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57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Saves on Bookshelf Space!, 27 Nov 2009
This review is from: Sony PRS600B Reader Touch Edition - Silver - Store up to 350 books (Electronics)
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!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love this product, 26 Nov 2009
This review is from: Sony PRS600B Reader Touch Edition - Silver - Store up to 350 books (Electronics)
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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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Remember this is not an iPad or iPhone and you will be fine, 11 Jun 2010
This review is from: Sony PRS600B Reader Touch Edition - Silver - Store up to 350 books (Electronics)
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 it. I admit I was put off. A colleague swore by hers and it seemed to work a dream in the Sony shop. The alternative was an expensive Kindle and I wanted something with better support for open standards. I didn't want to be locked into one wholesaler. So I brought the Sony. Three months down the line it has changed the way I read and of how I consider reading. There are a few issues but none with the product itself.
The first issue is the software that comes with it, it's rubbish and I highly recommend you install Calibre as the free eBook manager. It does a whole bunch of useful stuff like downloading newspapers and converting documents to use on your Sony. You will of course additionally need the Adobe digital rights management software for when you buy books online, which is freely downloadable. You just drag them into the Adobe Management software after downloading, plug in your Sony and once it pops up in Adobe drag your book to the eReader. Simples. Registering my Sony eReader to get my free 100 books has been traumatic and still not accomplished. The Sony site does not have my serial number recorded it would seem.
So onto the product, the first stop has to be the touchscreen. Folks! This is not a iPhone or iPad, not all touchscreens are equal. This works extremely well as a touchscreen for what it needs to do. The key presses need to be firm but you don't need to hit it. It just works. The only slight niggle was the master books view. I always find myself wanting to scroll down the list of books but you have to touch a rollerdex type index which can be fiddly. As you only do this between books not a great issue.
Onto glare. It's a screen folks! Not a piece of paper. It is reflective but nothing a slight movement of the wrist does not resolve. I am never aware of the glare other than to make adjustments. I'm never sat there during a read thinking: 'Damn that glare'. If I never read about it on other reviews it would never occur to have written about glare here. I adjust the screen just as I would my laptop screen on bootup, that's it. I read in daylight often with no issues.
The text is brilliant. I have not seen an eReader where the text does not look good. The PS600 screen is about the size of a page of a paperback book and the technology is great. With ePub products you can resize the text to make it bigger if you need. I would highly recommend you buy or use ePub books wherever you can as resizing PDF can sometimes have unusual results.
The screen is not backlite! I know! Nor is the page on a book, nor can you read a book in the dark without another source of light. The eReader uses a technology that literally prints text to the screen, a backlight would mess it all up and result in your battery lasting one third the time. (This battery lasts ages between charges). Sure you can read no problem on a iPhone/iPad/laptop screen, but I doubt you'll curl up on the sofa and read three hundred pages back to back on those devices. The backlight would kill your eyes, which is why eReaders don't backlight as a rule.
Another good thing is the stylus and the touchscreen combined allow you to annotate the pages of the book you are reading. I write an awful lot. So I use Calibre (mentioned above) to export what I write to the Sony and literally read and mark and adjust on the Sony. Seeing my text in this different format and being able to highlight and edit text is a real winner for me. I also got one of the (non-Sony) cases with the pop out flap at the back that works like the stand on a picture frame, so when back at my disk I sit it on the desk and just work through the pages and edit on my computer.
In summary - I love this. It only gets four stars because of the rubbish software it comes with and the issues with registering to get my free books. Apart from that, if you are looking for something to replace carrying books, to replace the page by page reading experience, this is it for me. Reading is totally immersive and never am I ever aware that I am reading from a device, rather than a book. Other than to stop and think, wow!
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