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Old 12-23-2009, 03:45 PM   #1
jckatz
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New Sony Readers Too Large, Too Small, and too cloudy

I have the 500 and still love it, especially after the update. Yet I was looking to get a new Sony reader as a gift and I didn't like any of the options on the market.

The Pocket Edition is too small and the navigation takes up way to much realistate, causing the display to be even small than required.

The World Edition is larger than the 500 and wouldn't fit in the front pocket men's pants.

And the touch, which appears to be the correct size has an inferior display caused by the layer of plastic used for touch sensitivity.

In all honestly, I still think the 505 is the best model Sony has and wish I didn't drop mine after they stopped production. OK I wish didn't drop mine period.
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Old 12-23-2009, 03:47 PM   #2
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I do like the 600. My mom has one and it's not as bad as some make it out to be.

I had a 500, but when I saw the screen and new layout of the 505, I just had to upgrade and I did.
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Old 12-28-2009, 03:18 AM   #3
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I find the 505 has terrible ergonomics, poor speed, and a mediocre display, along with pretty much no usability beyond simple page display.

The 600 has slightly more usability and slightly better speed, slightly more mediocre display and somewhat better ergonomics.

300 is just a dwarf 505 pretty much.

900 may be their best model with the fewest compromises and most features, but it does't have quite the same level of portability.

...then there are other brands you know...quite a few. They tend to shift the tradeoffs around a little bit, but none will be fast, none will have a great display, and none will be particularly versatile. Ergonomics and software stability/capability and services are where the big (if you can call them big) variations are. It's mostly a cookie-cutter market so far...
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Old 12-28-2009, 06:47 AM   #4
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I'll be contrarian once again. The 300's screen shows the full 5" e-ink display--which has nothing to do with any navigation 'real estate.' ANd it gives a fine reading eperience, similar to the 505, in a more portable package. In fact. my 505 has been gathering dust for a few months since I got the 300--even at home. I really like he 505, but I like the 300 just s much. Reading is great on both. The 500's display is much less clear--still have one of those in use at home too!
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Old 12-28-2009, 06:50 AM   #5
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Wow -- you don't like the display on the 505? I'm surprised -- I find it to be the best display of any of the Sony readers. I've owned the 500, the 700 and currently the 505. I passed the 500 over to my wife, who never uses it, and I sold the 700 in order to buy a 505. I'm thinking of buying a second 505 since they are still available at e-bay brand new, just to have a spare.

I love the 505, and I don't find that speed is an issue with the books I read (fiction downloaded from manybooks.net or from this forum or just plain text files I've modified from project gutenberg.) I wouldn't enjoy reading PDFs on it, and I don't generally download books which have illustrations, so perhaps the speed thing is something I haven't run into. Yes, the 700 was faster, but I have no problem with page-turn speed on the 505, and the battery life is so much longer between charges.

I agree about how none of the current models are all that great, and am waiting breathlessly to see what new ebook readers will appear in the next few months or years. It's obvious that the ebook market has reached a minimal critical mass so that publishers are paying much better attention to it, so I'm not worried about it disappearing anytime soon.

But I wish the eink makers and their competitors could get their act together and come up with a touch-screen version which has the clarity of the 505.
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Old 12-28-2009, 07:30 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by dhbailey View Post
Wow -- you don't like the display on the 505? I'm surprised -- I find it to be the best display of any of the Sony readers. I've owned the 500, the 700 and currently the 505. I passed the 500 over to my wife, who never uses it, and I sold the 700 in order to buy a 505. I'm thinking of buying a second 505 since they are still available at e-bay brand new, just to have a spare.

I love the 505, and I don't find that speed is an issue with the books I read (fiction downloaded from manybooks.net or from this forum or just plain text files I've modified from project gutenberg.) I wouldn't enjoy reading PDFs on it, and I don't generally download books which have illustrations, so perhaps the speed thing is something I haven't run into. Yes, the 700 was faster, but I have no problem with page-turn speed on the 505, and the battery life is so much longer between charges.

I agree about how none of the current models are all that great, and am waiting breathlessly to see what new ebook readers will appear in the next few months or years. It's obvious that the ebook market has reached a minimal critical mass so that publishers are paying much better attention to it, so I'm not worried about it disappearing anytime soon.

But I wish the eink makers and their competitors could get their act together and come up with a touch-screen version which has the clarity of the 505.
LDBoblo doesn't like anything. Don't be surprised.
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Old 12-28-2009, 07:47 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LDBoblo View Post
I find the 505 has terrible ergonomics, poor speed, and a mediocre display, along with pretty much no usability beyond simple page display.

