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#1 |
Book worm
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Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Sony Reader/Cybook Gen3/Hanlin V5
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Cybook v PRS-505 Comparison
I just received my new Bookeen Gen 3 on Christmas Eve and thought I would share a few thoughts. I have been a PRS-500 user since Nov last year and recently upgraded to the PRS0505, once I saw that the Bookeen Gen3 was out and supported MobiPocket I decided to take the plunge and get that as well. The intention is to keep the one I like and sell the other.
I have now been using the Gen3 for a couple of days, the best way I think to show my impressions is to list pro's and con's. What I like:-
I am not sure which one I will eventually decide to keep, I like the look and feel of the Sony reader, if I were able to use MobiPocket with it then it would be no contest as the number of book websites I can buy books at is vast. The Gen3 has more potential, hopefully in the next firmware upgrade they will sort a number of issues, I hope they are more willing to listen to what users want than Sony. The look and feel lets it down a bit, however not as muck as the Kindle which from what I can see is like a brick and plain ugly (apologies in advance if I upset anyone). Update After 21 days and 26 books later, I have finally made my decision on which e book reader to keep. This is the Bookeen Gen3, my Sony PRS-505 has been sold on Ebay. What decided me was speed, flexibility and the range of easily available e books for the Gen3. Unfortunately I can not give an update on the leather cover as I am still waiting (4 weeks) for it to be delivered. The Key differentiators for me were:
NOTE: When I say sorting in folders, I mean via attached PC, you can not do this yet on the book reader. I create a folder by author and put that authors ebooks in that folder. On the library screen, display the menu and select "Sort". Choose "Sort by File Path". Your books will still be displayed "linearly" but sorted by folder name. Update - 7th Feb Just a Quick update, I received my nice new shiny leather cover last week on the recommendation of HarryT and I have to say I am impressed with the quality. I will not go into any details re Leather or plastic as this has been done to death in a previous post (the outside is man-made and the inner cover Leather). In my opinion a cover for the Gen3 is a must, maybe this is the one for you. What I like:
Negative points:
Last edited by CJBarrow; 02-07-2008 at 02:32 PM. |
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#2 |
eBook Enthusiast
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
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Don't forget one major benefit of the Gen3 over the Sony - dictionary support. I used to think that this was no big deal, but since I've bought a decent dictionary for my Gen3 it's a feature I find myself using all the time, especially when reading authors like Dickens, who uses all sorts of words which are no longer in common usage.
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#3 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 7185064
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Linköpng, Sweden
Device: Kindle Voyage, Nexus 5, Kindle PW
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Don't you have kind of page history by using the back button? When I by mistake jumps to the beginning of the book I just press back to get back to where I was.
Folders and better sorting and page numbers will probably be in the next firmware release. At least there is indications of that on Bookeens blog and in email responses people have shown here. |
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#4 | |
Connoisseur
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Karma: 44
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: amsterdam
Device: prs-505, kindle2, nook glow
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Quote:
but if the sony would have the same possibilities as the gen3 and keep what it already has i would keep the sony. |
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#5 |
Book worm
![]() Posts: 28
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Sony Reader/Cybook Gen3/Hanlin V5
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Thanks for the advice with the back button, works a treat.
As navigating and looking for books is such a pain I have been experimenting with creating an index book. This is a book that contains a list of all my books, each listed book is a hyper link to a book on my Gen3's SD card. So far I have links within the book working but not external links to other books. If anyone has any ideas of how to make this work I would appreciate it. I can make links from one book to another within MobiPocket on my PC, however copying these books to the Gen3 and trying the link does not work |
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#6 | ||
Outside of a dog
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Karma: 4457646
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Houston, TX
Device: Kindle Voyage
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Quote:
Quote:
When you say that the Cybook feels "flimsy," could you explain a little more? Is the housing made of plastic? I really like the metal housing on the Sony. However, what really makes me angry about the Sony is how HUGE the page margins are (and on the demo unit at Border's, I couldn't find a way to reduce them). How does the Cybook compare? The margin limitations and the lack of Mac support may drive me to the Cybook, but I'm guessing that it has a lot of bugs to still be worked out. Thanks for any pointers! Curt |
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#7 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Linköpng, Sweden
Device: Kindle Voyage, Nexus 5, Kindle PW
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Currently you cannot set the margins. But the actual margins varies a bit depending on the font and font size. I use Lucida Sans and usually read with the fourth smallest size and then i get 50-60 characters per line and the margins are 5 mm but you need some margins in lightings where you have shadows. I think 50-60 characters per line is perfectly acceptable.
