505 Light wedge and Reviewed the 700

[=X=]

Well begrudgingly last night I bough the light wedge at the Sony Style store. I just felt paying $75 for a light was too much. Considering I could buy another eBook, for my children at $100).

Well my original book cover broke and after many failed attempts to repair I realized I must purchase a book cover. But the new ones are $40!! At this price making the jump to get the customized light was a better value.
So when I show my wife the new cover she says great, now I have to return your Christmas present!!! Doh!!

The 700 Review
Anyhow since I was at the SonyStyle store I decided to look at the 700 see it first hand.

The case
-The case is aluminum. But the chrome edges are made out of plastic.
Screen

- The screen seemed to be about the same size as the 505.
- The font and contrast seem equivalent to the 505.
- The screen is touch screen and works without the stylus.

Perfomance

- This is hard to gauge since it is so subjective. But the 700 seemed more responsive to the 505, though not by much. Books loaded faster and the page turned faster.

Zoom
The zoom feature allows the user to zoom in/out of a book page while keeping the format. For regular books this is not a big deal. But for books with pictures or just viewing pictures this feature woks nicely
- There are five font size settings. What is nice is that a user can go straight to their preferred font size and not have to toggle through each setting.


PDF Support
Well having my 505 on hand, I asked the clerk if he minded me popping out SD card and testing the PDF. He said "go for it". I had my card out before he finished his sentence.

The one area that I was disappointed is that SONY did not implement a margin remove feature as one of the font sizes. In my experience with PDFs this is the only change required to make most PDF readable on the SONY 505.
(Add this feature and I think the PDF with the ZOOM) are completely feasible on the SONY reader

- First thing I noticed is that my 2GB card takes about 1min to scan for new books. The 700 took about 20sec.
- The PDF support is identical to that of the 505. With the exception that there was 5 font sizes instead of 3.
- The ZOOM works great here. I was able to zoom into a picture and table in the PDF and the text was clearly visible.
- Unfortunately the ZOOM only works one page at a time and the ZOOM setting is lost when the page is turned.

Built in Light
The built in light was pretty neat it had two levels and mid and a bright. The light is proved by several LED. The result was an uneven light, but still better than no light
The mid light would be great to help reduce glare

One final word.
[Caution: I believe this was speculation so please don't get too excited]
When I asked for when the device went on sale and how much did it cost. He provided the info and mentioned a potential trade in program and cited how there was one for the 500 to 505. I guess the only reason why I mentioned this is if there is enough folks that would like to upgrade their 505 model for a 700. We might want to voice our opinion that we would like so see such an incentive.


Well that's all I have
=X=

[Dave Berk]

Regarding the contrast, did you compare a 700 and a 505 side by side? (I'm not doubting you I just want to find out if it's a system wide problem or just a few pre-production faulty devices.)

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Dave Berk

Regarding the contrast, did you compare a 700 and a 505 side by side? (I'm not doubting you I just want to find out if it's a system wide problem or just a few pre-production faulty devices.)

Yes, not only did I compare their 505 sitting next to the 700. But I also had my 505 on hand.

It's the plastic layer covering the screen that gives the illusion of inferior screen quality in photographs.
It's like reading the 505 with the light wedge cover.

Speaking of which, it would be interesting if somebody with the 505, a light wedge and a digital camera posted some pictures of the 505 with and with out the light wedge. To see just how different the screen looks.

=X=

[Ler0y Jenkins]

Originally Posted by =X=

Screen
- The screen seemed to be about the same size as the 505.
- The font and contrast seem equivalent to the 700.
- The screen is touch screen and works without the stylus.

I'm assuming you meant to say "505"?

[=X=]

That wouldbe a yes

[Sonist]

Thanks for the great review! (Now I'll definitely keep my order:-)

Did you notice if the "black flicker" between page changes has been reduced? I read somewhere, that when changing pages by screen gesture, the flicker is non-existent.

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Thanks for the great review! (Now I'll definitely keep my order:-)

Did you notice if the "black flicker" between page changes has been reduced? I read somewhere, that when changing pages by screen gesture, the flicker is non-existent.

I agree -- I was disheartened by the other thread where somebody said the contrast was much worse than the 505, but I had kept my order in place. Now I'm happy I did.

Thanks indeed for posting this hands-on review!

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Thanks for the great review! (Now I'll definitely keep my order:-)

Did you notice if the "black flicker" between page changes has been reduced? I read somewhere, that when changing pages by screen gesture, the flicker is non-existent.

No there was no "black flicker". The screen goes all white* before the text is displayed. Still a flicker I suppose, but more pleasing to the eye.



=X=
[*] Not true white but eInk white.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by =X=

No there was no "black flicker". The screen goes all white* before the text is displayed. Still a flicker I suppose, but more pleasing to the eye.



=X=
[*] Not true white but eInk white.

Thanks, =x=. Now I am really counting the days until my 700 gets here:-)

[asabz]

That sounds really great! Thanks for your response in my topic as well.

Did you get a chance to try out the highlighting, searching and on screen keyboard?

[lisreed]

Thanks for posting this! I was starting to worry about contrast and I had pre-ordered the 700 already. I had the lighted cover for the 505 so I do know what you are saying .

[johnnyr]

Originally Posted by =X=

No there was no "black flicker". The screen goes all white* before the text is displayed. Still a flicker I suppose, but more pleasing to the eye.



=X=
[*] Not true white but eInk white.

Hmmm...Thats odd, since in all the videos of the 700 there is still the "black" flicker.

[zelda_pinwheel]

on the cybook, you can choose to turn off the black flash ; maybe on the sony as well, and it was turned off.

[johnnyr]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

on the cybook, you can choose to turn off the black flash ; maybe on the sony as well, and it was turned off.

Who would ever "want" it?

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by johnnyr

Who would ever "want" it?

who would ever want it on, do you mean ? well, it doesn't personally bother me, and i believe i heard that if it's *not* on you can have trouble with ghosting after a few page refreshes. i admit that the time i tried it, i turned quite a few pages and didn't see any traces, so i'm not sure how big a problem it is, but as i said it doesn't bother me. i stopped noticing it really quickly.