MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - CyBook Gen 3 compared to Sony PRS-505

pdurrant · 02-13-2009, 10:02 AM

I just bought a Sony PRS-505 from expansys. I thought it would be useful to compare it to my CyBook Gen 3, which I've had for a year.

First impressions:

The Sony is shorter but a little wider than the CyBook. It's aspect ration is much more like the aspect ratio of A-series paper than of a book, which is what the cybook looks like.

It's considerably heavier. The specs say this, but I didn't realise it would be so noticeable in the hand. Not that the Sony is excessively heavy - it's just heavier than the CyBook.

It has /far/ more buttons than the cybook. I think I rather like the 10 menu buttons down the side, and I definitely like the next/previous page buttons - in two different places. I'd prefer to have the menu (which seems to mean "up a level" in a different place, but it's certainly more convenient than the menu button of the cybook on the left hand side.

I haven't had it long enough to compare battery life, but unless I turn off the CyBook after reading, or enable the auto shutoff, the CyBook will drain its battery in three days. I don't like auto shutoff, or turning off the CyBook, because the start-up time is long when there are a lot of books on it. I understand the Sony will hibernate automatically with fast 'on', so giving much better battery life. I'll see.

I don't like the very limited font size selection on the sony. It seems very strange to have an eBook and then limit the resizing of the text so much.

So far, I like the Sony. The nicer button placement and the possibility of long battery life currently outweigh the limited font sizes. Of course, without Calibre it'd be a complete non-starter for me on the Mac. Thanks Kovid!

02-13-2009, 10:02 AM	#1
pdurrant The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠 Posts: 71,504 Karma: 306214458 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Norfolk, England Device: Kindle Voyage	CyBook Gen 3 compared to Sony PRS-505 I just bought a Sony PRS-505 from expansys. I thought it would be useful to compare it to my CyBook Gen 3, which I've had for a year. First impressions: The Sony is shorter but a little wider than the CyBook. It's aspect ration is much more like the aspect ratio of A-series paper than of a book, which is what the cybook looks like. It's considerably heavier. The specs say this, but I didn't realise it would be so noticeable in the hand. Not that the Sony is excessively heavy - it's just heavier than the CyBook. It has /far/ more buttons than the cybook. I think I rather like the 10 menu buttons down the side, and I definitely like the next/previous page buttons - in two different places. I'd prefer to have the menu (which seems to mean "up a level" in a different place, but it's certainly more convenient than the menu button of the cybook on the left hand side. I haven't had it long enough to compare battery life, but unless I turn off the CyBook after reading, or enable the auto shutoff, the CyBook will drain its battery in three days. I don't like auto shutoff, or turning off the CyBook, because the start-up time is long when there are a lot of books on it. I understand the Sony will hibernate automatically with fast 'on', so giving much better battery life. I'll see. I don't like the very limited font size selection on the sony. It seems very strange to have an eBook and then limit the resizing of the text so much. So far, I like the Sony. The nicer button placement and the possibility of long battery life currently outweigh the limited font sizes. Of course, without Calibre it'd be a complete non-starter for me on the Mac. Thanks Kovid!