PRS-650 first look, lots of thoughs, some prs650 vs kindle 3 points

[willyu34]

Hi all, long time reader, first time poster so please point out if I've made mistakes in the post.

===============

So, after my K3 arrived for 1 week, finally Sony store told me to go pick up my Reader. They have over one hundred back orders and only 2 arrived and I was the lucky 2nd person who got it.

Brought it home and did some quick comparison and here are some of my observations. I'll try posting pics later. Hopefully this will help people in the forum.

first things first.

Yes, the god damn film over prs600 is gone and the eink on Reader look just as good as the Kindle. Horray!

-touch screen is very responsive, as noted by some early review sites. The fact that you don't have to "push down" to register a hit is great!
-the new organization method gives you a quick access to a few recent books you read or uploaded. However you have to go through a few clicks to get to the rest. I don't have a big selection right now so it's hard to judge how this will work out when you have hundreds of books.
-PDF still doesn't work well, mostly because the screen is 6in and zooming is still not convinient. People who want to read primarily PDFs should still consider 10" device
-to my naked eye, Reader seems to have whiter background, by like 1-2%. this is by no means a scientific measure.
-However, not sure if it's because of the font choice, k3 fonts are DARKER and EASIER to the eye compare to Reader (damn you sony)
-tested with a gray scale graph over at here, htp://homepage.mac.com/davechalmers/iblog/C956576061/E316950848/index.html, and all scale show up nicely. Again I'll try to upload some picture later.
-i have epub book which I coverted to mobi for K3. The graphics inside the book is substainally worse on K3 than on Reader. Could be a converstion issue?
-Reader has no Chinese support (GAAAH I HATE YOU SONY!) However, K3's traditional Chinese support is spotty, where both my mobi and txt file dropping approximately 10% of the characters. So both are losers. :P
-quick EPUB Chinese fix still works (by referring to res:///Data/fonts/) so I can fix the missing character problem on Sony. Tough luck on the K3. score one for open format!
-Manga looks much much better on the Reader using EPUB than either in mobi or directory on K3 (using ChainLP)
-screen refresh rate is pretty much the same (test by pushing the button at the same time) so it's just a rough estimate
-I noticed Reader seems to have a bit more ghosting when you go from a full page of text to a half page of text. However, you have to look really, really hard to see it. K3 doesn't seem to have this problem (or much less visible)
-there is a contrast adjustment, but it's freakin' useless, because when you increase the darkness, the background turns to grey too... once again, it's freakin' useless and it's frustrating.
-settings/options contains almost exactly same selections as last time
-new version allows a screen saver, instead of going blank entirely like prs600 (never understand why it was like that in prs600, it's not like it's using electricity to display screen saver) and yes, you can customize the picture (Damn you amazon, why would I look at fugly wood cravings of authors? and not to give us customization? just plain stupid)
-Sony's protective covers (which now has a version called delux edition) pretty much as the exactly same design as before. The front is still way too thin to be of any serious protection. The leather is only like a small piece in the front (30%), most likely real but the rest is synthetic material(70%), and it COST THE SAME AS LAST TIME. Man it's such a rip off, but i needed a cover...
-the pen is smaller and flimsy-er, with much more plastic parts. PRS600 pen actually feels substaintial. This one felt like a tooth pick and I am afraid it'll break.
-last time the pen contains a reset pushing head if you unscrew the top. This time, it's nothing...
-the unit itself is definitely lighter and thinner but still have that nice metallic feel for it. K3, of course, is all plastic

Oh and finally, the "about" screen does say this is a "Vizplex" display. Some people say perhaps sony forgot to update it, or that "pearl" is not registered trademark, but I seems to remember when I first turn on K3 it says "Pearl" screen...

Oh yeah, firmware version now says 1.0.00.08100. I am not hacker so I can't try or dare to try and see if old rooting method still works.

Anyways, it has turn into a long "short post". The above sounded like a rant, but I actually really like the Reader so far and I am probably selling/returning my K3 and keep the prs650... Now only if someone can come up with a chinese font hack for menus soon so my TOC and book title shows up correctly... it would be perfect!

I'll try to upload some pics later.

[wjohnson]

Truly awwwesome. Thx

[confusednow]

Having both systems (K3 and PRS650), which would you recommend if my only main concern is reading? So not fussed about wifi, mp3, extended memory, etc., but your recommendation based on just pure reading experience.

I get most of my books in pdf, but am ok to convert them to either mobi or epub, so got to take into account what you wrote in regards to conversion issues, especially with figures and tables.

