Originally Posted by Avwriter
Having picked up a black T-1 with lighted cover a few days ago, I wanted to share some thoughts on the device that some may find useful for comparison:
1. I had seriously considered a different color because of the glare issue, but I also wanted to buy from a local store so that I could return it if necessary. Not having a Sony store in my area, black was thus my only option. While it is very shiny, I have not found the glare to be distracting, even when using the lighted cover. This is of course a personal matter, and some will be more bothered by it than others. At least the metal strip on the black model is non reflective, though I wish they would have painted the hardware buttons black like they did on the 650.
2. Because of all the problems I have read about regarding the new Reader software, I have not connected the device to my computer at all, and have not installed the new software. Instead, I used the Wifi to download all my content from the Sony store, and side loaded a few other items using the micro SD card slot. Connecting to the Reader store was easy, but a little slow. I had a couple of freezes, but determined that this was only because I was repeating commands while waiting for the reader to respond. As long as I give the reader time to digest things, it seems to be fine. The same was true with using the SD card.
3. Flashing: Flashing was annoying during web surfing, but not while reading books and periodicals. During normal reading, I observed no more flashing than with my 350. I do not find the T-1 is very practical for web surfing other than using the Reader Store and public libraries. For those purposes, it is fully adequate.
4. Periodicals. Newspapers and mags are not delivered automatically. You must download each new issue through the "Purchased Content" button. Sony has a notice in the store that there should be an update coming to solve this issue at some point.
5. Battery life seems great. After four days of intensive reading, and quite a bit of Wifi use, the meter has only gone down one bar. Not bad at all. It charges fine from my HTC smartphone wall charger.
6. Interface: The new Android based interface works well overall, but I do miss having the battery indicator available when reading a book. It also seems that by now, Sony should have taken the hint from PRS+ and provided the option of a constantly available clock readout. I also noticed that they have removed the option of turning off the auto-standby mode. I do not see any reason why they should take control of the device. I wish that they would have at least given us the option of changing the timer, which is permanently set at 10 minutes. Personally, I would rather set it to 15 or 20 minutes.
7. The lighted cover: As others have mentioned, the quality of the materials is poorer than on previous covers. However, the functionality does not seem to suffer. In fact, it actually offers slightly better protection than the previous covers, since the corners and sides are nicely encased in the plastic box on the bottom half. It is not pretty, but it works, and for travelling it fits nicely with the case into my old M-EDGE Touring Sleeve for the 900.
8. Freezing. So far, I have only experienced freezing when pushing the unit to hard during Wifi use. I have not experienced the page flipping issue that some have reported.
9. Overall, I like it. It was not a necessary upgrade, and my 350 works fine, but I enjoy the bigger screen, the light weight, and it is nice not to have to connect it to my computer.
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