Today we are going to have a look at the lesser known of the new crop of ebook readers that have hit the market in the last year or two. I have had the chance to use the Sony PRS-505 for almost two and a half months now, and its time I post my impressions of the device.
The PRS-505
Sony was among the first companies to enter the ebook market (before the Kindle) with the PRS-500. The PRS-505 is an enhanced version of the 500 with an improved screen (same as the kindle-2) and better memory and some software improvements. In some ways, it makes much more sense for someone outside the US to purchase one of these over the kindle, the reasons for which I will come to towards the end of this review.
Howz that for compact size?
The PRS-505 is a very compact and slick looking device, with a book-like cover allowing it to be placed among normal books of the paper variety. The difference of course is that it can contain the whole shelf of books (and more) in a pretty thin package.
[BREAK=Specs, Storage and Format Support]
The Specs for the PRS-505, as taken from the Sony website (here):
Weights and Measurements
* Dimensions (Approx.) : 6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3".6 (175 x 122 x 8mm)
* Weight (Approx.) : 9oz. without soft cover
Hard Drive
* Capacity : 256MB available
* Storage Options: SD card slot, Memory Stick slot
Transfers
* USB Port : USB 1.1 or faster USB Port (Optimal with USB 2.0)
Power
* AC Power : Optional AC Charger
* Battery Life (Approx) : Up to 7,500 page turns
* Battery Type : Rechargeable Lithium-Ion
* Recharging Time : Approx. 4 Hours with USB charging from powered Computer or Approx. 2 Hours when using optional AC wall charger
Media Formats Supported
* DRM Text : BBeB Book (Marlin)
* Image : JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP
* Unsecured Audio : MP3 and AAC
* Unsecured Text : ePub, BBeB Book, TXT, RTF, Adobe Digital Editions (DRM), Adobe® PDF10, Microsoft® Word (Conversion to the Reader-requires Word installed on your PC)
Display
* Gray Scale : 8-Level Grey Scale
* Resolution : Approx. 170 Pixels Per Inch
* Screen Size : Approx. 6" Measured Diagonally
* Technology : E Ink® "Electronic Paper"
Service and Warranty Information
* Limited Warranty Term : Labor- 90 days from the date of purchase Parts- 1 Year from the date of purchase. See actual warranty for details.
Accessories Supplied
* Tan Soft Case
* USB Cable
* Quick Start Guide
* CD-ROM
Note:
1. The PRS-505 is probably the first Sony device to try to conform to some widely accepte standards. It features an SD card slot in addition to the proprietary Memory Stick Slot. Both of them can be used at once, if required, supplying a disproportionately high amount of memory, which isn't really required.
2. The charging/data transfer is enabled through a standard mini-USB port as well, no weird custom port.
3. The AC adapter is a standard PSP charger, which should be widely available most places.
4. Format support on the PRS-505 is extensive, allowing support for ePub, BBeB (DRM books as well as Sony's own lrf format), Adobe Digital Editions, TXT, RTF, Adobe PDF with re-flow, Word support (requires Office present for proper conversion to compatible format. In addition, there are some excellent free program available to convert many formats to compatible e-Books. ePub is also gaining significant traction as the format of choice for the ebook market.
This marks a welcome change coming from a company usually criticized for trying to impose its own standards on the market.
[BREAK=Appearance]
In case you missed it the first time...
The PRS-505 is a very sleek device. The body is metal, which gives it a very solid and well-built feel. The default cover provided with the device also feels pretty good though its probably a good idea to buy a proper case to protect your investment. Note that E-Ink screens have a glass back so really rough use is not recommended.My reader has survived a few falls, though people have had cracked screens too if dropped from a height.
Top Photo
The top of the device contains the power switch as well as both the SD and the Memory Stick card slots. Both the slots come with dummy plastic cards in them to keep out dust etc when they re not being used. Also present is an LED to indicate charging progress.
Switching the device on/off is a breeze. The device has a standby mode which is the default mode and switches on in less than a second. Battery life is not affected much by this as well, unless you leave it lying around for 2-3 weeks. There is also a proper shutdown from the menu in case you will not be using it for a while and want to save battery life.
