type of Reader will have this similar issue.

Ebooks Online: I mean, afterall, you bought this product seeing what else you can purchase right? There are numerous stores out there. The costs are similar and are not only limited to Amazon or Sony's bookstores. [...] again will have a list of all of them. You can shop around and find cheap devices.

PDF Support: This is a serious issue. Someone mentioned the size of the Reader, which according to them, was "small." Frankly I was baffled at that statement. The size of the reader is perfect for book-reading. If I wanted to carry a large device, I'd just bring my Thinkpad(Lenovo Laptops) around with me at all times! That being said, it explains why the Reader doesn't read PDFs well.

This is a problem that is addressed by all the Readers. PDF's are designed with a very strict display in mind. (They were designed to transmit electronic documents to ensure that they would look the same, no matter what computer was displaying it.) As a result, PDFs were initially designed to be displayed on computers. The reader's display screen is obviously much smaller than any screen, therefore it doesn't do PDFs perfectly, or sometimes, well at all. However, there been a lot of community support that have written programs to automatically rewrite PDFs so that they are readable. Many of them have made a lot of progress, but are NOT perfect. If PDF support is a huge issue for you, again visit the MobileRead site. Software has pushed so that PDF readability is pretty much the same in quality across ALL the e-book products available.

In short, the Sony Reader is beautiful, elegantly designed, and serves e-book reading well. It's not perfect, and it is expensive. However, if you love to read, and have a little flair of style, the Sony Reader will fit you well. If you're an academic and stuck with 55 PDFs take a second-look at some of the larger products out there.

No internet, but did you really buy a reader to surf the internet? If so, do yourself a favor and realize a)Internet is not perfect and b) get an Iphone instead.

Opening

I am going to be moving in the near future. As I was looking at some massive piles of books that were cluttering my room, which would surely cost a lot of money to ship a few thousand miles from Hawaii to Maryland, I thought it might be about time for me to make the jump into eBooks. With that in mind, I went and bought myself this amazing little machine; the Sony Portable Reader System (PRS-505).

Screen

First thing I would like to write about is the screen on this device. The PRS-505 features a 6-inch, 170 ppi resolution, 600x800 pixel, 8-level grayscale E Ink electronic paper screen. Technical jargon aside, this screen looks great.

For those who are not familiar with the E Ink electronic paper technology, basically it is a means of mimicking the appearance of paper on a electronic screen without the use of backlighting; saving battery power. The screen will display one an image of the screen and the image will remain on the screen without using any additional power. If you wanted to, you could display the same image on the screen indefinitely without charging the battery.

Button/Input Layout

I really like the button layout and the layout of various inputs are positioned in a smart way. Flipping through pages is easy. There is are buttons on the right side of the screen or buttons to the bottom left of the device that you can use, depending on how you like to hold the device. min and out is as easy as pushing a single button. Marking bookmarks is that simple s well. Volume buttons, USB, power and headphone inputs (as well as a little slot for a wrist strap) are on bottom of the device, giving easy access to them when you have the include leather book cover on. Power button is on the top of the device along with the SD and Memory Stick Pro Duo slots. The number button on are the side of the decide, which are used for assigning content and jumping to a specific page. Going to page 364 in a book is as simple as hitting `3-6-4-Enter`.

Other Features

Along with the primary feature of reading books, the PRS-505 as a numerous of other features. The Sony Reader does have the ability to display images (JPRG, BMP, GIF and PNG format). Pictures are obviously not displayed in color, but still are very detailed. It also can display text (LRF, PDF, RFT and TXT, as well support for DOC files, which are converted into RFT). It also has the ability to play audio files (AAC and MP3). I have some classical music loaded on my Sony Reader which I like to listen to when I am reading, which works great.

Ease of use

It is a very simple device to use. The eBook Library software makes it very simple to load up books, files, pictures, or audio onto the device. I have it setup right now so each time I plug in my Sony Reader, it will automatically sync any music and book files I have added to my library. You can turn off any setting you wish in that respect. You can tell it to sync all files, some files or no files.

