[sigma8]

Hi csskkai, I don't own either reader, but I'm trying to decide which one to get, and I've probably logged a couple of hours in the local Sony store by now, comparing the devices.

(today was my sd-card "PDF test" day)

I will be blunt, the screen on the 700 is very noticeably worse than the 505's. The "ink" is not as black and the "paper" is not as white. It's also lacks the nifty "paper grain" appearance of the 505, possessing instead a textureless surface that reminds me of my old Palm IIIx PDA's screen.

I think my Palm IIIx actually looked better, in fact. It had better contrast.

It's really heartbreaking, because while it looks significantly worse, it's clearly still useable. It's not like the text is invisble or looks like it's half-way towards vanishing from the page. I'll just say this much: the 505 was the first e-Ink display I held in my hands, and I was smitten. It's why I'm even on this forum. If on that day, I had only held the 700 in my hands, I doubt I'd have wanted one. It just wouldn't have triggered my gadget-lust.

As for the glare, yes there is more glare, but it's not that bad. It's not like those glossy laptop screens. I only wish the new MacBooks could have as little glare as the Sony PRS-700.

Also, glare is a part-time problem. Yes, it can happen and it can annoy you, but you can generally fix that by tilting the device a couple degrees in some direction. The low-contrast screen has no remedy and you have to deal with it all the time. But then again, it's not unreadable by any means (unlike a glare-filled screen would be).

It's just really, really frustrating that Sony couldn't have made the 700 with a screen like the 505. Hopefully there will be a 705 that combines the best features of these two devices, and when that happens it may well be the best reader out there.

If you don't need need to enter text (i.e. search or use its clumsy (I hear) annotation features) and/or you don't desperately need PDF zooming/panning, I'd say stick with the 505. It's better for pure reading.

To put it another way, the 700's screen isn't "bad", but it's clearly the worst screen of any e-Ink reader. I just find it hard to want, on that account.