[BuddyBoy]

OK, so my PRS-700 arrived this morning - kudos to Sony, just one day later than promised when I placed the order a month ago.

With trembling fingers and trepidation I opened the box and reluctantly turned the power on, expecting a muddy and gray display.

As my niece might say, OMG.

It's perfectly readable, and looks great. I even took it into the bathroom, shut the light and put the internal lights on and it was quite readable there too, though I would have preferred a more even light as the dimming in the center can be distracting at first. The again, I disliked the unevenness of the light wedge, so this may prove to be a better solution for me.

I did notice that at certain angles, the reduced contrast is very noticeable. It resembles the 500 in that for each lighting condition, there's a sweet spot where the display looks best.

Of course, the huge secret to it's readability is that I've been so busy this last month, I haven't had time to read with my 505, so I'm not really comparing it to the 505, I'm tackling it as a fresh device. As a fresh device, it's quite nice.

Objectively, I can say that I not overjoyed with the reflectiveness of the screen - in very bright lighting conditions (i.e. like right this second where I am sitting in a sunbeam) the sweet spot is a little more complicated to find because I would also like to avoid staring at the reflection of my own sun-washed face.

But, overall, my first impression is remarkable positive. I'll continue to play with it for a few days and update my impressions as required.