Sony 505 - To be or not to be?

[Aspidus]

Hi everyone,

I am a new member however, I have been a lurker of this awesome forum for over a year now. Great forum.

I would like to ask you more experienced people here what your thoughts are on the Sony 505.

I have been struggling reading ebooks with a Palm One for around 3 years now and, in between the countless crashes, I actually managed to finish reading them.

To say I have had it with the Palm, is a gross understatement.

As I said, I am on the verge of purchasing a 505, yet I am not sure whether to take that last step. At least not before some questions I have are answered. I was thinking of the iliad, as it is the best for PDFs, but the price was just too much for my worn wallet.
I did look at the Cybook, but looking at the posts here regarding the two, it looks as if the Sony wins by a pretty good margin. So, I'm going to go with that.

I must stress I am not as proficient in technological matters as some other posters here, so please take it easy with me.

Now, I am an Aussie living in Taiwan, so I will have to order it delivered from the States to Taiwan. I am looking at Ebay, though in one post I read here, someone mentioned B&H ships internationally.

Here are my questions:
Can anyone tell me if the 505 would be a good choice for someone whose ebooks are mostly in PDF format?

Does the 505 have any technological glitches or breakdowns to warrant wanting some form of a warranty or not? Basically, is it sturdy?

I believe that the 505 takes Kingston 2GB SD cards. I went to a local electronics store here, and asked them about Kingston SD cards, but they had none, They did have 4GB Transcend, and Scandisk SD cards though. Would these be good enough for the Sony 505? I asked the store clerks over here, unfortunately they had no idea.

Anything else you'd like to add, please do so.

Thanks.

[HarryT]

The Sony is a very nice machine and, if most of your books are in PDF format, it's a good choice (although you'll know, if you've been reading this forum, that PDF is really a very poor choice of eBook format, generally speaking).

The main issue with it is that you're effectively buying it with no warranty. If it breaks, you basically have to throw it in the trash. It probably won't break, but it is something to be aware of.

I'm very happy with my CyBook, personally. What made you prefer the Sony to the CyBook?

[igorsk]

Sony is much sturdier than Cybook thanks to its aluminium casing. It takes any SD cards, Kingston or otherwise, though naturally brand name cards are usually better in reliability and performance. Transcend and Scandisk seem to be pretty well-known so they should be fine. Also, the card doesn't have to be 2GB in size (I wonder what gave you that impression).
As for PDFs, it largely depends on what kind of books you have. If it's mostly text, Sony's PDF reflow should work pretty well. Otherwise, PDFLRF might help. You can check how it might look on the Reader by downloading eBook Library and opening your books in it. The program simulates Reader's screen pretty closely (except for contrast and actual screen size).
B&H is a good shop and I would recommend it over eBay unless you found a much better deal there.
Sony does have warranty only in US but from my experience it's not very likely you'll need to make use of it. If you do, you can still send the device to US for repairs but it's best if you have some friends in US who can receive the unit back and then send to you. Some people mentioned that the repair center can send the device overseas on request, but it will be the cheapest option without insurance.

[Aspidus]

Hi HarryT,

Well, basically I could get the 505 delivered here for around US$ 350, which is the cost of purchasing the cybook, not counting the postage.
You'd figure the quality of both machines is pretty equal, so the cheaper one wins out I'd say.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Aspidus

Hi HarryT,

Well, basically I could get the 505 delivered here for around US$ 350, which is the cost of purchasing the cybook, not counting the postage.
You'd figure the quality of both machines is pretty equal, so the cheaper one wins out I'd say.

Fair comment. For me, though, the Gen3 wins out in a number of ways, such as:

- It supports the industry-standard MobiPocket eBook format, which gives one a very wide choice of eBook stores from which to buy content.

- One can load any TrueType or OpenType font onto the machine, and view any book in any font at any size (on the Sony the fonts are "hard wired" into the book and have a very limited range of available sizes).

- It has proper support for font "families" - ie it displays "real" italic and bold fonts, compared with the Sony's "synthesised" italics.

- It has a user-replaceable battery. If the battery dies on the Sony it's an expensive replacement which has to be done by Sony (which is very awkward if you live in a part of the world where it's not officially supported).

- It has a world-wide warranty.

- It supports dictionary lookup.

That's what made me opt for the Gen3, but I entirely agree, as a former Sony owner, that the Sony is a very nice machine.

[bbusybookworm]

Well, If most of your docs are in PDF the Sony is probably the best option of the 6" readers.

Keep in mind that the Sony does reflow the text inside the PDF so if the formatting in not straight formatted you may end up getting some odd results.

If you want to preserve the formatting of the PDF's then you either ave the option of getting one of the iRex readers .

Both the Cybook and the Bebook support PDF's and while the support is basic, it is enough for many people.