[darex2]

I finally played with a Kindle3, after having had my 350 for a few days. You know what? I am so glad I did not get the Kindle. I love the freedom to hold the 350 any which way I want, and those physical button on the Kindle (which I imagine you don't even use very often), are so in the way! Secondly, after having used a well-implemented touchscreen on a reader (it's perfect, by the way), I don't think I could go back to physical buttons, especially awkward ones like the Kindle has.

So, for the act of READING, which is by far the most important function of any of these, I'd say the Sony 350/650 is without question the best, and beats the Kindle3.

Being tiny and barely weighing anything is also a huge plus in my opinion. I had a 505 before this, and I am not missing the (considerably) extra weight, nor even the extra inch (because the Pearl screen is so much sharper than the previous type).

This is just my opinion. I think Sony isn't wrong when it says that these will sell on "quality and not price". Of course, one has to use one to know it, and the vast majority of the populace will probably never even give it a chance and just go Kindle.

I don't care about audio capabilities or browsing. I have an iPhone4. It's far better at both those tasks, and it's with me at all times. I wouldn't say no to an SD card reader on the 350, but at the same time, I probably won't need one. I can honestly say that I never once used the mp3 player on my 505, so I knew for certain I had no need for that functionality on my 350.

[Latinandgreek]

Thanks for sharing your impressions, Willyu34. I can't wait to get my hands on either the 650 or the 950.

[willyu34]

Originally Posted by confusednow

Having both systems (K3 and PRS650), which would you recommend if my only main concern is reading? So not fussed about wifi, mp3, extended memory, etc., but your recommendation based on just pure reading experience.

I get most of my books in pdf, but am ok to convert them to either mobi or epub, so got to take into account what you wrote in regards to conversion issues, especially with figures and tables.

Essentially, I need to answer this as two questions. Remember, this is only personal opinion.

If your main concern is reading, with lots of text and very little picture/illustration, unfortunately, my recommendation actually would go to Kindle 3. The reason being
-K3 seems to have better fonts which increases readability and contrast. I imaging if Reader does get rooted again, this could change
-contrary to darex2, I actually think the buttons on K3 works extremely well, for just reading and flipping pages. Reader's flip buttons are below screen and not ergonomic. on prs 600 the swipe doesn't register easily so you can't use one hand to hold and flip page. Now you can do that easier since it's not a "pressure" touch screen, but still, I think Kindle's buttons are way better for just reading and flipping pages. a simple test, take a book, lie down in bed and hold your book in the air, can you use one hand to hold it up and try to swipe or push the bottom of the book cover easily? Not really. can you do the same thing but this time push the edge of the middle of the book? It's definitely easier.

the second question, concerning PDF/mobi/epub.
-Calibre converts a few of my test epub into mobi very easily. This has to do with epub being a very structured format thus can be more easily converted. I actually have never converted PDF into mobi/epub as most of my collection is in EPUB. Maybe another person can give insight into this.
-if your PDF is a scanned book PDF, ie, contains all images of each page from a book, there is no doubt, from me, that any, ANY of the 6" device will not work very well. You are most likely have to zoom to have a better read and zooming on both device is inconvenient. Some may say one is better than another, but for me, any kind of zooming cut into reading experience very badly.
-as far as I know (please correct me), I can't find any kind of setting in conversion for Calibre while I was doing epub -> mobi. Graphic conversion usually need to be tweaked. conversion of a graph/table should have a different setting then a picture of a whale. and this make a difference to the result.

Essentially, after all that wordy points, my conclusion is this
-pure reading experience, with epub(converted)/text/mobi..etc, little illustration and pictures, Kindle 3
-Mostly a PDF collection, you are better off with a 10" device which I have no experience with. The conversion is more steps to do and may not produce the result you want. You might as well get a device that can view PDF as a PDF. From my experience, 6" devices WILL NOT WORK
WELL and you won't enjoy it very much(i've also owned a Nook for a week or so and that won't work for PDF either)
-versatility, sony Reader no doubt. I have to admit that being able to use EPUB is very important to me. EPUB means that I can set style and font and manage other minute aspects of a book myself. If things are broken in K3, you are pretty much screwed.
-usage, reader wins, because touch screen is just better to use. That directional pad on K3 is horrible. It's very hard to navigate without accidentally pushing the middle button. They should have made the directions wider and thicker and middle button smaller. i believe amazon went with form over function on that one. and like darex2 mentioned, the keyboard is rarely used.

i think in the end, the $140 K3 will probably still take majority of the e-reader because it's general appeal is good. Sony Reader will still capture the power users because they demand more versatility and build quality. I think Sony was right saying that they are "aiming at the premium product category" This new iteration definitely did that.

