Sony PRS600B Reader Touch Edition - Black- Store up to 350 books

 

 

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Atlhough a gadget freak, I was very hesitant in buying the Sony Reader. The main reason being that I thought that my enjoyment of reading would be lessened by not experiencing the feel and smell of paper, and that I would miss the physical turning of the page. To a certain extent this was true but this apprehension soon vanished after a few days of using the device as I focused on what was most important; the content of the books themselves.

For me, the final clinching decision to buy the Reader was made on seeing the huge size of Dan Brown's hardback version of "The Lost Symbol". I am an avid reader but have limited bookshelf space. I would have had to wait another 6 months or so before the smaller paperback version was due to come out. So it made sense to take a chance on buying the Reader, after which I knew I could download the ebook of "The Lost Symbol".

Sony have made a great effort to make the screen display look like print on paper. It has no backlight which I was surprised to see but apparently that was due to complaints from trial users that it caused glare and gave people headaches. Also, this new version of the reader has a touch screen which you can operate with the attached stylus or with your fingers most of the time. The added layer of the touch screen has reduced the anti-glare properties of the screen from previous versions of the reader but not by much.

When you first get the Reader, you need to charge it fully which you can do in a few hours from a USB connection to your PC. Thereafter, you need to load the included software onto your PC from the device; this enables you to download ebooks from the internet. The software version that came with my device would not install on my PC so I visited the Sony website to download the newer version for Windows XP and it worked fine. Thereafter, I was able to download ebooks on to my PC and then transfer them to the Reader. The Sony Reader comes with a soft case which I personally quite like. The device itself is well-built, hard and metallic and slips into this soft case neatly saving it from scratches and knocks, so don't automatically buy a separate case before seeing this one first.

On the whole, using the Reader is a good experience and there are advantages in using it instead of paper books. For example, you can operate the Reader with one hand instead of having to use the other to turn the page, the Reader remembers which page you were last reading so no more turning over page ends or bookmarks falling out, by clicking on any word the built-in dictionary will tell you the meaning without you having to make the extra effort in getting your dictionary out, you can change the size of the font, add notes to any page of the Ebook, and of course you can save hundreds of books on the Reader and save your bookshelf. Ebooks are generally a little cheaper than buying the paper books themselves but you would have to buy over a hundred before you were reimbursed for the cost of the device. However, you can download 125 classic books from the Sony site for free which does partly make up for this. You can increase the storage by using Sony ProDuo cards or, I was surprised to see a slot for SD cards also. However, I don't see the point of increasing the storage as I don't normally read more than a few books at a time and would only transfer those books onto the Reader when I needed them; the rest can stay stored on my PC. Maybe the extra storage is for people who want to store other information on the device or like music; the device has a headphone socket so you can play music from it.

As well as viewing ebooks, you can view MS Word and PDF files also but this is a variable experience as the layout is not always perfect when you change the font size to one that you can easily read; so I don't recommend this as a main reason to buy the Reader.

How does it compare to the Kindle eReader? I can't really say as it seems that this is only available in the US. Inevitably, eReaders are going to be compared to the Apple iPad and the (maybe) upcoming HP Slate. This is a little unfair to say the least. At double the price the iPad is a beautiful piece of electronic hardware and can be used as an eReader as well the thousands of applications made for it. The colour screen is breathtaking and you can view photos and video as well as play games. However, for the same price, you can buy a laptop which is significantly more functional.

Overall, I would say that the Sony Reader is a decent device and more people would use it if the price was not so prohibitive. I have a feeling that the intended audience is a little different from the iPad crowd although there is bound to be some overlap. After all, curling up with a good book in a tranquil atmosphere is an altogether different experience from the harshness of playing video games or watching YouTube!

The Sony Reader Touch Edition is a overall good to very good reader that offers a large number of posibilities. From the general ebook devices benefit would mention the small size (less than 1 cm), so now can easily have in my bag "thick" books!, not worry about where to store books in my house and access to a large number of free books (classics mainly).