The thing is that with the Cybook, it is pretty easy to convert PDF's to Mobi files, using Mobipocket Creator so its not that much of a concern. And you get Other features like Mobi Support (making it easy to buy eBooks and read them without conversion) as well as Dictionary support.

On the other hand the Sony does support RTF natively, which can be very useful.

Still I have to ask have you considered the Bebook (Hanlin V3)? It does support the Most formats natively, though some of the support may be basic. and it does have aactive developer community bringing in new features pretty fast.

Also I believe that you can Purchase the Cybook and the Hanlin In Asia from a couple of Australian Resellers Dynamocks and DA Direct, who have stores in Singapore and Hong Kong (I believe)

Check the Link for Where to buy Ebook readers for more info.

[RCR]

I've had my Sony since last Christmas, and I'm still very happy with it. It's a rugged little gadget. I've dropped it violently enough to break the plastic cover clip, but the gadget itself still works flawlessly.

But... I've given up trying to read PDF's on it. The Sony doesn't handle them at all well.

If I have an ebook in PDF format, I convert it to RTF. If the PDF can't be converted, I just read it on my desktop computer.

I bought my Sony online from B&H - they're excellent.

I've never bothered using cards. The internal memory takes well over 100 ebooks, which is plenty for me.

Maybe you should be looking at a cheap laptop that would handle any format and any card you throw at it.

[Aspidus]

HarryT & Igorsk,

Much appreciate your replies.

Igorsk, your post was very informative.

I downloaded ebook library, as you suggested, and the look of the PDF was good enough. I suppose the words were quite small, but on the 505 they would be enlarged somewhat wouldn't they?

I will look into B&H, but, could you also let me know if there are any other stores that would ship overseas from The U.S. ?

HarryT, I do actually love the look of the Cybook. It is a great device.

Just one more thing, I was looking at buying a local product; the Netronix 9.7" ebook reader, which is made here in Taiwan and, coming out early next year. However, due to the company's lack of expertise in ebook readers, I thought that it might be touch and go. Better to stick with products which has been proven, as both the 505 & Cybook have been.

[Aspidus]

bbusybookworm & RCR,

Thanks for your replies as well.
I really like both readers guys, but if the Cybook displays PDFs better than the 505, might it be better? Opinions?

I suppose I could convert my PDFs to either .rtf; .txt; or .docs.
Would that be an option for the Sony?

[igorsk]

Use S/M/L buttons at the bottom right of eBook Library's screen to see how would reflow work with your PDFs.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by Aspidus

bbusybookworm & RCR,

Thanks for your replies as well.
I really like both readers guys, but if the Cybook displays PDFs better than the 505, might it be better? Opinions?

I suppose I could convert my PDFs to either .rtf; .txt; or .docs.
Would that be an option for the Sony?

NO worries

As for the Cybook displaying PDF's better it depend on how you like to view them.

The Sony Reflows the text, allowing you to resize the font and read it like an normal eBook, although the formatting does get messed up at times.

In contrast the Cybook shows the PDF as it is, keeping its original formatting. To increase the size of the text, you have to zoom in and move around the page, similar to the desktop client.

My PDF's tend to have columnar layouts and lots of Images so I prefer the Cybook's style of displaying them. For Others, I just convert them to Mobi.

If you have a of PDF's with mainly text, the Sony will probably make it easier to read them natively.

As for converting, the Sony already supports RTF natively, and Kovids Calibre program is great for converting files for the sony, supporting a ton of formats.

The main disadvantage of the Sony is that to buy New eBooks you have to buy protected PDF or ePub whose availability is limited compared to Mobi or eReader.

You can always buy other formats and convert them, but they do add another step in the chain. In contrast you can but a Mobi Book for the Cybook or the Hanlin and just download it and start reading them on the device as long as your PID is registered with the store.

Another disadvantage of the Sony is that if you are not running Windows you can't run the connect software or buy Protected books. While the connect software is no great loss, with Cailbre available, the inability to buy books without converting could be a pain.

[Aspidus]

OK, I guess I'll look into the gadgets before deciding.
I might be posting more questions in the days ahead, so buckle up!

Anyway, thank you all for the great (and swift) responses.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Just briefly posting to confirm the Sony has no problems with SanDisk SD cards (and I've never had any problem with SanDisk SD or CF cards in the few years I've been using them in digital cameras)

[Aspidus]

Thanks for the info ShortNCuddlyAm.

[jchestnutt]

In case you decide on a 505, I'll throw out my experience with finding a place that ships overseas.

I'm currently in Japan, and ordered one several months ago. I looked at B&H, and they would ship to me, but the shipping was fairly expensive.

I eventually ordered it from Borders. For some reason it's in their DVD section, but the shipping was only $7 to Japan, which made it the cheapest by far.
http://www.borders.com/online/store/...u=027242723665