Broken

[micomicon]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Please tell me. What advantage does the Kindle have over the Sony that would make it more durable, don't they have the same screen? The Sony's box is metal and isn't the Kindle's plastic? Please explain, I'm missing info here.

Good catch Yvan; my comment was a statement of opinion, not a statement of fact. I'm basing this opinion on:

1. Reports of the frailty of the Sony Readers on this site and others I've read.
2. The fact that Amazon goes out of its way to highlight the durability of the Kindle by showing it being dropped intentionally.

It may be that both counts are wrong... I hope at least the first one is, as I'm supposed to be receiving my 505 later today. (Yay!)

[HarryT]

FWIW, when I had my Sony, I used to routinely fall asleep reading in bed, and more often than not would wake up to find it on the floor. Never suffered the slightest harm from innumerable such drops.

[yvanleterrible]

What is weight of the Kindle? The Sony is 9 oz.

Mass and material density (absorbtion capacity)could make a difference. Could I be making a valid assumtion here Harry?

[jeffoest]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you want to replace your 500 with another 500, you can get a refurbished one from SonyStyle for about $200 and that will have some sort of warranty with it.

Thanks - I didn't know that. At this point, I think I'll apply that $200 on a new device a year or two or so from now as I'm in no big hurry and wasn't wowed by the technology (but saw the great potential) to be honest....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

What is weight of the Kindle? The Sony is 9 oz.

Mass and material density (absorbtion capacity)could make a difference. Could I be making a valid assumtion here Harry?

The weight doesn't really affect it - it's "g-forces" that break things and light things fall and decelerate at the same rate as heavy ones. A plastic case may, however, provide better drop protection than a metal one if it deforms on impact and absorbs the energy that way (like a bumper on a car).

If you drop it on your foot, that's a different matter. Then it's all about transfer of energy from the object to your foot, and that definitely does depend on the weight .

[nathantw]

Originally Posted by jeffoest

I dropped my Sony PRS-500 while waiting in line at the Apple store in July for an iPhone.

I'm not going to even bother sending it in to Sony to get it fixed - their support page makes it seem like the process is both expensive and un-user friendly. I think I'm pretty much done with Sony products.

I'm at a loss here. So if I get this straight, you dropped your Sony PRS-500. It stopped working. In order to get it fixed you need to send it to Sony, but you don't want to pay the price since you think it's "expensive." Have you ever sent anything in to get repaired that was out of warranty? You'll find that in more cases than not it's almost as expensive to get something fixed than it is to buy something new. It's cheaper for a manufacturer to create new items because of volume than to fix something.

So now you're blaming Sony because you dropped your unit and chose not to fix it. That's idiotic.

[MerLock]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The weight doesn't really affect it - it's "g-forces" that break things and light things fall and decelerate at the same rate as heavy ones. A plastic case may, however, provide better drop protection than a metal one if it deforms on impact and absorbs the energy that way (like a bumper on a car).

If you drop it on your foot, that's a different matter. Then it's all about transfer of energy from the object to your foot, and that definitely does depend on the weight .

I'm just asking since I really don't know. But the force that breaks things, isn't that the force that is exerted on the object to stop it's fall that leads to the breakage? (well in this case anyways) Even though all objects will fall at the same rate regardless of it's mass (disregarding friction), it would take a larger force to stop a heavier object?

[jeffoest]

Originally Posted by nathantw

I'm at a loss here. So if I get this straight, you dropped your Sony PRS-500. It stopped working. In order to get it fixed you need to send it to Sony, but you don't want to pay the price since you think it's "expensive." Have you ever sent anything in to get repaired that was out of warranty? You'll find that in more cases than not it's almost as expensive to get something fixed than it is to buy something new. It's cheaper for a manufacturer to create new items because of volume than to fix something.

So now you're blaming Sony because you dropped your unit and chose not to fix it. That's idiotic.

Oh C'mon - are you really at a "loss"? Why do anonymous people talk with such hyperbole in forums like this?

I blame myself for dropping it which is why I'm not hysterical about all this. :-)

I AM saying that because of the repressive nature of Sony's un-user friendly support page and information - i'm not inclined to buy a new one at this point or get it repaired - because you are right, from what I can gather a repair for a dropped unit would be about the the same as buying a new one - that would be $600 (2x$300) for a unit that I can live without. (unlike my iPod! lol)

Seems to me that Sony (or any manufacturer in this space) could really encourage the technology and excite a customer base and, most importantly, encourage a revenue stream from their store - if they actually would consider swap this unit for no charge. It's not a completely totally unreasonable business venture on their part. The unit is still in it's warranty period. Even though I did drop it. Of course I understand that that's not going to happen and that's completely a fair business call on their side.

