Sony Reader 505 VS 700

[ultimatebuster]

Hi!

I'm in market for a reader. I live in Canada, so Sony Reader is basically my only choice.

The 700 costs about $449 (best price I can find, if you can find one that's around $380 in Canada, please tell me)

The 505 costs about $280 (http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-Sony-PRS-505-...3A1%7C294%3A50)

Which one should I buy?

BTW, I will mainly read PDF on this reader.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by ultimatebuster

Hi!

I'm in market for a reader. I live in Canada, so Sony Reader is basically my only choice.

The 700 costs about $449 (best price I can find, if you can find one that's around $380 in Canada, please tell me)

The 505 costs about $280 (http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-Sony-PRS-505-...3A1%7C294%3A50)

Which one should I buy?

BTW, I will mainly read PDF on this reader.

Will it be graphic (scanned) or text PDFs?
Graphics: I've collected the daily Dilbert and Garfield strips and converted them into PDFs. On Sony (both, 505 and 700) I often find them hard to read.
Texts: Many threads in this forum love Sony's reflow capabilities. Honestly, I'm not fond of this at all. Before the firmware update, Sony 505 simply did zoom into the file. Now it reflows the text, thus changing layout, linespacings and things like that. And still, both Sony's heavily struggle with "complicated" PDFs, for example having columns or text around graphics (newspapers).
Forum's member cze did ask a similar question about PDFS: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...t=49817&page=4
I've suggested the iRex iLiad, which ALWAYS would be my fist choice for PDFs.
Sony's strength would be EPUB, which already is kind of a standard format (which I don't like that much as well, i.e. reflow...).

Concerning your issue, Sony being the only choice in Canada: I'm from Germany, but have ordered various readers from the US. So far, only positive experiences.
Just checked http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/wheretobuy.
iRex doesn't seem to be available in Canada. But still, ordering from the US, should be less "risky" for you than for me....

From personal experience: You'll probably use your reader for 2 or 3 years (bought my first one 2 years ago, didn't have any problems so far). Spending $ 100 more now may same a lot, but spread over hundreds of books you might read in those 2 or 3 years will be worth it...

[ultimatebuster]

Most of my PDFs are text, there are one or two graphics.
Also, I thought there is a resize tool for the Sony reader that resizes the PDF to the screen siaze?

I'm not interested in other reader since i will read a LOT of epubs as well as PDFs. (PDF for documents and stuff and ePubs for novels)

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by ultimatebuster

Most of my PDFs are text, there are one or two graphics.
Also, I thought there is a resize tool for the Sony reader that resizes the PDF to the screen siaze?

I'm not interested in other reader since i will read a LOT of epubs as well as PDFs. (PDF for documents and stuff and ePubs for novels)

The Sony readers DO NOT resize the PDF. That's what Sony 505 did BEFORE the firmware update. Since then, Sony 505 (and Sony 700 from the very beginning) does reflowing the text instead.
Meaning: You increase the font, thus reducing the number of lines per page. So the entire layout is changing. Many in this forum consider this a huge step forward. Personally, I did prefer the zooming feature, leaving the layout structure unchanged.
That's what iRex iLiad is doing. You mark the area (via its touchscreen) you'd like to zoom in and exactly that area is exploded to full screen.

For PDFs, Foxit's ESlick http://computershopper.com/periphera...s/foxit-eslick might be an option (haven't checked it out yet).
And there are 2 versions of Cybook available: 1 for Mobipocket and 1 for EPUB. I've got the older one for Mobipocket and it's kind of comparable to Sony, although I slightly prefer my Sony 505 (not a big fan of Sony 700 because of display quality, though).

Anyhow...if Sony 505 is your choice, you'll be fine. It's a really cool unit, its design is one of the best out there. Only slight annoyance is their Library software, but probably you'll mainly use Adobe Digital Editions (for EPUBs) anyway...
I'd be careful about Sony 700. Yesterday there was an announcement on their webshop "no longer available for purchase" http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921665562069.
Today I've found the very same for Sony 505.
Intense discussions in this forum: Sony stops their ereader branch OR Sony will release a new unit with G3 very soon OR......
But even if it's still available, I'd carefully compare Sony 505 and Sony 700. Personally, I'm not a fan of Sony 700's display quality (glare because of touchscreen).

[wallcraft]

Practically all of the major ebook readers are switching from MOBI to mobile Adobe Digital Editions. The single exception is the Kindle, and even the Kindle DX is using ADE for PDFs. This is the same ePub/PDF technology as in the Sony PRS-505 and 700. What this means for PDFs is that they will all work about the same. There could be differences though, since the PRS-700 has zoom as well as reflow but the PRS-505 only has reflow. Also the standard view could be margin-cropped (the Kindle DX does this using mobile ADE) or full page (like the Sony's).

The Foxit eSlick is another exception. They are using their own PDF viewer. However, they won't be supporting Adobe ePubs.

Note that Sony is almost certainly about the introduce one or more new devices. The only real question is when (August to October). So you might want to wait a while before deciding. In addition to the Cybook, another option worth considering with ADE (soon) is the Astak EZ Reader, which is the US brand for the Hanlin V3.

[frozennorth]

Don't forget shipping charges which brings it to CDN$ 313. And you might end up paying import duties and/or taxes. Just might end up costing you more than at sonystyle.ca which ships for free.

Also check out this canadian seller shoprbc.com. Only heard good things about them. I don't know how much they charge for shipping though.

[ultimatebuster]

So newer edition maybe coming soon? I will held out then.

[=X=]

That is pure speculation because the 700 and varient colors of the 505 are no longer sold on the Sony store. Some folks speculate that sony is pulling out of the business.
Me I'm with wallcraft I believe a new model is coming out.

But its all hear say