Hello everybody I hope you are all doing well
I just thought I might type down my thoughts on this device along with several things I have found fiddling with it. I hope it helps those of you who are unsure about buying it (even after the
price cut down)
A little intro
I've owned the PRS700 for little over 3 weeks and though at first I was hesitant now I definitively love it.
I live in Argentina and here e-ink technology (and ebooks) is a concept regarded similarly to the existence of extraterrestrial life: we accept that it might exist somewhere but is probably a couple of lightyears away from grasping reach. So I was quite excited when my girlfriend told me she was going to spend a few months in the USA... ok, I admit I had mixed feelings about it because she was going to be gone for a long time... but getting back to the point it meant she could bring me goodies. So I read everything posted here about the PRS700 and went ahead and gave her the go sign. Of how such order went you can read
here
The real deal
I read a lot about design flaws and issues so I would like to address them here from what I have experienced so far.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Since you ask, glare is pretty much only an issue if you have never EVER used a device with a glass screen... I mean if any of you ever played on a PSP or DS or whatever you MUST have noticed the glare on those screens but I never heard anyone complain about it as much as they do for this device, yes, it's a bit glary but so is an iPhone or any other cell phone. You can always angle it and it will go away. So on this particular item, I say have no worries.
Crispy or extra crispy
Here is a real issue, the screen quality as most of us would have to agree is of the utmost importance because the whole idea of the thing is to read ebooks as if they were their paper counterparts. I have never had a reader before so I think it's pretty darn good IMO but I do think it could be clearer: at first I always got the impression of reading a piece of newspaper that has been framed on a portrait.
After reading this forum for several months I was well warned about it and I had seen enough pictures of the 50x series to be a bit displeased with how mine looks. This however was just my impression and every single person I showed the 700 to called me crazy.So on this one it's a matter of what you expect, my friends and family all thought I was wasting money and then TOTALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH HOW IT LOOKS. Sorry for the upper case but I want to stress that part, regular people (that is people who aren't as anal as me as to read dozens of reviews before actually making the decision to buy it) think it's "like paper".
One thing I must mention is that the right set of Fonts goes a long long way. I currently use DejaVu in all my books and plan to make it the reader's default font as soon as a hack is available for it. Here I must salute the brave individuals who found this trick and to all of you who might want more information on Font families the thread can be found
here
Fairy dust
I read the dust issue posts when they first came and dreaded like only a man who would get no recall or repair could. Right now there's a construction site next door and my place is dusty as hell (or possibly a museum) and I am happy to report that no dust has been found on my reader so far which pleases me to no end.
Going with the flow
As any newcomer here will confess, at first whenever we hear the term "e-book" we think "PDF". I know, I know, they are anathema but that doesn't erases the fact that we are most familiar with this format. I had a bunch of PDFs and was shockingly (and pleasantly) amazed at how well the little guy handles them. I sometimes want to sing praises to the reflow gods and the speed of the little bugger is just lovely.
The zoom function is GREAT.
Oh, Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo?
The search function works like a charm. Honestly. It rules, especially for those books you are just too lazy to create a TOC, you just type in the name of the chapter and boom, you are there.
High with the light
As I have mentioned in some other posts I am a med student and wanted the device to use as reference and study from it because it is a lot more comfortable than having to carry around lots of books and papers, so highlighting and note-making were important factors here. It works rather well, not as sharp as one would like but it's good. I find that making notes is quite cumbersome because you can't really type as fast as you'd like but well.. we must make due.
Anyways...
As I have stated earlier the PRS-700 is a very good reading device though it might not be the best one out there it has suited my needs well and I thank it for it.
That's all folks, I hope this post is useful to someone and not just a sign of me having nothing to do while waiting for my take-out to arrive.
Have a good one everybody!