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Tuna · 06-25-2009, 04:45 AM

I've just bought a shiny new (silver!) 505 here in the Uk, taking the benefit of the recent price cuts (now £150 at play.com). There is almost certainly going to be a new model launched later this year - at least that would explain the sudden price revision - which fits the typical renewal cycle for Sony devices.

However, that didn't stop me buying, because I suspect any new model is likely to be back up at the £300 price mark as they add in new features. Having had my machine for a few days, the best upgrade I could imagine would be to increase the screen size to something like 7.5" without significantly increasing the overall physical size of the machine. That would be enough to make PDFs and reference documents much more manageable. If they made the bezel as narrow as possible (and perhaps made the screen flush with the front surface so there's nowhere for dust and dirt to accumulate) they could usefully increase screen size without ending up with an enormous slab.

The rest of the 505 hardware is pretty good - the control layout works really well - but there's room for improvement in the UI, particularly management of books and flexibility of the rendering (font sizes, and an annoying habit of some formatted text scrolling off the side of the page and being impossible to view). A speed boost wouldn't hurt, but I'm certainly not missing touch screen, wireless access or anything like that. Before they add bells and whistles, I'd rather Sony work to make the pure reading experience as natural and convenient as possible. In that respect, ebooks have a while to go.

So, I'm sure the 505 will be out of date shortly, but that won't stop my new purchase from being a very useful device that's a real pleasure to use.

06-25-2009, 04:45 AM	#43
Tuna Zealot Posts: 114 Karma: 325 Join Date: May 2009 Device: Cool-ER	I've just bought a shiny new (silver!) 505 here in the Uk, taking the benefit of the recent price cuts (now £150 at play.com). There is almost certainly going to be a new model launched later this year - at least that would explain the sudden price revision - which fits the typical renewal cycle for Sony devices. However, that didn't stop me buying, because I suspect any new model is likely to be back up at the £300 price mark as they add in new features. Having had my machine for a few days, the best upgrade I could imagine would be to increase the screen size to something like 7.5" without significantly increasing the overall physical size of the machine. That would be enough to make PDFs and reference documents much more manageable. If they made the bezel as narrow as possible (and perhaps made the screen flush with the front surface so there's nowhere for dust and dirt to accumulate) they could usefully increase screen size without ending up with an enormous slab. The rest of the 505 hardware is pretty good - the control layout works really well - but there's room for improvement in the UI, particularly management of books and flexibility of the rendering (font sizes, and an annoying habit of some formatted text scrolling off the side of the page and being impossible to view). A speed boost wouldn't hurt, but I'm certainly not missing touch screen, wireless access or anything like that. Before they add bells and whistles, I'd rather Sony work to make the pure reading experience as natural and convenient as possible. In that respect, ebooks have a while to go. So, I'm sure the 505 will be out of date shortly, but that won't stop my new purchase from being a very useful device that's a real pleasure to use.