PRS-350 To buy or not to buy (at $120 on Best Buy)?

[MasterGame]

The difference between a 5" diagonal screen on the Sony Reader and the 3.5" diagonal screen on the iPhone doesn't sound like much, but it makes the surface area of the Reader screen a little more than twice the area of the iPhone's screen. I own a phone with a 4" screen, and the Reader is still a huge improvement in readability over that phone.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

All true-- except for the fact that it isn't true. The back panel of the 350 is plastic, but the front panel (which includes the spine with the "molding artifact ridges") is aluminum.

Thanks for playing, though.

My, such arrogance. In any case, whether they've changed their manufacturing process or whether you're just wrong, I can assure you that the 350 I had was most definitely plastic front and back. The spine did indeed have a series of random-looking thin grooves up and down it's length, definitely not something intentionally machined into metal. The entire thing looked and felt like a cheap toy compared to the 650, which is clearly metallic front and back and looks to be made to a much higher standard of quality.

[elizilla]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

My, such arrogance. In any case, whether they've changed their manufacturing process or whether you're just wrong, I can assure you that the 350 I had was most definitely plastic front and back. The spine did indeed have a series of random-looking thin grooves up and down it's length, definitely not something intentionally machined into metal. The entire thing looked and felt like a cheap toy compared to the 650, which is clearly metallic front and back and looks to be made to a much higher standard of quality.

Sounds like you had a unique PRS-350. Mine has an anodized aluminum front, and a plastic back with a rubitone texture. No random thin grooves.

The 650 is all aluminum, but the 350 doesn't feel cheapened. In some way's it's the nicest - the screen is super clear, and it's a very comfortable size. I'm fond of it and glad that I bought it.

If you want something that looks and feels cheap, compare it to the Nook Classic. LOL!

[Poppaea]

Like elizilla I own both and have to say the 350 doesn't feel inferior to the 650. It just has a different approach. It is the "go-everywhere" version of the Sony reader and it is build for this task. It is lite and smooth and sturdy.

To someone who owns a 505 it might feel flimsy but anything will feel flimsy compared to the battle tank build of the 505s. No need to bash it. It is just different.

Of all my readers I like it best. Otherwise I wouldn't lend my 650 to friends

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

The spine did indeed have a series of random-looking thin grooves up and down it's length, definitely not something intentionally machined into metal.

That's called "brushed aluminum," genius.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...&aqi=&aql=&oq=

And, BTW, not only do I own a PRS-350, but I also just happen to have once worked for a plastics molding company (this one) and have-- I have no doubt whatsoever-- vastly more knowledge of plastics molding, plastics molding presses, and how and why molding artifacts form than you do.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

That's called "brushed aluminum," genius.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...&aqi=&aql=&oq=

And, BTW, not only do I own a PRS-350, but I also just happen to have once worked for a plastics molding company (this one) and have-- I have no doubt whatsoever-- vastly more knowledge of plastics molding, plastics molding presses, and how and why molding artifacts form than you do.

My goodness, I'm at a loss here. Why are you going out of your way to be such a juvenile ass? Do you always treat people you have a disagreement with this way? What's with this sarcastic "genius" thing? Have I said or done anything that was personally offensive to you? As far as I'm aware, I merely posted my impressions of the 350 on this thread in response to a poster who asked for such. Why does this deserve such rudeness from you?

I didn't just crawl out from underneath a rock, and I've been around long enough to know what brushed aluminum is and what it looks like. The grooves in the spine on the 350 I had looked like substantial wrinkles in the surface material, and the rest of the surface didn't look like that at all. These wrinkles, grooves, whatever you want to call them, were clearly a manufacturing defect and were in no way "brushed aluminum." In all your vast, worldly experience in the manufacturing world, you have heard of manufacturing defects before, right?

Your arrogance and flat-out rudeness is utterly mind-boggling when you try to assume you know better than me what I've held in my own two hands. In any case, I have no intention of arguing further with someone who seems to be intentionally trying to behave as poorly and rudely as possible. You may have the last word now - to borrow your own words, I have no doubt whatsoever that you're the type who needs that sort of thing.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

My goodness, I'm at a loss here. Why are you going out of your way to be such a juvenile ass?

Because you are going out of your way to make claims that are factually incorrect. Not, I'm sure, because you know that you are lying, but because you don't know how ignorant you are. What. You. Are. Saying. Is. Not. True.

