PRS-600 PRS-600 Review

[jessie102]

Just received my PRS-600 from B&H Photo.


Note on Shipping to Canada:

The package came through the UPS's Worldwide SAVER service today.

For those that are complementing on a purchase from US to Canada, take note that UPS's Worldwide Saver method will waiver the exorbitant brokerage fees that are normally charged upon COD at the door. I highly recommend this method over a cheaper option as the cheap one that doesn't waiver the brokerage will end up costing more in total .

Thoughts:

As an user upgrading from PRS-505, much of my perspective on the PRS-600 will be made in comparison to the PRS-505.

Packaging:
The first time I saw the outer packaging design, I thought it looked bland compared to the PRS-505. Gone is the colorful photo of the reader itself, as is the glossy paper it's printed on. Instead you have a solid white and black colors on the package with some text regarding the contents. It looks like Sony was going for a more formal elegant packaging look this time.

Contents:
Inside are some manuals that will surely remain untouched as usual. A USB cable that will also encounter the same fate. Basically, the only thing inside that matters will be the Reader and for some, the black sleeve. Sony's not exactly big on extras. Lately, seems to be getting worse, with the exclusion of the more useful leather book-style cover, previously included with the PRS-505. It's replaced by a cheaper black sleeve as mentioned before. To be fair, the PRS-505 was sold at about $30 more than the PRS-600 upon release, so I guess it's a fair compromise?

Reader:

Hardware:
As everyone probably knows, the PRS-600 comes in 3 colors, black, silver, red. The version of PRS-600 I ordered is red. I always thought was silver PRS-505 looked too tech-geeky. Black looked to common. So I hesitantly ordered the red in fear that the shade of red would be too light looking too childish. However, to my surprise the actual unit has a perfect shade of dark red, making it look quite classy. Partly thanks to less buttons, PRS-600s looks are far more streamlined and sleek.

While both the PRS505 and PRS600 feel weighty due to the metal chassis, Sony added a layer of soft touch on the back side of the PRS600. So on the plus side, while the PRS-600 will be more grip friendly, the PRS600 will be more vulnerable to visible wear of the soft touch layer. I'd suggest getting a Invisible Shield or at least a book style sleeve if you want it to remain looking the same the day you bought it.

As the PRS-600 has a touch screen, it comes will a metal stylus. I haven't used it much as I still have a Palm III metal stylus handy. Those of you who like heavy stylus will be disappointed to know that the PRS-600 stylus is much lighter than the Palm III metal stylus that's half it's length. I don't find it a big deal, just interesting to note. A couple of my friends have commented on how heavy the PRS feels already, so keeping the weight down is a good thing.

The resistive touch screen itself is incredibly sensitive. More so than most of the Phones, PDAs I have had in the past. This should mitigate wear on the touch screen since the user can apply less pressure.

The e-ink screen, laying underneath the touch screen is certainly a bit blurred out, slightly reflective and darkened compared to the PRS-505 thanks to the optical light absorption of the touch screen above. For a device of $300 MSRP, Sony should have implemented a capacitive touch screen instead, since those can be installed underneath the e-ink screen, thus avoiding this problem. That said, the text is still very readable. Certainly not a deal breaker for most, especially those that need features available only on the PRS600

Operation:

On to the operation of the device. I've only had the device for a few hours so simply tried out a few of the things I purposely bought the PRS600 for that the PRS505 couldn't do. I'll briefly note that the touch screen interface is more intuitive than the PRS-505. I've seen many people getting confused on figuring out what buttons to press on the PRS505. On on the PRS-600, Monkey see, Monkey touch.

I tried out a few science magazines in PDF format. Full with text and graphics. Certainly there is a considerable improvement in speed. With the PRS-505, you'd often wonder if it's frozen. This is no longer the case with the PRS 600. More importantly, the PRS-505 lacked a zoom and working reflow feature despite the second firmware update. While the PRS600 has the same mediocre reflow feature, it has the zoom feature to get around it. On multi-columned text/graphic pages, I don't have to worry about faulty reflow. I can just zoom in and pan around, essentially reading the magazine in it's intended layout formatting.

I'm not really sure why reflow doesn't work on the PRS600 as well as it does on my PC's Acrobat. Most of the time, the Size settings changes nothing, or everything gets messed up beyond readability. So if anyone knows why, please post.