The 600 has slightly more usability and slightly better speed, slightly more mediocre display and somewhat better ergonomics.

300 is just a dwarf 505 pretty much.

900 may be their best model with the fewest compromises and most features, but it does't have quite the same level of portability.

...then there are other brands you know...quite a few. They tend to shift the tradeoffs around a little bit, but none will be fast, none will have a great display, and none will be particularly versatile. Ergonomics and software stability/capability and services are where the big (if you can call them big) variations are. It's mostly a cookie-cutter market so far...
Then you won't like any eink reader out there as none have a better display. You may as well sell your 505 and be done with it since you really don't like it.
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Old 12-28-2009, 10:35 PM   #8
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yeah I can't imagine not liking the 505 display that was wonderful. My guess is he loves reading his e-books on is iPhone. I has a backlight and lots of color. Because who would want to read a book in black and white?
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Old 12-28-2009, 11:53 PM   #9
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Agreed. The new touchscreen display is not as sharp/crisp as the 500/505.
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Old 12-29-2009, 05:11 AM   #10
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I'll be contrarian once again. The 300's screen shows the full 5" e-ink display--which has nothing to do with any navigation 'real estate.' ANd it gives a fine reading eperience, similar to the 505, in a more portable package. In fact. my 505 has been gathering dust for a few months since I got the 300--even at home. I really like he 505, but I like the 300 just s much. Reading is great on both. The 500's display is much less clear--still have one of those in use at home too!
But I think, with respect, that there are much better 5" readers around than the PRS-300. I would consider both the CyBook Opus and the PocketBook 360 to be much better - the Opus because of its enormously better ePub capabilities (eg the ability to change justification, margin, and font), and the PocketBook because of its overall versatility in terms of formats, file management, etc. I really don't see any particular benefit of the PRS-300, especially now that Sony has joined the "ePub world".
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Old 12-29-2009, 05:13 AM   #11
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Agreed. The new touchscreen display is not as sharp/crisp as the 500/505.
It's not, but the enormous benefits that the touchscreen bring you for me at least, far outweigh the slight loss in clarify. Annotation, dictionary lookup, the ability to search within a book and for a book - all these are excellent features. I have numerous eBook readers, as you can see from my profile on the left; the PRS-600 is my overall favourite.
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Old 12-29-2009, 06:01 AM   #12
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It's not, but the enormous benefits that the touchscreen bring you for me at least, far outweigh the slight loss in clarify. Annotation, dictionary lookup, the ability to search within a book and for a book - all these are excellent features. I have numerous eBook readers, as you can see from my profile on the left; the PRS-600 is my overall favourite.

Somewhat OT, but then again, somewhat not:

The Sony 505 is considered to be classic in clarity. Yes, the 600 does not have the same clarity - and we all know the reason for that. I played with one at Best Buy for about 30 minutes. The only reason I didn't buy it was because they were sold out of the Black version at that particular Best Buy.

Harry: I've returned the 300 and will be purchasing the Sony 600 (black) either today or tomorrow. I MUST do this, as I also just ordered a Noreve Cover that cost almost $100.

If anyone here has not tried Noreve (for Kindle and Sony 600), then let me tell you that these covers are exquisite. I also own two more for my two Kindle 2s.

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Old 12-29-2009, 09:01 AM   #13
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[QUOTE=dhbailey;

I wouldn't enjoy reading PDFs on it, 505.[/QUOTE]

I do and they are great.
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Old 12-31-2009, 09:14 AM   #14
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It is funny because recently some people asked me about an e-Reader as a gift for the holidays and while I love my PRS-505 to death I could not recommend Sony's latest crop of e-readers. The PRS-300 is just too small and the lack of good button turning pages is annoying to me. The PRS-600 the screen looks so less sharp then my 505 and I feel like its priced higher than it should be.

I love my 505 I wish they still made it, glad I got one for my mom though before they stopped selling it.
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Old 12-31-2009, 11:47 AM   #15
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yeah I can't imagine not liking the 505 display that was wonderful. My guess is he loves reading his e-books on is iPhone. I has a backlight and lots of color. Because who would want to read a book in black and white?
Don't have an iPhone, and generally read novels on my Sony or on my PC, if I don't read them on paper as is normally best. I just don't have room enough for many books in my home, and can't always easily get the books I want locally.

I'll be happy to read all my general stuff on e-ink once e-ink is good. Nowadays, I can only stand it for disposable entertainment reading. It's not bad for that, as long as I don't read in my second language, which displays so poorly that I've given up typesetting books for it.

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LDBoblo doesn't like anything. Don't be surprised.
I like lots of things...just not e-ink.

Last edited by LDBoblo; 12-31-2009 at 11:50 AM.
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