First sample units arrived - review by Friday or Monday!

[heb]

From what I have read dont eink based displays degrade slightly over time. The Sony unit is unlikely to be fresh out of the box like the Cybook unit.

I agree that the casing on the Cybook looks a bit cheap!

[delphidb96]

Considering I put "The Last Suppers" (Diane Mott Davidson) through Book Designer and "Deception Point" (the sample) *came* with the Cybook as well as taking note that I've not yet had a chance to move "The Last Suppers" over to a PRC file, sure. In about a day.

And to all the others - especially the 'lighting' quibblers, you know who you are - I took this as an on-the-fly snapshot. Give me time to get my lamps and light-tent set up and I'll get you better images. I'll also try to get the same text up. One of the big problems with doing so is I've got to find the right font - remember that the Cybook comes with several fonts embedded as well as allows the user to on-the-fly choose between *NINE* different font display sizes for each of the selected fonts. Take *THAT* Sony!

Oy! You'd think people would be grateful that I bothered to snap an image 10 minutes after receiving the damned box!

Derek

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Any chance of seeing the same page in the same book with the same formatting?

[delphidb96]

Heb,

The *SONY* is exactly ONE MONTH OLD as of tomorrow!!! If that's 'slightly-degraded' then it will be worthless in a year!

IOW, no, the Sony display *WAS* that dull of contrast, *IS* that dull of contrast and probably *WILL BE* that dull of contrast compared to the Cybook. Further, the Sony's text does *not* appear as crisp to my eye.

However, the next generation PRS should - I would presume - have the same visplex display as the Cybook. So that shouldn't matter.

But enough already.

Let me have some time to review it. Also understand that I'm working with a 0.91 version of the application software and I'm still waiting for a few features to be implemented. These will be done over the next few weeks, if I understand correctly. I'll let you know more.

Derek

Originally Posted by heb

From what I have read dont eink based displays degrade slightly over time. The Sony unit is unlikely to be fresh out of the box like the Cybook unit.

I agree that the casing on the Cybook looks a bit cheap!

[delphidb96]

Where are you getting the $70 less figure? And "quite bad"??? That's a highly subjective statement without any discussion to back it up.

I'll admit that I'm not a big fan of glossy cases, and I'll even go so far as to say that having gotten used to Sony's way of handling navigation and all, the Cybook's controls and layout took about an hour to really get comfortable with. As for fragile... perhaps what you deem fragile arises because it's noticeably lighter than the PRS-500.

I've noticed already that it is easier, once I got used to using it, to use the 'compass' jogwheel on the lower right front to move between pages than those itty-bitty page-forward/page-backward buttons. And, no, I haven't yet hacked my Sony to do forward/backward using the jogwheel as I wanted a 'stock' Sony to compare my Cybook to.

Derek

Originally Posted by guguy

The cybook looks quite bad and seems to be very fragile... considering
the PRS-505 is 70$ less it is really expensive for a Chinese reader...

[guguy]

Where are you getting the $70 less figure? And "quite bad"??? That's a highly subjective statement without any discussion to back it up.

The Sony PRS-500 (and 505) officially costs 280$ whereas the Gen3
costs 350$. Once more currently the Sony Reader comes with 100 ebooks
classic titles and is often discounted.

I said the cybook looks quite bad because well... seeing these two readers
side by side, the Gen3 looks like a cheap device compared to the Sony.

Once more since the PRS-505 is gonna be cheaper than the Gen3, I think
this will be the last device sold by bookeen...

It's really a shame they sell it at such a price, the chinese producer probably
asks around 150$ to Bookeen for each gen3.

I don't mind paying 350 bucks for a reader but I want something with a nice
design and good materials. The gen3 seems to be built with cheap plastics,
just like any other chinese crap.

Anyway, delphidb96 I really appreciate all the work you are doing for us
and don't take these complains for you.

[guguy]

By the way, there is something everybody wanna know and you can
easily check : does the gen3 have a suspended mode ?

Thx

[cosmo1001]

Originally Posted by guguy

I said the cybook looks quite bad because well... seeing these two readers
side by side, the Gen3 looks like a cheap device compared to the Sony.

