Comments on: Hands on with Sony's new PRS-700 digital reader

Sony announced the PRS-700, a new digital reader that features a touch-screen display and built-in light. It will go on sale in November for $400.

[rs11gps]

I've had the PRS-700 for over two months. I would give a Strong recommendation NOT to buy it.

First: It is SLOW. You will wait irritatingly long periods for pages to load & format, for text resizing, to open or close files, etc. I just finished waiting nearly two minutes for the PS-700 just to shut down!

Second: You cannot navigate through any file, other than to page down & up... one page at a time. There is NO jump-to capability. If you are reading and want ot jump three chapters ahead: forget it. You want to go back to page 12? Forget it. Coupled with the PRS-700 slow processing, it is a killer trying to get around in a document!

Third: The reading contrast is almost unuseable. Sony tried something new: a touch-screen. Nice idea... BUT the extra layer reduces the contrast to eye-straining dimness. You need bright exterior light to read more than a couple of pages... which brings me to:

Fourth: the screen has unacceptable glare. No special coating, and you DO need the bright light to read with.

Fifth: It has Side-lighting for auxillary light. These leds are arranged along the side of the screen, and provide uneven lighting. Also, use them and watch your battery drain before your eyes.

Finally, it is Expensive. At $400 I could have bought a small laptop, and been much happier with the reading performance, AND it could perform other tasks.

Recommendation: Don't buy this eBkook reader. I is not just a matter of neededing a few tweaks. Sonty needs to get serious about developing a reader or give it up. (although some of these comments apply to all current readers).

It needs: a quantum leap in performance... more akin to that already available in even the most basic laptop;
it needs a MUCH brighter screen, and what about color? We left monochrome behind decades ago;
it needs a working reset... if this one chokes, you'll drain the battery trying to get it to shut off!;
it needs good backlighting, like that available for decades on notebooks;
it needs an anti-glare coating;
dump the tough-screen, the 'coolness' isn't worth a dime if you can't read it.
It should cost less than $100. At least the buyer won't feel as embarassed that he was taken.

[readcnet]

I have a PRS 505 and like it. It cost $269.00 at Target and I got lots of free "Classics" with it.
Its simple to load all the formats that I generally use-- MSWord, Adobe, etc. (Sometimes, formatting is lost on tables in Word). I find it easy to read from and the battery life is incredible. The build is sturdy and attractive-- metal, not plastic. It will take two memory sticks-- SD and ProDuo. It's also small-- 6 3/4'' x 4 3/4" x 5/15" -- which means that i can carry it in a large jacket pocket. The screen refresh rate is slow, but tolerable. An added benefit is that it will play mp3 files. I can see the advantages offered by the PRS 700 with its ability to make page notes, etc. But for a basic reader that is sturdy, and for the most part, user friendly-- It took a while to figure out Sony's web, install the program on my laptop, and download the free books-- I am very happy with it. My main complaint is that Sony's software is not Apple-compatible. Although, I understand that you can upload files from an Apple computer onto the reader without trouble. I haven't tried that yet.