Sony Reader gets a 6/10 from Ars Technica

[Alexander Turcic]

While we're sure plenty of you have already made up your minds about the new Sony Reader, those still on the fence now have a fresh review from Nate Anderson of Ars Technica to aid in their decision-making. Overall I think Nate did a pretty good job describing the pros and cons of the Reader.

Despite some quirks, the new Reader is a beautiful device that excels at what it was designed to do: display e-books. It's also a reminder that Sony can still develop some incredibly slick hardware in slim packages. At $300 a pop, though, it's fair to ask how many people are going to buy it... Still, if the Reader sounds like the sort of gadget you can't live without and you can live with its quirks, it's a superbly built device with a screen that will blow you away. It comes highly recommended, but only to those certain they have a use for it. Everyone else will want to check one out, wonder at the screen, then leave it on the shelf.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Based on the article's tone, the author was clearly being kind when he gave it a 6/10. He pretty much had a "but" for every point, then a few more "buts" to add in. Overall, I thought he made the device sound particularly distasteful to anyone who wasn't already a dyed-in-the-wool, "I'm gonna buy it no matter what you say" Ubergeek.

I know that, if I was Joe Average on the fence about buying a 505, I'd be leaping off that fence like something bit me, and running back to paper.

[tompe]

I thought the assumption that if you read two books on a trip you only need to bring two books was wrong. Different books fits different mood and environments and I always have to bring more books than I have time to read to be sure to always have something I want to read.

It was my trip to Worldcon in Japan this year that made me look seriously at ebook readers. I could only bring 20 kg for three weeks and it was very hard to buy English books in Japan so you did not want to depend on being able to buy new books.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Based on the article's tone, the author was clearly being kind when he gave it a 6/10. He pretty much had a "but" for every point, then a few more "buts" to add in. Overall, I thought he made the device sound particularly distasteful to anyone who wasn't already a dyed-in-the-wool, "I'm gonna buy it no matter what you say" Ubergeek.

I know that, if I was Joe Average on the fence about buying a 505, I'd be leaping off that fence like something bit me, and running back to paper.

Do you know the most common first post on this forum? Something along the lines of:

I bought the 500/505 because Sony said it displays PDF/RTF/TXT, but they look horrible. How do I fix this problem?

Frankly, Joe Average should continue to avoid the 505. As much as I like my Reader, Sony has failed to provide an easy to use device.

[TadW]

As much as I like my Reader, Sony has failed to provide an easy to use device.

... Sony != Apple

[Leaping Gnome]

I'm a long time member of Ars Technica (6000+ posts) and I responded to many of the comments in the discussion thread. Feel free to weigh in with your opinions, Ars is a good site.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Leaping Gnome

I'm a long time member of Ars Technica (6000+ posts) and I responded to many of the comments in the discussion thread. Feel free to weigh in with your opinions, Ars is a good site.

Good job by Seanb referring them back to MobileRead, too... this site can answer all of their legitimate questions, I think.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Do you know the most common first post on this forum? Something along the lines of:

Frankly, Joe Average should continue to avoid the 505. As much as I like my Reader, Sony has failed to provide an easy to use device.

PDF we know is a problem.

RTF is not really a problem.

Text is not really a problem depending on how the lines are formatted.

What Sony should do to make the 500/505 a better experience is put in large friendly letters on the box... htp://www.mobileread.com/forums

And the first question is really .. "I've downloaded a lot of illegal ebooks online and they are in PDF/RTF/TXT and how do I make my illegal ebooks look good on my Sony Reader?"

[JeffB]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I know that, if I was Joe Average on the fence about buying a 505, I'd be leaping off that fence like something bit me, and running back to paper.

The author's statement that page turns take two seconds seems to have caused the most fence jumping. Overall, it's a decent review, but ten minutes with a stopwatch and some comparisons with turning pages in a variety of paper books would have been a major improvement.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JeffB

The author's statement that page turns take two seconds seems to have caused the most fence jumping. Overall, it's a decent review, but ten minutes with a stopwatch and some comparisons with turning pages in a variety of paper books would have been a major improvement.

And with a paper book, not only do you have to turn the page, but you have to also move your head more to get to the start of the page on the left side of the book. By the time the page is turned on the 505, my eyes are at the top of the page ready to continue reading.

[tompe]

I read the comment thread to the review. Somebody claimed that the page turning speed is lower than 2 seconds. Is this true? Because I thought the page turning was faster on my Cybook Gen3 but when I measured now it took 18 seconds to turn10 pages in a Mobipocket formatted book. How long does it take on the PRS505?

I also totally agree with the argument that you do not notice any disadvantage from the page turning speed since you get used to it and you press the button before you are finished on the page.

[JeffB]

I've found, on the 505 at least, that I push the page turn button when I finish the page and by the time my eyes have focused on the top of the page, the turn is completed. It's certainly not the push-the-button-and-get-a-cup-of-coffee that some of the commenters are making it out to be.

Compare this with reading a variety of paper books, and I'll bet that you'll find it comparable to most paperbacks books and much faster than a large hardcover which, if you're reading them in bed, you'll have to lift the book off of your chest, turn the page, and then set the book back down again.

[Liviu_5]

Personally I thought the review fair; the essential 2 shortcomings of the Sony (and pretty much of all e-book reading devices), high price and inability to transfer your print content for free the way you do with music cd's are still there, so will keep it being a niche product, with high sales being 100k a year.

[JeffB]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

Personally I thought the review fair; the essential 2 shortcomings of the Sony (and pretty much of all e-book reading devices), high price and inability to transfer your print content for free the way you do with music cd's are still there, so will keep it being a niche product, with high sales being 100k a year.

I don't think there are any restrictions to running your own books through an OCR or scanner in order to get them into the device. The only problem with this is that it is a lot more work to copy a book than it is to copy a CD.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by tompe

I read the comment thread to the review. Somebody claimed that the page turning speed is lower than 2 seconds. Is this true?

My 500 doesn't take any 2 seconds to turn pages unless I'm doing something fancy like embedding fonts. It's closer to 1 second, perhaps a bit less. Of course that's "turn a page, read it, turn another page" timing.

I just did a test, pushing the button 10 times in rapid succession took 8 seconds to get to the 10th page. That's on an LRF book with no embedded fonts. That suggests that my 500 is doing a page every .8 seconds. The 505 isn't really faster, but it uses a different refresh scheme, so it seems faster than the 500.

Salt to taste.