Sony Readers, 700 and 505

[jeme]

Well here I sit with both a 700 and 505 and I cannot decide which to keep. With the light on all the time the 700 is not bad, but I hate that it does not take covers from the 500 series. Decisions decisions....

[dhbailey]

If you're going to have the light on all the time with the 700, you also need to consider the battery life. 8 hours reading time with the light on the lower setting, and only 4 hours with the light on the higher setting. If you can read with the light off for some of the time, of course, you can stretch the battery life to a more endurable amount, but if you need the light all the time, my advice would be to keep the 505 and send the 700 back.

I find that I can read the 700 in all the same lighting situations I read my 500 in, so I don't need the light on all the time. If I had to recharge the device every day I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much as now, where I can take it with me for a weekend or week and read it quite nicely without having to worry about recharging.

[jeme]

Thanks David. Do you prefer the 700 to the 500 series and if I may respectfully ask how did you come to that decision - thanks! Happy Thanksgiving by the way.

[Andybaby]

I had the PRS 500, the Kindle, and Now the 700.

I loved the Small size of the PRS 500, it fit in my Pocket. but my finger got calluses cause of the sharp turn pages... my girlfriend sat on this one

I saw the 700 listed, for preorder and it was coming out in near a month

so i bought the Kindle with every intention of returnin it for the 700.

the Kindle was cool, i liked it. but it was too bulky, and i never did use any of the extended functions, though browsing through the book store was a cool feature. i can still do that on my computer very easily.

back the Kindle went very easily, my total out of pocket charges was the $3.95 to return it... which i shiped back through UPS... it would have cost me almost 12 bucks to ship it myself. i used their label. 1 month of kindle use for 4 bucks.. i was happy about that.

the 700 of course sold out first day, and they didnt ship my preorder till 6 days after the 14th. which sucked, but i got it.

I am so happy with it. the light is good, but i dont use it all that much.. but its perfect for when i need to use it.

people complain about the glare, there is alot of glare compared to the earlier two. but i dont notice it at all, since the 500 and the kindle did have glare, and im used ot finding just the right position. as on those devices glare made it unreadable too.. here its just as hard in the same glare environment, its just more pronounced, the angles are all the same. Glare is not an issue.

the page turning just works, and it works great, 1 handed or two.

touch screen has just the right amount of sensitivity.

i really dont like that the memory cards just stick out.. the prs 500 had this done right. so did kindle.


the 700 is a nice reader. im happy with it. and i expect to keep it for the next 2 years atleast. then start asking for w/e new reader comes out then for christmas

[HarryT]

What made you decide to get the 700 rather than the 505, Andy, if you don't mind me asking?

[dhbailey]

I got the 700 because I was tired of the limitations of the 500. I wasn't able to see the 700 in person, so I ordered it blind and hoped that all the negative reviews on mobileread were wrong.

I have been very happy with the 700, thankfully, but I had been torn between buying the 505 and the $70 cover with the lightwedge or buying the 700 with the built-in light. In the end it was the other features which made me bypass the 505 and get the 700. The touchscreen makes it ready for the inclusion of a dictionary (more thoughts on that in a moment) and the increased speed and internal memory were major factors as well.

I have not been disappointed at all, even though the screen is not as crisp and clear as the 505. It is about comparable to my 500 which I was very happy reading on for 18 months and it was only the restrictions (horrible SD / memory card interface which drained the battery faster and slowed down the device) which I had grown tired of working around.

As for the potential for a dictionary on the 700, it is primed and ready to go and I think they haven't put the development dollars into a dictionary yet because they wanted to see how many units sell to see whether it will be a product which will sell.

The ability to zoom in and then move around either a text page or a graphic is wonderful for complex diagrams and other graphics or PDF files from Googlebooks which are simply graphical scans of pages from physical books.

I did look at the 505 as a serious step up, but in the end the increased technical specifications of the 700 drew my vote, and I love the built-in light. With the negative postings about the light-wedge cover for the 505 (dust showing up as huge light points and the easily scratchable and vulnerable under surface which creates lines of light along the scratches) I was less enthusiastic about that option. With the 700, I can read it at the beach just like I did my 500 -- seal it inside a plastic bag so water and sand won't get at it and read it that way even as the sun goes down and the light becomes necessary.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

As for the potential for a dictionary on the 700, it is primed and ready to go and I think they haven't put the development dollars into a dictionary yet because they wanted to see how many units sell to see whether it will be a product which will sell.

