Do you Like your Sony Reader PRS 700?

[Andybaby]

For all The people in this forum who actually own the 700 and have Read atleast a book on it.

Do you Regret your Purchase?

Personally, I don't.

[dhbailey]

I absolutely do not regret my purchase and have already read a few books on it and find the increased speed and ability to handle larger libraries easily to be a wonderful improvement over my 500. The ability to search is wonderful for reference works and other works such as the Approach Plates for pilots.

[sarah7700]

Nope, I LOVE my 700 ^_^

[shopintheusa]

Speed
Light
Touch Screen
Glare

Price

[Server]

Because this is the FIRST Sony device with
a touch screen, It can be too easy to pick apart what isn't
perfect. That said, there is (IMO) plenty to like about the reader
itself. So NO REGRETS here!

As a researcher, forensic life auditor and scientist, I would have to
say, there is nothing out there on todays market that can come
close with the same features.

The problem here is, you can't accurately gauge the 700 as there
is not yet enough exposure, and a reluctance to shell out 400 more
for a device they already have (5xx) So, only time will tell the tale.

[DaHarder]

As someone having had the pleasure of using my PRS500 for a couple of years, as well as my 505 for about a year, I can honestly say that I really enjoy reading with my PRS700.

Admittedly, I still prefer the overall screen clarity of my 505, but the touchscreen implementation on my 700 is so ergonomically well-thought-out, that I have few (if any regrets), and the LED backlighting is always an asset when reading in bed at night.

[Andybaby]

here is an image i took in my dark walled bedroom w/ a 60 watt (equv) compact floresent light bulb. i took 5 minutes getting the focus(and apeture etc) Right cause the AF beam wants to focus on the touch screen and not the words like our eyes can do and the flash would just kill it.

the glare i guess is pretty accurate, but if you look,there is also a big circle without any glare, so while reading i never notice any glare cause i just subconsciously move the glare away from where im reading by 1 or 2 degrees rotation

[blues36]

I haven't put it down since I bought it.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Server

Because this is the FIRSTdevice with
a touch screen, It can be too easy to pick apart what isn't
perfect. That said, there is (IMO) plenty to like about the reader
itself. So NO REGRETS here!

As a researcher, forensic life auditor and scientist, I would have to
say, there is nothing out there on todays market that can come
close with the same features.

The problem here is, you can't accurately gauge the 700 as there
is not yet enough exposure, and a reluctance to shell out 400 more
for a device they already have (5xx) So, only time will tell the tale.

Actually the Irex was the first e-ink reader with a touch screen and there were several older LCD touch screen devices that could be used as readers.

[Server]

I stand corrected. First for the Sony reader series.

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by slayda

Actually the Irex was the first e-ink reader with a touch screen and there were several older LCD touch screen devices that could be used as readers.

Yes, Franklin eBookman was one of them . Many people like this model and continue use it for reading.

[amc]

I love my PRS 700. I've read several books (Project Guttenberg, purchased e-books, and DRMmed library books downloaded through Adobe Digital Editions), numerous pdfs, and a few rtf files on my 700. The formatting on the DRMmed Adobe ebooks gets kind of wonky when you change the text size (any you have to change the text size because it starts out minuscule). The Sony formatted pdfs come out just lovely, as do pdfs I create from web pages, etc.

I'm a student, and by my calculations, the Reader will pay for itself in savings on printing out the many, many pdf readings I'm assigned each week. Plus, the search and the notes features make finding quotes a breeze--it's waaaaay faster than sorting through a mess of index cards or sticky-noted pages looking for a quote.

Not that everything is light and roses -- I hate the software that came with it. Adobe Digital Editions and the Sony Reader program are absolute crap programs! 95% of my complaints about my Reader have everything to do with the related computer software. The other 5% of my annoyances with the 700 are split evenly between the glare (easily eliminated by the booklight) and random folks who come up asking, "Is that a Kindle?"

Does anyone know of any open source programs that will manage my files and let me view my annotations?

[Andybaby]

what problem are you having with the reader software? i have never experienced a problem with it ever. i actually find it the first piece of sony software i like (ever try sonicstage i think it was called for music? ugh it was horrid)

Calibre is an Open source Library. check the main forum.

[amc]

Andybaby, I think the Reader software and digital editions have issues with my clunky CostCo Special laptop. I've had to reinstall the Reader software a couple of times. Library books don't seem to like to download to the Sony program (or it's just so infernally slow, I think it isn't loading) so I use Digital Editions for library books.

DE would be just great, except for the fact that the "bookshelves" in DE don't show up as categories on my reader, so I need to use the Sony program to set up categories (it's how I separate readings for different classes). But sometimes either one of these programs will create a mess of duplicate records on my reader (ugh!)

Also, the Sony program doesn't ever seem to fully close on my computer, so my computer refuses to eject the reader after I've finished. Hence my issues. I still love my Reader, though--it's a good design, and software can always be fixed...perhaps right now. I'm off to download calibre.

Thanks for the rec!

[Andybaby]

hmm that is weird, i have never experienced any of those problems in fact it has never crashed once for me, Its Limited in what it can do. but ive found it to be one of the more stable programs on my computer.

i never tried DE so i wouldnt know.

but its not like the reader even needs software to be used. You might want to look into Book Designer https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11786 I use it to convert all my books before putting it on the reader (it ussually only takes 10 minutes(to format, the actual conversion only takes seconds), and i do about 1 a day whenever i get a free moment.