MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - PRS-500 Screen is broken, looking at options

kichigai · 03-23-2012, 07:44 PM

Well, it seems an ordinary drop is all it takes to break the screen of my PRS-500. The same kind of spill my Nokia N73, BlackBerry 8900 and Nexus S have all taken on the exact same surface (and the Nexus S has a screen made of curved glass).

What, realistically, are my options here? I doubt Sony will bother to repair it, given the age of the PRS-500 (and that it's, what, four generations removed from their current readers?). I've got enough technical know-how to be confident in replacing the screen myself, but I have no idea who are reputable vendors of compatible e-ink screens (Google wasn't exactly helpful either). Or I could just replace it with another reader.

Here's the thing: money situation isn't so flexible right now, and this is just one of a number of set-backs suffered in the past few days (highlights include my phone's screen breaking, and Fitbit has gone missing), so I'm trying to keep costs low. Realistically I only use my Reader for long-form Internet content. Essays, long analytical articles, collections of documents from the Wikipedia, and most recently screenplays and documents for productions I'm working on (sure beats printing out 100+ pages, or reading it all on my laptop). If the cost of a new screen is >$100, I'm just going to throw up my arms and go for a new Reader in the $100-150 range, so any recommendations that fit reading of PDF, RTF and ePub documents well would be welcome.

03-23-2012, 07:44 PM	#1
kichigai Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Minnesota Metro Device: PRS-500	Screen is broken, looking at options Well, it seems an ordinary drop is all it takes to break the screen of my PRS-500. The same kind of spill my Nokia N73, BlackBerry 8900 and Nexus S have all taken on the exact same surface (and the Nexus S has a screen made of curved glass). What, realistically, are my options here? I doubt Sony will bother to repair it, given the age of the PRS-500 (and that it's, what, four generations removed from their current readers?). I've got enough technical know-how to be confident in replacing the screen myself, but I have no idea who are reputable vendors of compatible e-ink screens (Google wasn't exactly helpful either). Or I could just replace it with another reader. Here's the thing: money situation isn't so flexible right now, and this is just one of a number of set-backs suffered in the past few days (highlights include my phone's screen breaking, and Fitbit has gone missing), so I'm trying to keep costs low. Realistically I only use my Reader for long-form Internet content. Essays, long analytical articles, collections of documents from the Wikipedia, and most recently screenplays and documents for productions I'm working on (sure beats printing out 100+ pages, or reading it all on my laptop). If the cost of a new screen is >$100, I'm just going to throw up my arms and go for a new Reader in the $100-150 range, so any recommendations that fit reading of PDF, RTF and ePub documents well would be welcome.