PRS 650 or T1

[Josieb1]

I think this has been asked before but I can't find the thread, sorry.

I want a Sony ereader, I had both the 600 and the 505 but moved to Kindle a year ago. I need PDF reflow, converting PDFs to MOBI is a bit of a pain.

I noticed today that Waterstones in the UK has the PRS650 reduced to £160.00, thats £31 more than the T1 is available for from the Sony store.

I wondered if the extra £31 is worth it for the metal case as the new T1 is plastic?

I am also not sure I like the idea of the glossy case tbh. I don't need the wifi so thats not an issue, or the pinch in touchscreen, all I want is a relIable ereader to read my PDF fan fiction on, one that will last for a few years. I use Calibre already and always load my books through that so downloading books isn't needed either.

Has anyone got an advice for me? Is the new software worth the plastic case?

Thanks

[Analogus]

I think I would buy the older and black coloured one. Proper haptic is very important for me as man holds the reader very often and long in his hands.
But I would immediately 'upgrade' the 650 with PRS+ which gives a couple of functionalities the T1 seems to have out of the box:

- Bookcover from actual book in standby mode
- panning in zoomend mode (PDF and other formats)
- Alter fonts for EPUBS directly on the reader

If there would be no PRS+ I wouldn't hesitate to buy the T1 for above mentioned advantages/functions.

Besides: I read lots of PDFs with the smaller 350 in reflow mode. Works very well.

A.

[tommystery]

If it helps at all I decided to purchase a second hand PRS-650 in mint condition for about the same price as I would've paid for the new t1 a few days ago. My reasoning? I don't need Wifi, the 650 with prs+ does everything I need it to do (pdf reflow and page split works really well), and I like the metal case. I'm also left to wonder where else sony is cutting corners (other than moving from a metal to a plastic case) in order to offer a 40% price reduction over the previous model. Knowing a bit about electronics I can tell you that there are usually several grades of components that can do the same thing, the difference of course is their tolerance and MTBF.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to use PRS+ to get a font size between S and M. I've had success in changing fonts, adjusting margins, line spacing etc. Hopefully it's possible to do. I also read some posts with some people being unhappy with the speed of the device. The largest book I have on there right now is a 100+MB university textbook, it takes a while to load but once it loads rendering between pages is more than acceptable.

There are some rumours floating around that the new sony might be Android. If that's important to you perhaps wait for the first few geeks to grab their units

[Analogus]

Originally Posted by tommystery

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to use PRS+ to get a font size between S and M. I've had success in changing fonts, adjusting margins, line spacing etc. Hopefully it's possible to do.

No, up to now it is NOT possible to get a more narrow font size increment. But you can do a work around by creating several CSS just varying slightly in font size.
I use 0.93em, 0.94em, ..., 1.1em for fine adjusting the fontsize. Doing that way is ab bit cumbersome but nevertheless working. Over time man get used to the procedure.

A.

[Josieb1]

Thanks for your replies. I have two kindles, a wifi and a 3G, and between them I have had 3 replacements in a year due to cracked casings and screens so a robust casing is paramount. Tbh as long as a 650 did the same as a 600 but with a better screen I would be happy. Not sure I even need PRS+ but could worry about that later.

Off to look at one tomorrow. Thanks again

[tommystery]

The screen on the PRS-650 is the same as on the T1 and the Kindle 3rd gen. The 600 had glare issues because it had a resistive film over the screen; the 650 uses IR like the other devices.

Analogus: Can you glance at my thread here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=150847

I haven't had a lot of luck with changing the font size, while all other changes in my css stick

Thanks.

[Analogus]

Robustness - plastic case versus metal case:

I'm not convinced that the metal cases of the X50-series are much stronger than a plastic one. That depends certainly on the kind of plastic and thickness of metal/plastic. The PRS300 has a metal cover like the PRS350 but feels far more robust (reader is thicker).