[slantybard]

You mentioned the fonts are not as dark on the Reader. Sony gave the Readers poor base fonts and the fonts haven't changed since the 505. I am posting to let anyone know that it is really easy to change to a different font. Someone posted a nice pdf the other day with instructions as well. Links are:

Thread on Changing Fonts:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36361

Post with PDF instructions attached at end of post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...04&postcount=1

[willyu34]

Originally Posted by slantybard

You mentioned the fonts are not as dark on the Reader. Sony gave the Readers poor base fonts and the fonts haven't changed since the 505. I am posting to let anyone know that it is really easy to change to a different font. Someone posted a nice pdf the other day with instructions as well. Links are:

Thread on Changing Fonts:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36361

Post with PDF instructions attached at end of post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...04&postcount=1

thanks for the info slantybard. that's what I was using to "fix" the no chinese support. I suppose I can use this same procedure to change it to a font I like (like the K3)... i'll have to see if i can find it... somewhere.

[confusednow]

willyu34, so if the font change improves the contrast for the prs 350, would you say that it would then be better than the k3 (for reading exp) as you were saying the contrast makes the k3 a better reading experience?

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by willyu34

-i have epub book which I coverted to mobi for K3. The graphics inside the book is substainally worse on K3 than on Reader. Could be a converstion issue?
...
-Manga looks much much better on the Reader using EPUB than either in mobi or directory on K3 (using ChainLP)

This is probably because of a special dithering algorithm used by Sony. Apparently they did some work to make manga look good back before PRS-500 was released (and PRS-500 had only 4 gray levels!).

Originally Posted by willyu34

-there is a contrast adjustment, but it's freakin' useless, because when you increase the darkness, the background turns to grey too... once again, it's freakin' useless and it's frustrating.

It seems the contrast setting is intended to fix badly scanned documents, not normal text files.

[slantybard]

Originally Posted by willyu34

thanks for the info slantybard. that's what I was using to "fix" the no chinese support. I suppose I can use this same procedure to change it to a font I like (like the K3)... i'll have to see if i can find it... somewhere.

The font used by Sony is Dutch-something-or-other. The font used by the Kindles is Caecilia. Personally, I picked the Caecilia Bold as my font on the 505 which made reading very nice as can be seen here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=132

You can PM me if you are interested in more info.

[darex2]

Originally Posted by willyu34

-contrary to darex2, I actually think the buttons on K3 works extremely well, for just reading and flipping pages. Reader's flip buttons are below screen and not ergonomic. on prs 600 the swipe doesn't register easily so you can't use one hand to hold and flip page. Now you can do that easier since it's not a "pressure" touch screen, but still, I think Kindle's buttons are way better for just reading and flipping pages. a simple test, take a book, lie down in bed and hold your book in the air, can you use one hand to hold it up and try to swipe or push the bottom of the book cover easily? Not really. can you do the same thing but this time push the edge of the middle of the book? It's definitely easier.

You do realize, I trust, that the physical page turning buttons on the 350 are purely superfluous. They would rarely, if ever, be used in real life. A subtle swipe of the screen with ones thumb or finger accomplishes this task. Therefore, their "ergonomics" is pretty irrelevant. I am speaking of the 350 exclusively. It sounds like you are speaking of older readers. You can hold the 350 up in the air across the span of your hand AND turn pages with your thumb, and unlike the K3, you can swipe ANY part of the screen to accomplish this, and as far as physical effort, you scarcely even have to touch the screen to do it. The 350 weighs only about 60% of the K3, and is physically much smaller. I don't think the K3 can ever win over the 350 in any contest if you're talking ergonomics or ease-of-use. Wait until you try out the 350 or the 650. I suspect you'll be retracting your praise of the Kindle3's physical page turning buttons in short order ;-). Yes, Sony did a crappy job on their touch screens in the past. No longer! They're now nearly as perfect as one could want.

[KunoK]

One thing, which be interesting to learn from one of you new Sony owners, is how long does a charge last. One could suspect that the touch screen was power hungry,

[Squirsier]

Originally Posted by darex2

You do realize, I trust, that the physical page turning buttons on the 350 are purely superfluous. They would rarely, if ever, be used in real life.

I use the buttons rather then swipe the screen with my PRS-350. Maybe it's something I am used to because I owned a PRS-300, and also probably because I don't want to clean another touchscreen (iPod, Sony x1060, etc)!

[NNolan]

I don't want to clean another touchscreen (iPod, Sony x1060, etc)!

I'm not seeing fingerprints on my 350 screen, and I used the finger swipe pretty extensively yesterday. I don't think fingerprints are as noticeable on matte screens as they are on glossy lcd screens.