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Finally bought one. Been meaning to get one of these for a while now but kept putting it off. I'm glad I waited. Overall, I still like my Sony PRS-350 a lot better as a reader, specially with PRS+ installed. Heck, even the default Sony firmware is pretty decent. I've never quite appreciated the default Sony firmware before but I do now after comparing it to iRiver's.
The progress bar at the bottom is very annoying and so is the big notice overlay that says you've reached the last page. I'd rather they kept the progress bar there permanently instead of it blocking part of the screen and causing some ghosting when it goes away (for text, it doesn't matter so much but for manga it does).*Having to go through hacks just to get a working browser is also a bit disappointing.
That said, text is noticeably sharper on the Story HD than on the PRS-350. Given the 5" 800x600 display on the PRS-350, text is already sharper than models at 6" 800x600 but you can definitely notice the Story HD's is better. The SD card support is also really nice. Makes it possible to carry a *lot* of stuff. While ebooks tend to be fairly small, comics and manga aren't so having extra space on demand is quite handy.
The Story HD works pretty nicely for manga despite the smallish screen as far as rendering is concerned. The high resolution goes a long way in making text legible. However, the progress bar and last page notice make it annoying to use as a manga reader.
This could be a much better device if only iRiver improves the firmware. For the $50+tax I paid for it, I'm quite satisfied. If it had cost me $100, I probably would've wished I'd just gotten the new Sony.
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