Just a thought, guguy....could it be that the Gen3 looks cheap to you because it is rather minimalist in design? I agree that it doesn't seem to have a lot of bells and whistles to it, but if the technology is good....and to me the screen appears to have better contrast than the Sony...then that doesn't mean to me that it is cheap.

But after all, maybe cheapness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder....personally, I'm more of a minimalist and I quite like the look of the Gen3.

[Ravenflight]

I have several all plastic ipods and never felt they looked cheap. In fact when they replaced the white and black all plastic nano's with the annodized aluminum nanos in 5 colors i thought the originals plastic ones looked and felt better! That being said I really like the gun blued finish of the prs-500, though I think sony's scroll wheel looks cheap- the Bookeens (and the prs-505's) looks better. Plastic can look really good if it feels solid, doesnt have gaps or ridges where pieces fit together and has that silky feeling that Apple probably has a patent on.

I know I'm going to come off as a quibler, but I'd still like to know how white the screen is. When I compare my sony to your picture the screen on my Sony looks more like the color in the picture of the Bookeen- I call it newspaper white. I'm hoping this is just the light or color calibration of the camera.

[guguy]

and to me the screen appears to have better contrast than the Sony...

But the PRS-505 is gonna have a Vizplex screen too.

Anyway, I think you are right and I should wait a real review before saying
anything

[delphidb96]

Funny. I've been hearing 'official' pricing of $299 for the Sony PRS-505. Although I'll grant the $279 for the PRS-500 as that's what they're listing on sony's website.

So that means only $50, at worst, difference for the PRS-505. And, geez, like the 100 'classic' titles means anything. C'mon. Just run the entire Project Gutenberg titles through BD into Mobi format and you've got what, 10,000 titles! All classics. Plus, if you insist upon reading current works, Mobipocket has far more titles available - albeit DRM'd - than Sony does.

I think maybe you're calling 'cheap' what is just 'shiny' vs 'matte'. Now I don't really like the exposed SD card slot on the top edge - but then the covered MS/SD slot on the Sony was difficult and easy to jam a card in wrong.

Derek

Originally Posted by guguy

The Sony PRS-500 (and 505) officially costs 280$ whereas the Gen3
costs 350$. Once more currently the Sony Reader comes with 100 ebooks
classic titles and is often discounted.

I said the cybook looks quite bad because well... seeing these two readers
side by side, the Gen3 looks like a cheap device compared to the Sony.

Once more since the PRS-505 is gonna be cheaper than the Gen3, I think
this will be the last device sold by bookeen...

It's really a shame they sell it at such a price, the chinese producer probably
asks around 150$ to Bookeen for each gen3.

I don't mind paying 350 bucks for a reader but I want something with a nice
design and good materials. The gen3 seems to be built with cheap plastics,
just like any other chinese crap.

Anyway, delphidb96 I really appreciate all the work you are doing for us
and don't take these complains for you.

[Ravenflight]

Originally Posted by guguy

But the PRS-505 is gonna have a Vizplex screen too.

This is true, but the elegant look of the 500 is completely missing in the 505. The right side is wider than the left, the bottom looks bigger and the missing page keys on the left all make it look visually unbalanced. I'd be a lot happier with it if they had just left all the buttons where they were and just replace the scroll wheel and make the page buttons larger. Visually the Cybook looks more appealing, however I worry that navigation around the menus won't be as fast and easy without the number keys. Need more details on the UI.

[leandroide]

Are there four buttons on the left side of the cybook?

L.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Ravenflight

This is true, but the elegant look of the 500 is completely missing in the 505.

Oh, but I like the look of 505 so much....

[IceHand]

I like the fact that the Cybook doesn't have a status bar like the Sony does, that means more screen real estate -- but then again how do I know how much battery is left?

[ricdiogo]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

And, geez, like the 100 'classic' titles means anything. C'mon. Just run the entire Project Gutenberg titles through BD into Mobi format and you've got what, 10,000 titles!

Actually 22,620 as of today.