Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler
My personal preference went the other direction. I bought one of these and tried it for a couple of days and returned it. The screen is far too small for my taste. It's actually getting somewhat close to the size of the iPhone's screen, so I felt like I might as well just read books on the phone rather than blow $120 on the 350. It made me feel like I was reading a novel printed on a little devotional-sized book from church. I couldn't imagine doing heavy-duty reading with it, but I will admit it would be the perfect little thing for whipping out on the subway on the way home from work.
For people who don't mind small screens and for whom eInk is an absolute requirement, it would probably be a good fit. Keep in mind when compared to the 650, though, that you are getting what you pay for: plastic body as opposed to the 650's metal construction, and when I say plastic, I mean a rather cheap mold and construction - definitely not anywhere near the quality of the 650 - the 350 I tried had noticeable molding artifact ridges on the spine and so forth, and the silver paint really looked like plastic painted with silver paint, very cheap looking to me. But of course, it's only $120, so that may be an acceptable tradeoff to you. The actual build did feel solid - much better than, say, the Kindle DX or the Sony 950 that I tried, both of which felt like toys (gripping them with even a mild pinch produced a noticeable "give" to the plastic body, not reassuring at all for long-term durability).
One positive to the 350: it's the only eInk reader I've ever run across that has a dots-per-inch density that actually starts to approach print quality: I think it's around 250 dpi or so, so the text is noticeably better rendered than on other devices, which have densities around the upper 100s range.
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I like smallish (~5-6"). I actually dislike reading large hardcover books and usually prefer paperbacks which are probably smaller than the PRS-350. Smaller books (and readers) are much easier to handle when reading on the bed while turning this way and that.
I already use an iPhone 4 as my primary reader. For $120, I figure the Sony PRS-350 would be a nice inexpensive way to start with e-ink. Most of my ebooks are in ePub format so that's already one con for the Kindle. Being able to read books borrowed from the library on the PRS-350 is also a big plus. When I played with it a bit on Sony Style (a while back), it felt quite solid to me. The Sony also wins on aesthetics. While I probably would have preferred the PRS-650, price is a bit steep at $230 for me who's just dipping her toes in e-ink technology. Really appreciate the feedback, though.
I'll be picking up my reader tomorrow. So excited now. Too bad Staples was sold out of cases (50% off).
