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Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Reader System (Silver) |
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| Great transaction |
| Really had been wanting this, found a great price - seller was very responsive and helpful. Definitely a wonderful transaction! would highly recommend |
| Jan 06, 2009 |
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| Sony PRS-505 Reader A Disappointing Check-In As To State-Of-The-Art |
I hadn't paid much attention to the state of the electronic reader industry until a friend recommended the Sony Reader based on his positive experiences.
I don't know whether the particular device I received is a lemon, or whether most of those who've posted reviews on the internet so far are early adopters who see more of the vision than the reality. I've used my Sony PRS-505 Reader on a number of airplane trips.
The most frustrating aspect of using the Sony Reader for me is that it crashes approximately half of the time (and reboots) when I attempt to read the New York Times; yesterday on a flight it also crashed when I attempted to follow a link in Newsweek. It crashed frequently when I try to read PDF files in general - I don't know whether this is because these are somehow ill-formatted (I can read them on my laptop), whether because the device has a relatively primitive PDF viewer or because my particular device is defective. The problem is that simply because I synch articles I want to read to the device can not give me confidence that I will be able to read them once I'm on a long airplane flight and ready to do so.
The second aspect of the device that I found surprising has been the short battery life. A friend of mine who has the same device told me he never bothers to shut the device down, and can leave it for long periods of time without significant battery strength decrease. In my case, if I leave the device sitting for 3-4 days or so I can be pretty confidant it will be dead and unusable until I recharge it. When the charge is full though, I do seem to be able to read for an essentially limitless number of page turns (meaning I naturally charge/synch before it becomes even remotely an issue).
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| Jan 06, 2009 |
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| She LOVES it |
| I got this for my wife or Christmas, and she has rarely put it down since. She originally wanted the Kindle, but the only difference between the 2 products was that one being on a wireless network that does not work at our house ( I didn't find that aggravation worth the $100 + difference in price). She is able to quickly and easily download books and carry several e-books with her in one handy little device. The seller gave us 100 free books, there are plenty of "deals" to be found on books if you shop around, and the Sony e-book store is very user friendly. |
| Jan 06, 2009 |
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| My wait is over... |
The PRS-505 is a great gift for a tech savvy bibliophile. The form factor and display clarity make for an excellent reading experience in office and outdoor lighting. It's a gray scale only reader and not the fastest text reader available. Still, it displays PDF files well, has fine battery life, and reads from SD-cards (and Sony's memory sticks). Overall, it's easy to recommend.
I notice that mine displays 16 shades of gray rather than the 4 shades I was led to expect. Thanks to the latest firmware upgrade, it rotates, resizes and reflows text in PDFs fairly well. And, it is generally quicker than earlier efforts. It seems fairly solid and sturdy. To date, I've suffered no hang ups, system failures, excessively long refresh waits with PDFs of 400+ pages, or any other disappointments reported by less favorable reviews.
Of course, there's no a built-in backlight (though a lighting accessory's available). It's grayscale only, slower than reading PDFs from the laptop, and the AC adapter is an unincluded extra, which may be an issue for those who would use the reader as an MP3 music player.
Overall, I am very pleased with mine, would buy one again, and have already recommended the device to friends and colleagues - even without holiday pricing.
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| Jan 05, 2009 |
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