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#8 | |
Gadget Force®
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Karma: 2733
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Netherlands
Device: Sony PRS-300 + Cybook with funny screen :P
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Quote:
The housing is made of cheap looking plastic including the buttons which are already losing its paint on my unit. I never had a PRS505 in my hands so I can't say anything about that, but the PRS500 was a very good quality build. Personally, I believe the Cybook for its 350 Euro is too expensive for the materials used. Last edited by diabloNL; 12-29-2007 at 10:23 AM. |
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#9 |
Book worm
![]() Posts: 28
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Sony Reader/Cybook Gen3/Hanlin V5
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Hi Curtw,
As diabloNL says the the housing is of cheep looking plastic, the PRS-505 is undoubtedly a much more robust and better quality product. It is also a lot cheaper, it cost me £150 where as the Gen3 cost £245. The PRS-505 when connected to my computer shows as an external drive so I do not need to use the Sony software to load books. If that does not work you only have to remove the SD card and connect it directly to your Mac to add books. You will still have the problem you would not be able to load Sony DRAM books. Personaly I did not find the margins a problem on the PRS-505 or the PRS-500, this depended on the formatting of the book you are reading. It's a shame that there is no way to to link to external document sources such as other documents on the reader. Looks like I will have to wait for the upcoming firmware update whenever that is. For me the one major advantage the Gen3 has over the Sony Ready is it's MobiPocket support and probably the only reason for choosing this as my reader of choice. If the Sony reader supported MobiPocket then I would not have considered the Gen3. |
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#10 | |
Outside of a dog
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Karma: 4457646
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Houston, TX
Device: Kindle Voyage
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Quote:
It's a shame about the Cybook, because the feature list (dictionaries, fonts, PDF landscape mode etc.) make it so appealing. If Sony would just add Mobi support, the decision would be easy. Last edited by curtw; 12-29-2007 at 02:45 PM. |
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#11 |
eBook Enthusiast
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
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I have to disagree with the comments about the Gen3 being "cheap looking"; I don't find it to be so at all. Yes, the case is made out of plastic, just like the case of virtually every other electronic device that I own. There's absolutely nothing wrong with modern plastics as a constructional material - to equate plastic with "cheapness" is, IMHO, not right.
As a former Sony owner, I think personally that the Gen3 is MUCH better in all sorts of ways. Very well worth the extra cost compared with the Sony. |
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#12 |
multipass
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Karma: 10
Join Date: Dec 2007
Device: Cybook Gen 3
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I'm with Harry on this one - I don't think it looks "cheap" because of the plastic. (I agree that the front button is slightly cheesy, I'm not a big fan of the |B|o|o|k|e|e|n| and CyBOOK logos, and the grey stripe isn't to my taste, but I'm not an industrial designer...) I love the way it is super light, and I don't think of it as "flimsy" in the least. And now that I'm in the 'rhythm' of page turning, I hardly ever end up pressing the button without turning the page, even when I'm skipping past pages of David Weber political 'analysis'...
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#13 | |
eBook Enthusiast
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Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
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#14 | |
Wizard
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Karma: 300001
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Citrus Heights, California
Device: TWO Kindle 2s, one each Bookeen Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS-500, Axim X51V
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Quote:
Yes, I bought a Sony PRS-500 before I received my Cybook. In fact, I'd owned the PRS500 for about a month and a half without anything to compare it to. So when I got the Cybook, the sheer LIGHTNESS of it made me think 'cheap' also. Then one day, about two weeks after purchase - and please remember that I received no softcover and still do not have one - I dropped my Cybook about four feet to my tile floor. While it was running. Now a CHEAP and FLIMSY product would have been a goner right then and there - shattered into a hundred pieces. I'm happy to say that I picked it up, dreading to turn it over and look at the screen, and flipped it to find the screen still on, no cracks or missing chunks in the case and the Cybook obediently turned to the next page when I paged forward. When I turned it off and back on, the Cybook acted as nothing had happened. It's been three months now and the only thing I've noticed is that a single column of pixels went dead, indicating that that particular contact broke. That's it! And you have to understand I have an 'engineering sample', not a production version. (Which boils down to having a glossy finish instead of matte.) So I don't buy the argument the Cybook is cheap and flimsy. What most die-hard PRS users don't understand is that heavier is not always better. And the Cybook has much better font-sizing and font-family capabilities. Combined with the control layout, I just plain LIKE the Cybook better. Plus, I get to read Mobipocket ebooks, straight from the e-stores. Oh sure, I want more ebook formats supported, I want a better ebook navigation (folders, sub-folders, sorting by Author, etc.) system. I want better support for the multiple-html-file ebooks and for PDF files. There are things I'd like to see improved. And I really want to see Bookeen release an SDK for the Cybook. But I still think this is a better ebook reader. Derek |
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#15 |
Book worm
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Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Sony Reader/Cybook Gen3/Hanlin V5
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Well I have had the Gen3 6 day's now and have read 14 books on it (nothing like a few day's off work to catch up on reading).
I don't mind the Gen3 being lightweight it is easier to hold for extended periods of time one handed, this is one of the things I like about the Gen3. I still find the 4 way button for page turning and selecting clunky, it does not have a smooth reliable operation. I often find when I page forward that the power diode lights up but the page does not turn, it stays on until I press the button again. I hope that the durability of the button is good. I think I will go with Harry's advice and give the leather case a go, though this is a bit on the expensive side once you start adding on the Fedex shipping cost. I agree with delphidb96, I want better ebook navigation (folders, sub-folders, sorting by Author, etc.) system. Displaying the book liburary with thumbnails looks good, however this is no good if you are not able to read the title and author of the book, which you can not do if you show 10 or 20 books to a page. Chris. |
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