I'm afraid that I honestly don't see the relevance of a touch screen to dictionary lookup. Neither the Kindle nor the CyBook Gen3 have a touch screen, but both have perfectly satisfactory user interfaces to allow dictionary lookup.

I honestly think that if dictionary lookup is important to you, you should buy a machine which supports it now, rather than some vague and unsubstantiated "hope" that it will be added to a machine in the future. Have Sony given the slightest indication that they intend to add dictionary support to the PRS-700?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by jeme

Well here I sit with both a 700 and 505 and I cannot decide which to keep. With the light on all the time the 700 is not bad, but I hate that it does not take covers from the 500 series. Decisions decisions....

I'm going to approach your question from a different perspective. Here are my questions to you:

What are your reading habits? Do you like to read at night just before going to bed?

If you answered 'yes' to those two questions then, like me, you'll probably want the 700. (I don't own one yet, but would like to purchase one.)

I have the 505 and I love it. The screen is crisp and clear and it does everything I want it to do except for one thing: It has no backlight when I read in bed. Almost every night, I like to read in bed for 30-60 minutes before I go to sleep.

Keep in mind that many owners of the 700 report that this unit is not as crisp as the 505. I've seen many photos, and those photos show less clarity and less contrast when the light is off. However, I feel like I can live with that limitation due to the added convenience of back-lighting.

I can see myself owning both units. Most of my reading is NOT done in bed, and the 505 is superb - a thorougly enjoyable unit that enhances my reading pleasure.

Don

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'm going to approach your question from a different perspective. Here are my questions to you:

What are your reading habits? Do you like to read at night just before going to bed?

If you answered 'yes' to those two questions then, like me, you'll probably want the 700. (I don't own one yet, but would like to purchase one.)

Like you, I always read in bed before going to sleep. Before I got my PR505 I used a bedside lamp to read paperbacks, and this has not changed now I have my PR505. I have an understanding wife - generally she is always too tired anyway and is out like a light, so she never seems to be bothered by my reading using the bedside lamp. Anyway, the lamp does not have to be very bright to make the PR505 perfectly readable. So I have never had the need personally for any clip on light, or built in light as in the 700.

In fact, when I upgrade from the PR505 I would probably want a device that does NOT have a built in light, especially if it compromises readability in low light conditions. This makes most sense for me, because I want my device to replicate pbook reading as closely as possible. A touch screen may be nice, as this is closer to how you turn pages in a pbook, but I'm not sure about the screen getting grubby over time.

So for me personally, the PR505 is a better device than the 700, as it more closely matches my most important requirements (readability in natural light); it is cheaper too.

I have recently hacked the PR505 to use the central joystick button to page turn forward (I think you can now do this using the PRSCustomizer). This has made the ergonomics of turning pages much easier too, and has removed one of my remaining gripes (fiddly/badly placed page turn buttons).

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm afraid that I honestly don't see the relevance of a touch screen to dictionary lookup. Neither the Kindle nor the CyBook Gen3 have a touch screen, but both have perfectly satisfactory user interfaces to allow dictionary lookup.

I honestly think that if dictionary lookup is important to you, you should buy a machine which supports it now, rather than some vague and unsubstantiated "hope" that it will be added to a machine in the future. Have Sony given the slightest indication that they intend to add dictionary support to the PRS-700?

How do you look up a word on the Kindle without a touchscreen? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to highlight a word and then have the dictionary appear with that word's definition displayed? That potential is there for the 700.

There are enough negatives for my reading habits about the Kindle that I wouldn't buy one but I've not had a chance to hold the Cybook Gen3 to know if I might like that or not.

I can wait to see if a dictionary becomes available for the 700 because it isn't all that important for me, just something I would like to see for the few times I want to use it.

But I would like to know how you can look up a specific word you're reading on the kindle without having to open the dictionary and retype the word (which would require you remembering how it was spelled in the first place). Is there a way to highlight a word on the Kindle that I'm not aware of?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

How do you look up a word on the Kindle without a touchscreen? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to highlight a word and then have the dictionary appear with that word's definition displayed?

You use the scrollwheel/cursor to select the line the word is on. Then choose lookup from the popup menu. All words on the line are defined. It works very well.

BOb