The Sony PRS700: the Newest Member of the Sony Reader Family

[mcramer]

From Kris Abel's review:

It isn’t enough for complete darkness, but for reading in bed or in a room with few lamps, it works far, far better than I imagined.

Strange - I would have thought the darker the room the more effective the certain amount of light would be? I know that it's a reflective screen but even so..........

[Vaporware]

Originally Posted by Dedale

yeah I'm very intrigued by this feature. It seems really cool !
But here the guy said you have to have a lamp or an exterior light, it's not enough in darkness apparently

I don't quite understand how 6 side LEDs wouldn't illuminate in total darkness well enough to read, but I reserve judgement for when I see it.

[adamjury]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

The 500 has never been sold in Canada, only the 505. Logically no trade-in possible. Although 505 to 700 could be possible.

I'm speaking entirely about the 505, which I just bought last week, as I mentioned in my post. :-)

[Timoleon]

Originally Posted by lovebeta

I would say that's typical SONY STYLE: nice looking but not practice.

To me, one advantage of ebook reader is that I can operate it by one hand. And now we are back at the starting point? The location of the remaining page-turn buttons doesn't seem to be convenient at all.

This is exactly my feeling. I hold the reader with one hand and turn the page with the same hand. I read a few pages and then I switch to the other hand. I lay down on my right side and use one pair of buttons for page turning; I lay down on my left side and I use the other pair. The new single pair of buttons is in a dreadful location!

I like the ideal of a touch screen with a stylus --- like my Palm Tungsten E. It opens the reader up to a whole new range of possibilities, such as a decent dictionary. I'm not a fan of gumming up the screen with my "damned stinking paws."

Kudos to Sony for doing something, though. An "A" for effort and a "B-" for execution.

Tim

[=X=]

Wow! For me the built in light and annotation are HUGE.

These where the features I felt the SONY PRS-505 was missing. My only real grip with the reader was the need for a light and annotations. The only feature that is lacking for me is the dictionary lookup.


Had I not recently purchased the 505 I would have gone for the 700

=X=

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by InspectorGadget

Do you think they'd let me trade in my 500 refurb with the internal crack in the membrane (and lines on the screen)?

I bet they would. Just bring in the thing and hand it to the clerk, they deduct $100 off your purchase. I bet they won't even try to use it.

BOb

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Timoleon

The new single pair of buttons is in a dreadful location!

Really hard to say that until you try it. It looks to me if you hold it near the bottom left corner you thumb would be close to the page turn button.

Also, if you can hold in with your right hand and also a quick thumb swipe up the edge of the screen shouldn't require to much movement.

Once again... it seems hard to judge without trying it.

BOb

[manchuia]

whenever I read criticism of touch screens that involve gunking up the screen it makes me wonder if people have truly stopped washing their hands. I have owned a number of touchscreen phones and find that a day or two's worth of fingerprints rarely detracts from the ability to accurately see the information on the screen. If it does I lock the device, take one wipe with my shirt and unlock the device. I am sure at the end of my life when I add up all the 5 seconds twice every week it has taken me to do this, I might wonder what I could have done with that extra day or so.

Regardless.

This is pretty neat, but for most I can see this not being a real necessity over the 500. The touchscreen is "neat" but only adds some of the functionality that you would have with other devices. If you really wanted a touchscreen (and for the cost) you can jump on the iliad train and at least get a wacom screen that allows note taking.

[imaredr]

I like it. This just may make me a fan of e-ink. Now if I can just wait until it is available.

Ellen

[InspectorGadget]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Really hard to say that until you try it. It looks to me if you hold it near the bottom left corner you thumb would be close to the page turn button.

Also, if you can hold in with your right hand and also a quick thumb swipe up the edge of the screen shouldn't require to much movement.

Once again... it seems hard to judge without trying it.

BOb

BOb, et. al.,

I'm sitting here with my PRS-500 stepping through a short document with the buttons along the bottom of the screen. It's too much of a reach for my thumbs if I try to hold it at either corner in a single hand. I can do it if I perch it in my hand with my hand in the center of the bottom and my little finger bracing the bottom edge of the unit (and three fingers behind). Do-able, but definitely more awkward.

That being said, I realize that I rarely read exclusively one-handedly. Even when I hold it in my left hand with my fingers over the page buttons, I rarely go more than one or two pages without switching hands and or absent-mindedly touching it with the right hand. Often I just holding it in the right hand for a page (which CANNOT turn a page with the 500) and then switch back when I come to the end of a page.

More to the point, when I hold it even briefly with two hands, I have no problem accessing the middle of the bottom row buttons. My conclusion is that at least for me, I don't think it'd be too problematic using those buttons or making a little thumb swipe to turn the page. I'm trying it (obviously pretending with the thumb swipe part) and it feels pretty natural.

Of course YMMV and the real thing may feel a little different, but it's a pretty good way to evaluate it before it hits the street. I'm going to practice (when reading on my 500) holding and making the motions that I'd have to make with the 700 for a while to see how it feels after some elapsed time.

- The Inspector

[vivaldirules]

No announcement of new books? No deal with a big publisher or even a brick-and-mortar seller? So we're going to have to continue buying books from the little Sony "bookmobile" while the real stash of ebooks remains over at Amazon or else still on paper? Man, I am really bummed. I coulda sworn this was gonna turn out better. Oh, well. Have a good night, all.

[Falbe Publishing]

Oh! The touch screen control sounds great. When I got my 505 a couple months ago, I immediately wanted touch screen. My Sony video camera has me used to the touch screen and it's really nice.

[Armor78154]

I wonder if Sony's trade-in deal for the old 500 models will also be applicable for the 700. I could see trading in my old 500 for a $100 credit towards this new model...especially with the new features.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by cfc

Any word on what the new font sizes look like? The main reason I prefer my Kindle over my PRS-500 is the larger font sizes.

Also if, like eReader on the Ipod Touch, you could change the page turn gesture from a stroke to just a touch, that might make it easier.

Unlike the Kindle the font sizes are not fixed. The smallest font size is determined by the book author and then scaled up from there. The older 505 and prior had 3 levels of fonts sizes (2 up from the default). The 700 have 5 levels which means the largest should be quite a bit bigger but still not an absolute number.

You can program the strokes to be what you want but I am not sure about just touch. The default for just touch is to zoom (increase the font size). I am not sure what other strokes can be recognized or how programmable they are.

Dale

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by manchuia

whenever I read criticism of touch screens that involve gunking up the screen it makes me wonder if people have truly stopped washing their hands. I have owned a number of touchscreen phones and find that a day or two's worth of fingerprints rarely detracts from the ability to accurately see the information on the screen. If it does I lock the device, take one wipe with my shirt and unlock the device. I am sure at the end of my life when I add up all the 5 seconds twice every week it has taken me to do this, I might wonder what I could have done with that extra day or so.

Regardless.

This is pretty neat, but for most I can see this not being a real necessity over the 500. The touchscreen is "neat" but only adds some of the functionality that you would have with other devices. If you really wanted a touchscreen (and for the cost) you can jump on the iliad train and at least get a wacom screen that allows note taking.

I suspect note taking will work on this device, if not now then in the future. There is a virtual keyboard for searching which the 500 cannot do. I expect the touch screen will allow marking text and doing dictionary look up.

Dale