Another function I purchased PRS600 for is the word search. Yes, the PRS600 being a E-book reader can now finally search words. It certainly makes me wonder why it took Sony 3 generations to implement a feature that is so natural to any given electronic environment, hence the "E" in ebook. Up til now, Sony's e-book reader are nothing more than a digital bookshelf of books. No search, no dictionary (PRS600 includes a dictionary).

The new touch screen hardware opens the Reader to new applications like Note taking, both inside and outside of the ebook. This can be quite useful for marking down article or grammar correction. You can also make notes by itself. While I'm not sure if Sony's Reader Library provides a way to sync these notes to the PC, there is a 3rd party application for it. So basically this feature does what its supposed to do, making great usage of the touch screen hardware.

Features missed:

A gripe I have with the PRS600 is that lack of a orientation flip hard button command. You can change the PRS505's orientation without going to any menus by simply holding the Magnify button, this is no longer the case with PRS600.

Also on the list of features lost from PRS505 is that ability to go "step back one" that could be done on the PRS505 with the press of the Menu button. The Home button on the PRS600 takes you to the Home page and the Table of Contents takes you to the first page of the TOC. There is no way to go back one step, to the same level of a mult-level TOC you were before you entered an article.

Last note is the system partition setup on the PRS600 is reportedly more dangerous for firmware hacks. Since the PRS600 has only one system partition, instead of partition separation between system and less essential software like with the PRS505, flashing hacks that fail may render a total unrecoverable brickage on the PRS600 that would have otherwise been recoverable on the PRS505.

Overall:

If there are features you need on the PRS600 over the PRS 505 like the note taking, search, zoom, dictionary or more intuitive interface. The screen contrast is no deal breaker especially if you need any of the features on the PRS600. If you are happy with the PRS505, something to consider is the Boox, it looks great and does WiFi websurfing. So then you won't have to RSS sync with Calibre anymore. You'll have live access to all your news sources direct from the websites. But if you don't have an ebook reader now or need some extra features now, I would recommend getting the PRS-600.

[drmaxx]

Nice and comprehensive review!

[m-reader]

This is a very honest and informative review.
I ordered a PRS-900 from B&H Photo the other day myself. I thoroughly recommend the UPS worldwide saver service as well. I am having it delivered to Saudi Arabia, and it's costing me only $62.40. Normally I would have to get it delivered to my mail forwarding address in NY and then pay them an extra fee to ship it over here.

[Mike_73]

The back of the unit actually sounds like its plastic if you tap it with your finger nail. I got 2 scratches on the backside after a couple of days wich really p..... me.
Scion from the forum recommended putting some rubber bumps on the back of the unit if you plan to use the reader without a cover. I did this until I bought a cover. The protective sheets for screens, like stated in the review, seems like a good alternative. I didn't think of that yet (hmm. it was meant to protect screens, lol, so I never thought of putting it on the back).

[jessie102]

glad the review was enjoyable. Hope it helped someone.

@Mike_73:
there actually are chassis protective skins designed for the PRS600:
http://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/...ns-shields.php

[SCION]

Originally Posted by jessie102

glad the review was enjoyable. Hope it helped someone.

@Mike_73:
there actually are chassis protective skins designed for the PRS600:
http://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/...ns-shields.php

Wow!!! I saved the link for others.

[tvuongpham]

I opted not to get the Zagg.
i got the Wrapsol.com
1. it includes the screen cover.. optically clear and doesn't interfere with the touch function
2. discount code -25% and free shipping.

I have used zagg and bestskinsever.com for many other electronic devices.


The wrapsol does a good job. I didn't apply the spine cover included.
I use the caselogic case.. works GREAT
no light so still looking for a better light than the 99 cent store selection! but that works in a pinch. And for 99 cents .. not a bad option !


*CASE LOGIC zipper case..
get it if you don't have it.. it is great! I can leave the reader inside and fold it over and still read very comfortably -- clip a light on it too..
Form fitting.. micro suede inside.. good build quality!


(I don't have any affiliation to any of the above sites/ manufactures..)
Regards,
TvP

[Beanski]

"Also on the list of features lost from PRS505 is that ability to go "step back one" that could be done on the PRS505 with the press of the Menu button. The Home button on the PRS600 takes you to the Home page and the Table of Contents takes you to the first page of the TOC. There is no way to go back one step, to the same level of a mult-level TOC you were before you entered an article."

(sorry I can't work out how to quote!)

If you look at the top left hand corner of the TOC screen you'll see a square with a pointy back arrow on it. That's the back button. Not intuitive, not documented, but there!! (and in other places too)

Good review BTW