FYI: Here are my 2 cents about the prs-600. I bought it about 2 weeks ago, primarily to read the Bible and spiritual books. Currently I am quite happy with it as a Bible reader, but I was not happy at first. After the first couple days, the bad points below disappointed me and had me considering returning it. But after really researching the options AGAIN, and working on getting used to it, and using it. I decided I liked it more and more. I threw away the box, and am decided to keep it
FYI, it is my first reader.
The bad:
- I agree with those who complain that the screen has glare. Technically, it is not glare as much as REFLECTION. Many reviewers say that other readers are not nearly as bothersome in this area, and the general assumption is that it is a design compromise because of the touch screen. But I always have to tilt it around to find some angle where whatever being reflected in the screen is uniform and therefore not noticable. One reviewer on the web complained it was so bad that he can actually comb his hair in his reflection. I cant try this because Im bald, but if I wear a yellow T-Shirt, the yellow is clearly reflected in many types of lighting. At equivalent levels of brightness, being able to distinguish patterns of reflected objects is more distracting than simple glare, and probably more tiresome on the eyes. In the end I have accepted it, but it is not an insignificant issue.
- Downloading big files (bibles) into the device can be a hassle. At first it looked to me like it just wasnt going to work. Then I learned two things. Do not use synched folders with bibles, and allow the software up to an hour to transfer the file, even if it appears to have locked up.
Good:
The reflection problem is bearable. I read a lot of discussions of this on the web (after I bought the reader, and discovered the glare issue) and I had to end up agreeing with those who said that knowing about this reflectivity of the screen and thinking about it makes it much worse than it is. The princess and the pea. If you decide to accept it, you find you can usually find some angle that is fine and you start to forget about it... at least that happened to me.
The Touch screen is really cool. Turning pages with a swipe is just totally natural.
The search is fast. The dictionary works pretty well (although I find you have to tap the screen really hard to get it to come up).
Even the 36meg ESV study bible turns pages quickly. I have no complaints about the speed of this thing.
It is a perfect size. It is big enough to read comfortably, the entire device so small that I can (and very often do) carry it in a fanny pack. In fact I can and sometimes do, even carry it in my pocket. It is not really made for a pocket, but if you are not wearing tight pants it fits in there fine, at least enough to get from your car to where you are going to be, without having to hold it in your hand.
By using Calibre in addition to the sony ebook library software, I am able to do even more with it, including download daily feeds of my favorite newspapers. Calibre's is much better for feeds. For one thing, you get an indexed version of the feed. Also, Calibre has a list of over 120 feeds you can choose from by just clicking. Including Time, Newsweek, Forbes, NYT Headlines...etc. Just remember to always close the Sony sofware before opening Calibre, and vice-versa.
So yes, Im liking my Sony more and more. I just bought a booklight for it. I discovered that if the clip is small enough, and soft plastic (not metal), you can just mount the light on the reader by sticking the part of the clip that goes towards the inside into the slot for the sony memory stick. By chance the sony memory stick port is right in the middle... So I can clip a light onto it without having a cover on the reader. Crude but effective.
....To be honest, though, I wish there were a reader that ran Apple Ipod software or Windows Mobile. Now that would be cool. There are already bibles for those platforms that do so much and the platform is open to innovation worldwide.