My PRS-700 Review

[Jer]

I've been meaning to review my PRS-700 for about a week now and haven't had the time. So far I have really enjoyed and appreciated the 700. We'll start with the 'bad', its screen. The 700's screen isn't as sharp or crisp as the 505's. That isn't to say the 700 has a bad screen, it just isn't quite as good. I would imagine without the touch sensitive layer, it would be as good or better, but alas.

Now for the good. The 700 is noticeably faster when turning the pages. There's still the black 'flash' but I'd guess its about twenty-five percent faster when turning pages. Opening books, even large (2000+ page) books is almost instant. From selecting your book, there's almost no delay before reading.

The memory is more then doubled, the 700 has a 350 megabyte internal storage with the same expansion slots. A standard SD as well as Sony's preferred Pro Duo slot. The greater memory is of great value to me as I love rereading my favorite books. A book I don't enjoy leaves after one reading, but for a classic, I can read them dozens of times.

Loading and removing books is much easier as well. The 700 doesn't require syncing the entire library to add or remove one book/collection. From the EBook Library software, you can drag and drop titles and it updates very quickly. You can also delete books from within the reader now.

The light is very nice if you work a lot in the dark, its not perfect, but its more then adequate. Running on the lower illumination setting, the PRS-700's battery life is between 8 and 10 hours. The unit can still be read while plugged into the ac adapter (standard Sony adapter for the psp works great).

For the most part, I'm very pleased with the PRS-700. If I could make anything different, it would be going with the 505's screen, but on its own its an excellent device. I highly recommend the 700 if you travel a lot or if you work in places with low light, or if your reading normally disturbs your significant other at night. The 700's light is very gentle and easy to ignore by the people around you.

All in all, I'd give it an 8.5/10

A quick little addition: Do NOT try to use the PRS-505 with the updated Ebook Library software that comes in the box. They do NOT like each other, and the 505 will crash horribly. I recommend keeping with the 2.2 Ebook software, it works with the 700 just fine.