A.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by tommystery

..... I'm also left to wonder where else sony is cutting corners (other than moving from a metal to a plastic case) in order to offer a 40% price reduction over the previous model.

Massive reduction of supported file formats is another issue and for me that's even worse than the change to plastics. This wouldn't be as bad if the rendering of .epub files were improved but I have little hope there.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Thanks for your replies. I have two kindles, a wifi and a 3G, and between them I have had 3 replacements in a year due to cracked casings and screens so a robust casing is paramount.

You must be very hard on your reading devices. I've owned dozens of them over the years, and never damaged one. Perhaps you should invest in a good sturdy case?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Analogus

Robustness - plastic case versus metal case:

I'm not convinced that the metal cases of the X50-series are much stronger than a plastic one. That depends certainly on the kind of plastic and thickness of metal/plastic. The PRS300 has a metal cover like the PRS350 but feels far more robust (reader is thicker).

A.

Agreed. Modern plastics are certainly not inferior to metal in terms of the amount of protection they offer, and are probably better in terms of absorbing impacts, in that they will flex and thus absorb the energy of the impact.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Agreed. Modern plastics are certainly not inferior to metal in terms of the amount of protection they offer, and are probably better in terms of absorbing impacts, in that they will flex and thus absorb the energy of the impact.

You are correct, provided the manufacturer uses high quality plastics. Those who owned plastic Macbooks that were prone to discoloring and fatigue cracks will have a different opinion about the quality of plastics that are being used. The Kindle also seems to have quite a few cases of cracks appearing in the corners of the display.

[Josieb1]

You must be very hard on your reading devices. I've owned dozens of them over the years, and never damaged one. Perhaps you should invest in a good sturdy case?

I have two Kindles, a wifi and a 3G. BOTH are in the Amazon Lighted Cover, they have been from day one.

Both Kindles have been replaced for a hairline crack in the casing which occured in the same spot on each case, at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. If you Google the issue you will see that 100's, if not 1000's of Kindles are affected, it’s a very heated debate over on the Amazon Kindle Forum as some of us believe it’s a production fault. It only affects Graphite Kindles and seems to a UK only problem. Amazon replaced all three of my damaged Kindles without a murmer of misuse.

The other replacement was for a broken screen, and I have no idea how that happened. I have attached a picture of the broken Kindle screen, if you have any sugestions as to how that happened as the Kindle was not dropped and was in a Amazon case when it happened please let me know.

I have owned ereaders for over three years now and would NEVER use one without a sturdy case, in fact apart from the Amazon cases all my cases come from Tuff Luv.


Edited to add - The picture of the crack is from Google but its similar to both my cracks and in the same place i had them. Again sugestions as to reason welcomed.

[HarryT]

Might be an idea to stick with the Kindles, Josie. Sony will very definitely NOT replace broken screens in the way that Amazon do. The picture you've posted is a classic image of a fractured screen substrate - the thin layer of glass that's beneath the outer plastic screen. It's generally caused by a twisting force applied to the screen. I know you say you don't know how it happened, but if these things keep happening to you, Amazon are definitely much more "forgiving" than Sony are.

[Josieb1]

Might be an idea to stick with the Kindles, Josie. Sony will very definitely NOT replace broken screens in the way that Amazon do. The picture you've posted is a classic image of a fractured screen substrate - the thin layer of glass that's beneath the outer plastic screen. It's generally caused by a twisting force applied to the screen. I know you say you don't know how it happened, but if these things keep happening to you, Amazon are definitely much more "forgiving" than Sony are.

Thanks for your advice. I don't actually expect anything from Sony. I bought my PRS 650 yesterday, I can insure it for three years for nothing through my Credit Card company, which is actually Domestic and General. I never had a problem with my 505 or my 600 for the two years I had them before I moved to Kindle.

I want the PDF reflow, which is my main reason for moving back to Sony and will always now have one reader of each make. I just preferred the aluminimum casing of the 650 to the plastic casing of the T1 and was willing to pay an extra £30 over the price of the T1 to get it.