So I will wait it out and consider my $300 the cost of seeing first-hand a pretty new technology and wait to invest another $200-300 for a more mature one in a year or two since I'm not in a big hurry for it... And at this point, I would not recommend it or similar products if asked at this point to friends that think they may drop it occasionally... I'd advise they also wait a couple of years....gosh - just look at how long it took for Sony to go from a 500 to a 505! I'll bet we have something pretty cool and perhaps not so pricey in a couple of years!

I am kind of inclined against Sony. I guess I haven't seen a product from them in 20 years that I really liked that much. BUT, hey, things change. When I look at these again I will try to be open minded to get the best for my money. If it's Sony, it's Sony. But I really like the potential that an Amazon and Sprint partner can offer....

Hope you are not at too much of a loss over this! ;-)

[MerLock]

The way I see it is that warranty pretty much just covers defects caused by the company to protect the consumer from buying a defective product. If I was to break something out of negligence, I wouldn't expect a company to cover the cost of replacing it. For example, I could buy a new car and crash it, I would not expect the dealership to fix it or give me a new one even though it is still under warranty.

But there is often that grey area about what is considered a manufacturing defect. All items purchased has some reasonable expectancy of durability that comes from normal use but the idea of what is a reasonable life expectacy for a product differs from person to person.

I would expect the sony reader to handle small drops onto a soft surface like carpet or a bed. But if I dropped it on a hard floor from a few feet high, I wouldn't feel too confident that instrument will continue to work. But that's just me though and like I said, everyone has their own opinion about how durable a product should be.

[stustaff]

Im interested what drop proof technology you do own!

And why are you dropping everything?

I have a friend who dropped an IPOD and the screen cracked and no longer worked. People drop phones and they break.

I think what is putting people at a loss is all they really see you saying is I dropped my sony and it broke therefore Sony are rubbish and I wont buy a replacement!

I think to them and me its like saying
"I bought a new Sony LCD TV and its really light, so light I knocked it off the cabinet and it broke.! they want to charge me money to repair it!!! I will not and certainly wont get another until the technology is better, i may get a panasonic LCD instead as I hear they are more durable"

That ISNT what your actually saying but it is the message your sending! and people love their toys and your being negative about ours so people get defensive.

[jeffoest]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Im interested what drop proof technology you do own!

And why are you dropping everything?

I have a friend who dropped an IPOD and the screen cracked and no longer worked. People drop phones and they break.

I think what is putting people at a loss is all they really see you saying is I dropped my sony and it broke therefore Sony are rubbish and I wont buy a replacement!

I think to them and me its like saying
"I bought a new Sony LCD TV and its really light, so light I knocked it off the cabinet and it broke.! they want to charge me money to repair it!!! I will not and certainly wont get another until the technology is better, i may get a panasonic LCD instead as I hear they are more durable"

That ISNT what your actually saying but it is the message your sending! and people love their toys and your being negative about ours so people get defensive.

OK fair enough, but isn't that really exaggerative of what I'm saying? It's almost like you WANT to hear unreasonableness from someone about dropping a unit so you massage the message to get it?

Anyway - I do appreciate the comments and if anyone else has seen a screen like this - would appreciate if there is any advice to "save" it!

[stustaff]

Geoff sorry yes thats my point my example is exagerative because thats how people here intepret it, your on a sony reader forum so people here feel loyalty towards it.

In seriousness have you actually tried even spending a little bit of time on the phone speaking to sony? just to see how much or if they suggest anything?

[KlondikeGeoff]

Originally Posted by kezza

I hear that. I've dropped iPods, PDAs, cell phones, all with maybe some scratches and no real damage. Two weeks ago I dropped my 505 and the top plastic strip popped off, with all the internals for the power switch and the status light bouncing out. I managed to cobble it back together and it works, but there are two tiny pieces that I couldn't find a place for in the device! Who knows what they were for . . .

My goodness, kezza, I think you should take a course in 'Not Dropping Things That Break" at your local community college.

Or get rubber floors.

[yvanleterrible]

Or purchase succion cup rings...

[kezza]

Originally Posted by KlondikeGeoff

My goodness, kezza, I think you should take a course in 'Not Dropping Things That Break" at your local community college.

Or get rubber floors.

I almost never drop things at home. My blasted ipod spends a lot of time on the floor because the headphone cable will catch on something, yanking it out of my pocket and sending it to the ground. This has happened with every iPod i've owned, and only once did it cause any damage. My poor, sad little 1st gen iPod landed on a carpeted but very hard floor at such an angle, while the hard disk was spinning, that it damaged the disk. It was still usable, as long as you didn't fill it more than about 4gb full. Otherwise it would run into the bad patch and freeze.
I've never, ever had a piece of electronics just fly apart as the 505 did when it fell, and it wasn't even that catastrophic of a drop. As I picked up the pieces I thought, "well, if it had been my iPod that wouldn't have happened!"