Do you always treat people you have a disagreement with this way?

No, just the ones who act like Cliff Clavin from Cheers.

The grooves in the spine on the 350 I had looked like substantial wrinkles in the surface material, and the rest of the surface didn't look like that at all. These wrinkles, grooves, whatever you want to call them, were clearly a manufacturing defect and were in no way "brushed aluminum."

Those "wrinkles, grooves, whatever" are on every 350, they are on the spine only, AND THEY ARE BRUSHED ALUMINUM.

[Poppaea]

Those that look like the crust of a tree? This is the design, not a wrinkle.

[ardeegee]

You can see a fairly good view of the brushing on the aluminum shell on page 5 of the service manual, found here:

http://projects.mobileread.com/reade...PRS-350_sm.pdf

[mimosavj]

I would say that I was not very impressed with the 350 for the font-size reason but I fall in love with my PRS 650. I owned 5" and 6" devices before and in general, both screens worked for me. But somehow the 350 with Sony font problems just annoyed me since the number of words displayed on screen was somewhat less than it would be comfortable for me. Hence I sold my 350 and bought a 650, and it is perfect. The bigger screen means I don't feel annoyed about the font size nor page margin. PRS+ with Books by Folder and games is a perfect tool to organize the books on the device.

By the way, I figured out that to use both Books by Folder and the normal Sony collection structure, I have to use Sending Book to Device via Calibre with this procedure & template:
1. Add a couple of columns, let's say "FolderLevel1", "FolderLevel2"...
2. Assigned value to the columns, e.g. for Dumas' Three Musketeers, I set FolderLevel1="Adventure" (you can use Tags but I often use multiple tags per book so it doesn't help much)
3. Set template on Sending to Device to something like {#folderlevel1}/{authors}/{series}/{series_index}-{title} or more complex template as in various helpful threads here.
The whole thing is perfect. Thanks Kartu!

For those who own both the PRS 350 & PRS 650, I wonder if you load the same book on both devices and use the same settings, are the font display the same? I have a weird feeling that when I use the 650, somehow the font size difference between Small & Medium is not as bad as in the 350.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Those that look like the crust of a tree? This is the design, not a wrinkle.

No, I know what you are talking about, and I know what that arrogant moron ardagee is talking about, too, and that isn't what was on my 350. What was on mine was clearly a manufacturing defect. Trust me, if you had seen the one I had, you'd have taken it back, too.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

No, I know what you are talking about, and I know what that arrogant moron ardagee is talking about, too, and that isn't what was on my 350. What was on mine was clearly a manufacturing defect. Trust me, if you had seen the one I had, you'd have taken it back, too.

Ok. But I am not sure if it is wise to trust a guy with anything

[MasterGame]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Those "wrinkles, grooves, whatever" are on every 350, they are on the spine only, AND THEY ARE BRUSHED ALUMINUM.

Just out of curiosity, how do you distinguish an aluminum cover from a metalized plastic cover? (Plastic, coated with real metal.) I'm not an engineer, but I once worked for a company that had metalized plastic pieces on some of its products. Short of looking at the backside of the parts or scratching their surface, I had a hard time visually distinguishing them from solid aluminum parts. (Such stuff wasn't part of my job, but I was impressed with how good the metalized plastic looked.)

The surface of metalized plastic is electrically conductive, so an electrical meter doesn't distinguish them. And since aluminum isn't magnetic, a magnet wouldn't tell them apart either. The weight would certainly be different, but weighing the individual parts isn't feasible on assembled products. Perhaps rate of temperature change would be a clue?

On the PRS-350, the edges of the front cover piece aren't exposed, so with my limited skills, I can't positively identify the material.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by MasterGame

Just out of curiosity, how do you distinguish an aluminum cover from a metalized plastic cover?

Give it a taste test. Your upper lip is very sensitive to temperature differences-- touch the back of the PRS-350 with your upper lip. Then touch the front surface. The front will feel much cooler than the back. (Of course, this works only on cool days or in cool rooms.)

[MasterGame]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Give it a taste test. Your upper lip is very sensitive to temperature differences-- touch the back of the PRS-350 with your upper lip. Then touch the front surface. The front will feel much cooler than the back. (Of course, this works only on cool days or in cool rooms.)

I'll be darned. It works. Not only does it tell me that the front of the PRS-350 is metal, it tells me that the metal-looking front of my calculator is not.