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BuddyBoy · 11-21-2008, 04:34 AM

Ok, I've had a chance to go hands on for a couple of days with the 700 and thought I'd share my experiences.

First of all, while the reduced contrast and screen reflectiveness makes the overall reading experience less sharp than the 505, it is by no means unusable or a technical failure. The contrast is about what you might experience on the PRS-500, and remember how revolutionary that was compared to the Gemstar 1150.

Personally, I find the screen reflection to be more of a bother, but, interestingly, it's actually not as reflective as the PRS-505 with the lightwedge cover.

The lighting is handy, though in anything less than total darkness, I need to put it on high to not have too much side to middle contrast and that will drain the battery in only 4 hours. I do much prefer the lighting of the 700 to the 505 lightwedge, both for shadowing and the darn annoying specks of dust and scratches that end up glowing like neon lights on the underside of the lightwedge.

The touch screen I'm 50/50 on - it's nice to have search capability, but I find the touch sensitivity to be a bit uneven, resulting in me tapping multiple times. I don't use the page turn gesture at all since I hold my book by the bottom left corner and just tap the page buttons with my left thumb.

All in all, I'm pleased with the 700, BUT, and here's the big BUT, for my particular needs, I'm not sure if the upgraded features are worth the trade offs. You see, other than on cruises or in hotel, I rarely share a bedroom. The nightlight need for me is not a daily one, more of an occasional use when traveling or when I want to read in a low light situation like a restaurant. In those cases I can grit my teeth and live with the lightwedge I've already purchased.

The touchscreen I thought I'd love, because the Gemstar 1150/ eBookwise 1150 were my two favorite pre-eink platforms with, what I consider to be the best operating systems. Well, Sony isn't there yet, I'm afraid. It's better than the 505, but not leaps and bounds better - at least not yet. Software upgrades during the year may just pull me back to the 700, especially if they add category sorting and the like. Personally, I'd just love it if they ripped off the whole 1150 UI.

So, for me, the 700 is a fine machine, but not a compelling upgrade yet. If it was a sharp as the 505, I'd say "What the heck, it's just money" but trading money and sharpness for a built in light, more memory and faster processing isn't the right formula for me.

The 700 is great:

if you aren't a regular 505 user, or
if you need faster processing to handle your largest files, or
if a good book light is essential to you, or
if you want extra on-board memory, or
if you need to be able to search in large reference books

Finally, regarding to 505/700 clarity controversy, I'd like to share my own Princess and the Pixel Pea memory. The year was 1985 or 86. I was working in publishing and design at the time and a number of local designers were invited to a demonstration of the new 300dpi Apple Laserwriter, a device that was going to solve our design problems with this new thing called "desktop publishing."

So a room full of designers shows up and the Apple guys start their chat, with printing out a sample page at 300dpi, typical laser printer resolution. The page gets passed around and immediately, about 75% of the room gets up and walks out.

You see, up to that time, typesetting was all done photographically using spinning strips of type and photo sensitive paper. The equivalent dpi would have been 3000 or more. All these designers took one look at this laser printer copy and to their eyes, it looked like something chiseled out of stone or tree bark, and they knew it wouldn't work for them. As far as they were concerned, Apple was just wasting their time.

Of course, 20 years later, that same laser printing resolution looks pretty darn good. And considering web pages, which we all seem to read regularly, are produced at 72 dpi ... well, it does start to look like the Princess and the Pixel Pea.

As for me, I'll probably be sending the 700 back or offering it to someone outside North America who wants it. I like it, but it just isn't a compelling upgrade for me at this time.

11-21-2008, 04:34 AM	#13
BuddyBoy eBookin' Fool Posts: 310 Karma: 1008360 Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC Device: Kindle Paperwhite, KK, iPad (Ex Prs 505, 500, Reb1100-2150, Rocket)	The Day 2 review Ok, I've had a chance to go hands on for a couple of days with the 700 and thought I'd share my experiences. First of all, while the reduced contrast and screen reflectiveness makes the overall reading experience less sharp than the 505, it is by no means unusable or a technical failure. The contrast is about what you might experience on the PRS-500, and remember how revolutionary that was compared to the Gemstar 1150. Personally, I find the screen reflection to be more of a bother, but, interestingly, it's actually not as reflective as the PRS-505 with the lightwedge cover. The lighting is handy, though in anything less than total darkness, I need to put it on high to not have too much side to middle contrast and that will drain the battery in only 4 hours. I do much prefer the lighting of the 700 to the 505 lightwedge, both for shadowing and the darn annoying specks of dust and scratches that end up glowing like neon lights on the underside of the lightwedge. The touch screen I'm 50/50 on - it's nice to have search capability, but I find the touch sensitivity to be a bit uneven, resulting in me tapping multiple times. I don't use the page turn gesture at all since I hold my book by the bottom left corner and just tap the page buttons with my left thumb. All in all, I'm pleased with the 700, BUT, and here's the big BUT, for my particular needs, I'm not sure if the upgraded features are worth the trade offs. You see, other than on cruises or in hotel, I rarely share a bedroom. The nightlight need for me is not a daily one, more of an occasional use when traveling or when I want to read in a low light situation like a restaurant. In those cases I can grit my teeth and live with the lightwedge I've already purchased. The touchscreen I thought I'd love, because the Gemstar 1150/ eBookwise 1150 were my two favorite pre-eink platforms with, what I consider to be the best operating systems. Well, Sony isn't there yet, I'm afraid. It's better than the 505, but not leaps and bounds better - at least not yet. Software upgrades during the year may just pull me back to the 700, especially if they add category sorting and the like. Personally, I'd just love it if they ripped off the whole 1150 UI. So, for me, the 700 is a fine machine, but not a compelling upgrade yet. If it was a sharp as the 505, I'd say "What the heck, it's just money" but trading money and sharpness for a built in light, more memory and faster processing isn't the right formula for me. The 700 is great: if you aren't a regular 505 user, or if you need faster processing to handle your largest files, or if a good book light is essential to you, or if you want extra on-board memory, or if you need to be able to search in large reference books Finally, regarding to 505/700 clarity controversy, I'd like to share my own Princess and the Pixel Pea memory. The year was 1985 or 86. I was working in publishing and design at the time and a number of local designers were invited to a demonstration of the new 300dpi Apple Laserwriter, a device that was going to solve our design problems with this new thing called "desktop publishing." So a room full of designers shows up and the Apple guys start their chat, with printing out a sample page at 300dpi, typical laser printer resolution. The page gets passed around and immediately, about 75% of the room gets up and walks out. You see, up to that time, typesetting was all done photographically using spinning strips of type and photo sensitive paper. The equivalent dpi would have been 3000 or more. All these designers took one look at this laser printer copy and to their eyes, it looked like something chiseled out of stone or tree bark, and they knew it wouldn't work for them. As far as they were concerned, Apple was just wasting their time. Of course, 20 years later, that same laser printing resolution looks pretty darn good. And considering web pages, which we all seem to read regularly, are produced at 72 dpi ... well, it does start to look like the Princess and the Pixel Pea. As for me, I'll probably be sending the 700 back or offering it to someone outside North America who wants it. I like it, but it just isn't a compelling upgrade for me at this time.