Considering purchase. Your experience?

[kacir]

I have received my reader a week ago and it is awesome.

Do no expect the screen to be perfect. Some people expect that the display is as bright white as a paper with superblack letters. It is not. The display is light grey with dark grey letters. The display also shows "ghosting" - that is after turning the page you can see very light traces of the things that were displayed on the previous page. This is normal.

Please note, the display si still MAGNITUDE better for reading books than anything I have ever seen.

Just upload an RTF file with all text in the arial font size 16 and you will be very very hapy reader.
I do not like the way the books from the connect store are formated. The margin is too wide. They are wasting my precious screen real estate and that means I have to turn pages more often. Also the serif font (serif is like Times new roman) Sony likes to use is much les readable *on the screen* than sans-serif (like Arial).

If you want just to read fiction, and if you have source of books in plain text the Reader is just perfect.
For chess textbooks, pdf manuals, A4 formated matemathical texts in pdf files, plain text files in non-english languages (like russian) and the like the Reader is far from perfect.

I do not know how rugged the Reader is, I am still handling it with great care. I can't bear to imagine that it gets broken and I will be without it until I get a new one. Getting a new one is very complicated for me, because Sony doesn't want our stinkin' European money and refuses to sell the Reader to us, Europeans ;-)

[shawn]

I like the Reader alot but the display isn't just like paper though. Paper you can read in low light but the reader you will difficulty since the text is black on light grey and it doesn't reflect enough light to be easily visible in low light.

Aside from that it's a great ebook reader. I've been saving alot of paper since I used to print any long texts I had to read and bought paper books on a weekly basis. Now I just load it up on the reader. Also, there are some great tools available like Web2book that lets you automatically format and sync RSS content onto your reader. You should definitely check out the Sony Connect page before buying to see if the titles are to your liking. Sony stills screws up sometimes though because some of their books have obvious formatting errors.

[GBC]

Try formatting your books in bold text. It makes my books easier to read especially in lower light conditions.

[yvanleterrible]

But if you look at it positively, it's the best thing in full sunlight;even better than paper.

[Azayzel]

Originally Posted by The Alternative

Two things that I think need to be changed are:

1. There needs to be a place to input owner information to the Reader

and

2. The reader needs a clock display

Other than that the Sony Reader is the best electronic device I've ever purchased (period) and I own a ton of gadgets.

Wow, I never even thought of the first item you pointed out. For something you paid ~$350 for, you figured there'd be a place to indicate who it belongs to. Perhaps getting it engraved might be a resolution, but since it is flash-upgradable, hopefully $ony will heed this request and add this as an option (most PDA's and phones have this feature, and it doesn't take up that much memory).

Your second item is also a much requested theme, but one that could not be successfully implemented in real-time due to the nature of eInk. They could have a little clock in the corner that updates with each page change, but among other things, it might reduce the battery life by a little bit.

Great observation & suggestion!

[UncleDuke]

I love it. I get out more, not at the apartment all the time cause I want to read something. Lots of the books are large and don't travel well. Then it rains and you gotta put the coat over the book. Here I slip the reader in the pocket, done.

The cost is far below the cost of the books -- pg has most of what i read. Spent my 50 at sony connect and modern stuff is a waste.

[KDawg]

I just bought one and love it. The eInk is a little ghosty but I can read it outside and in bright indoor light that would all but wash out the Palm. The matte Sony screen makes far less glare than the shiny Palm screen. And the Sony (joystick aside) fills like it's cast from a solid piece of metal.

However, I miss a few things I have on eReader on Palm T|X:

1. Searchable books.

1a. The link to a dictionary - touch a word in an eReader book and it takes you straight to the dictionary entry.

2. Ease of navigation. Things that only take one or two screen taps on the Palm take many button presses on the Sony.

[grimo1re]

I love the Sony Reader but agree with the PDF caveat. If PDFs are your thing the Sony Reader is not suitable. Other than that I love it so much I want to make babies with it. Of course I have my gripes, probably the same ones most reviewers have but I'd like to see a review not by a gadget reviewer but by a real book lover.

[ylsul]

I like my reader. I wish it handled PDF files better (I REALLY wish.....).

One cool thing is that its great for reading while eating. I don't have to put something on the book to keep the pages from flipping over while I'm handling my chow.

One nice addition would be if the Reader had a little stand so its angled a bit off the table. Easier to view, and keeps food crap off the back.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Originally Posted by ylsul

I like my reader. I wish it handled PDF files better (I REALLY wish.....).

One cool thing is that its great for reading while eating. I don't have to put something on the book to keep the pages from flipping over while I'm handling my chow.

One nice addition would be if the Reader had a little stand so its angled a bit off the table. Easier to view, and keeps food crap off the back.

I noticed that too about eating, lay it down and read and stuff your face, LOL. As far as a little stand......A Collector. Plate stand should work nicely. Yep, just put mine in one of mine, that would work .......

[igorsk]

Turn the view landscape and prop it up using the front of the cover.

Like this:

  /\\     
 /  \\        <===  read from this side
/    \\

[Aprilbeginnings]

Originally Posted by ylsul

One nice addition would be if the Reader had a little stand so its angled a bit off the table. Easier to view, and keeps food crap off the back.

Look what I just found after someone shared a link to accessories, you will love this. Just what you wished for >G<

http://www.ereaderoutfitters.com/-st...ack/Detail.bok

[NatCh]

That won't do, it covers the page button!

[Aprilbeginnings]

It looks like those two things at the bottom can be arranged... Instead of facing inward it looks like they could be made to face outward? See he screws

[HarryT]

... or you could use the separate page turn buttons on the left side of the Reader (although I find those a bit hard on the fingertips after a while).