From the most appreciated features of the Sony PRS-600 would mention:
- a large number of ebook formats supported epub, pdf, rtf, word, txt, etc.
- the screen is good allowing a good reading
- integrated very good dictionaries (2 english: Oxford and American) that allow to expand quickly his english vocabulary
- ability to make annotations on the book directly (like underline, highlight, handwritten notes) like one would do on paper books
- very good battery life (2 weeks)
- possibility to organize the ebooks in (custom) collections
- small, sleek, light
- external memory (currently use a SDHC 8GB card)
- different software can be used for pc ebook library management and for transfer of ebooks from pc to reader (a notable example is Calibre)
- integrated MP3 player with standard 3.5 mmm jack headphone socket; so one can listen to mp3 audiobooks too

On the side that can require improvement would mention:
- no direct ebook store connection a la Kindle (a PC needed to download/copy/syncronize)
- the Sony Ebook Library (EBL) management software is good and syncronization not very explicit, but manageable
- expected a wider list of ebook shops to exist in the EBL software, but one can search easily the internet and find a big number of ebook shops (surprisingly Amazon seems not to have a big offer of ebooks for Sony Readers...)
- the screen is a bit reflective (the best screen from all ebook readers that I had is the Sony PRS-505) compared to non touch versions; however if one holds it with light source on one side (left, right, above) at about 40 degrees to reader surface gets a very good image w/o any reflection
- cheap sleeve cover, highly recommended to get a leather/pvc book style a la Sony PRS-505 (will give better protection in case that stored in a bag with some protrusive objects like various connectors, lipstick, etc...)
- only 2 english dictionaries, so who reads other languages would need to wait until Sony or other releases such dictionary
- some pdf ebooks are not designed for the sony screen size and fonts may look too small and enlatging them may not work as expected (the reflow of the document is usually not what one would expect). However this is an issue of the ebook creator rather than of the Sony Reader
- no charger included
- no headphones included
- seldom issues with ebooks that do not have fonts embeded: special characters might not be rendered for some languages (so far no problems with english and german). Workarounds & tweaks on internet available. Again I think this is an issue of the book producer rather than Sony reader.


Overall a good ebook reader that gives you a freedom and the feeling that you read a real book by letting you annotate/underline text; would be very good if would allow direct connection/download of books from shops w/o the need of having a pc in-between and more dictionaries available.

The Calibre software offers the possibility of converting news from a large number of web sites in ebooks (epub) that can be transferred to ebook reader!

Thks little gem does almost everything - you can use it as a notebook, draw,listen to music and, oh, read books. It doesn't make toast or walk the dog, but you can't have everything. True, there are DRM issues if you have forgotten the password you used to register an earlier product with Sony (this is my second e-reader)and you want to transfer books to a new device - but for every problem there is a workaround. The best feature is being able to vary the size of the text - particularly useful when reading in poor light or when tired and want to avoid eye-strain. Ebook prices are still too high but there are a number of sites which offer free downloads - where the book is out of copyright or the author has generously allowed free publication.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Good EReader
Bought this EReader for my wife, which is where the fun began...

Changing from a paper book to an electronic book took my wife a bit of time to come to terms with. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Mr. John B. King

4.0 out of 5 stars Sony PRS 600
Very easy to load and to use. The silver finish does give the reader an air of permanence and quality. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Scribbler

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment
I ordered this as I thought it had advantages over the Kindle, despite being rather more expensive.

It offered flexible storage via SD cards and supported ePub files... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Claptonian

4.0 out of 5 stars Sony PRS-600 - READ THIS FIRST
I have purchased the PRS-600 just over one month ago and am very pleased with the product. Functionality and build quality is typical Sony - EXCELLENT. Read more

Published 16 months ago by B. Jones

4.0 out of 5 stars Sony PRS600 eReader
I had been thinking of buying one of these for a couple of years but was put off as the books were more expensive than paper ones. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Squiffy

4.0 out of 5 stars Remember this is not an iPad or iPhone and you will be fine
It would be true to say the Sony Touchscreen eReader has come in for a lot of bad publicity. Not so much from the tech press who universally liked it but from those that have used... Read more

Published 20 months ago by J. Potter

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing.
I was really excited when I got my ereader: I needed to stop buying books or I think my husband might've divorced me and cited "bibliophile" as the reason. Read more

Published 22 months ago by L. Jenkins

3.0 out of 5 stars love the kit ...cant get the books we want
we bought this for our son, but the range of books available for young readers is not good. Very dissappointed Its fine for us as adults.. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Siun M. J. Cranny

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect eBook Reader
Received the PRS-600 as a christmas present and so far so good.

The downside is a Sony speciality, the software. Read more

Published on 21 Jan 2010 by Blackadder

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid
Spent a lot of time trying to get this Sony PRS 600 to do something useful but now giving up and will try to return it. Read more

Published on 27 Dec 2009 by Creature from the Black Hole

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