The eBook Store content is easy to navigate and easy to purchase. I have already bought and downloaded a number of books. If you happen to accidentally delete any content from your computer, getting that content again is as simple as logging in and redownloading your purchased content from your Transaction History (no charge of course). You can also have your purchased content on a total of 6 authorized computers or Sony Reader devices.

Closing

I am very happy with my purchase of the Sony Portable Reader. I would highly recommend the purchase of it to anybody who likes to read or anybody who might read more thanks to this convenience.

I purchased my Sony eReader device from Borders, and am very pleased with it. The Sony eBook store has a lot of titles to offer, and after some trial and error on my part I found the best formats in which to import the titles to my device is .rtf, .pdf formats do not import so well, and if you do, they are best viewed in the landscape mode, the reader library software does not tag the pdf files when it imports them.

I also found a small freeware program online called BBeB Binder which converts text and html files into Sony's .lrf files and it does a great job so I can import all my gutenberg ebooks and the books I have gotten from Baen.com which are in open formats. For me, I find the device perfect. The only problem I had at first with it was after transferring a bunch of titles over and disconnecting it from my computer, was it appeared to freeze up, but then I realized that it was sorting the files by title and author, the more files on the device the longer it takes, but I can put up with that.

I initially started looking at the Amazon Kindle before I new the Sony eReader existed. But after meeting someone with one, and holding it and looking at it the clunkiness of the Kindle put me off, there are buttons all over the place, which is a disaster waiting to happen when shifting it from hand to hand. Plus the guy told me it is hard to hold properly, and he is forever hitting a button and changing the page, or exiting the file he is reading.

And yes, you have to use a booklight for reading in the dark, but that is not so different from having to use a booklight for a paperback or hardback novel. I bought a small compact 3 led booklight from Borders and it works great for lighting up the screen. I also have a 2 gig memory stick and a 2 gig sd card installed so I have plenty of room to store all of my future ebooks.

Everyone has different needs and wants for a reading device, so you should really take a long hard look at each device, and if you can, find someone who has one and see if they will let you look at it, hold it and question them about it first.

Borders had a working demo model of the Sony eReader so I got to use it before buying it, and that was what sold me on it. It had all the features I needed.

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.

I got my Reader as a gift. My husband and I had had what I thought was a purely academic discussion, comparing the Sony Reader and the Kindle, after which he ordered the former as a surprise gift for me. (Thanks, sweetheart!)

For both of us, the Kindle lost points for looks and design (my husband was particularly put off by the cheap white plastic - it looks like something from one of the early Star Wars movies), plus - because I spend most of my time outside the US - I don't need/can't use the wireless offered by Kindle.

In addition, I didn't want to have to pay Amazon every time I put something on my Reader and I also wanted to be able to share books with my husband, who is also thinking of getting a Reader. (These Readers would be great for universities, especially those with distance learning programs - the book costs include shipping and printing and paper - this method would certainly be a money saver - and a "green" plus, as well - for these programs!)

I wish the Sony page had as many books on offer as Amazon does (or that Amazon would offer Reader-friendly format books along with Kindle format) but for this stage in the Reader-Kindle competition, Sony won us over.

There are some small things that should be changed on the reader (mostly covered on the comments here) but the Sony Reader is a great thing for people who travel a lot; when I order English books from Amazon to be sent to me overseas, I have a guilty conscience about all the fuel consumption and shipping waste, plus I have to wait sometimes 2 weeks for my purchases to arrive. (Although I speak and read other languages, for relaxation I - like most people - greatly prefer reading in my mother tongue.) Using the Reader, I get a clear conscience on shipping, packaging, paper use AND fuel use, PLUS I get the books I want in minutes! :-)

With government estimates saying there are about 8 million Americans abroad, hundreds of thousands of whom (especially government and military folks) use Amazon to buy and ship paper books, I (1) hope these things catch on and (2) hope Amazon sees the profits they can make by offering books in both formats!!