The Front
The screen is a 6" screen from 'EInk'. At first glance, most people mistake it for a touchscreen device. The screen has improves contrast levels as compared to its predecessor, the PRS-500.
Most controls are present on the face of the device. Menu navigation is possible using the D-pad or by using the buttons present beside each option on the screen. The device features a menu button to move to a higher menu, a bookmark button, and a button to increase font size. 3 font sizes are supported. These can either be default values or can be customized when creating the e-book on the PC before transferring it to the reader.
Keeping both left and right handed people in mind, the device features two different sets of buttons for turning pages. The ones for left handers are a bit hard to press, though they might become softer with use and I mostly use the other pair anyway.
The Ports
The bottom contains a volume rocker, headphone jack, PSP/AC adapter jack, mini-USB port as well as a slot for a wrist strap.
Back
The back is plain, just featuring some device info and a reset button.
[BREAK=Screen/Reading Experience]
Font Sizes
For those used to reading on LCD screens, the EInk screen is a completely different experience. Contrast on the device is good and its possible to use the smallest font while reading books without any issues. The absence of a backlight eliminates any eye-strain which is an inherent problem while reading text from an LCD screen for any length of time.
Both portrait and landscape modes are available. Landscape is especially useful for PDFs which may otherwise be a bit difficult to read.
Much has been written about the refresh rates of e-Paper screens. While you can actually feel a pause while the screen refreshes itself, the lag is very little and is not a noticeable distraction from the reading experience.
While most books are automatically formatted and appear OK on the screen, PDFs with images can have some formatting issues. Adobe re-flow works well to split the page but most such documents are inherently designed to be displayed on larger sheets (A4 and the like). In case you do NOT want to reformat such books to a different format before transferring it to the PRS-505, your mileage may vary. Help is at hand though. There are many free tools available online and a very active community providing suggestions and support on such issues over at the mobileread forums as well.
The best part is that images inside books are supported by most of the formats and can also be displayed by the reader (in black and white of course).
[BREAK=The Software]
The OS on the Sony takes some time to start depending on the books present on the device and has a few quirks but works well overall. The internal memory of the device (256 Mb) as well as both memory cards are displayed as removable storage once connected to a PC. While 256 Mb may appear small, so long as you don't intend to carry along a ton of songs or something, its actually a large number. I have filled it with up to 200 good sized books without hitting the memory limits. One complaint is that while books can be transferred by simple drag drop operations in explorer, the Sony does not support folder based navigation.
Books are instead arranged by name, author, collections etc based on the metadata which can be edited a required using a suitable ebook library management program. The OS seems stable and I haven't had it crash or hang on me, yet.
Sony provides its Connect software to transfer books to the device. However, like most of Sony's software, the interface is a bit clunky. The good news is that you only need to use the software if you want to transfer a DRM book bought from the Sony Connect book store. The store has a decent collection of titles though it does NOT rival Amazon in size. The good part is that eBooks purchased from other stores in a number of formats are compatible and can be read on the device as well.
Other utilities are available online for library management. The one I use most is called Calibre (calibre). It is a library management as well as a cool conversion program for the Reader and supports a number of formats as well. The best part is that its under constant development and features regular updates from the developer. Calibre takes care of syncing books as well as converting them to the proper format for reading on the device.
[BREAK=PDF Rendering/Landscape Mode]
Normal text pdfs look well without any issues. Even pdfs with 2 columns etc can be rendered without issues so long as the formatting in the original pdf has all correct paragraph breaks etc and is not messed up.
Something that looks like this:
can look like this in medium size:
or like this at largest font size:
This is the magic of Adobe pdf reflow. I believe only the Sony reader has the capability to render native pdfs like this.
More complex pdfs like this:
are sometimes stupidly formatted with pages actually being images/embedded images/ improper formatting etc.
These do not look good with reflow, but look much better in landscape mode:
Of course, there are lots of programs out there to convert such pdfs to better looking ones in other book formats.
PS: Sorry for the redacted text in the above pdf, but it was a really good sample and I took some good pics before realizing it was a document not meant for public circulation.
[BREAK=Music/Photos]
Music and full size album art
As mentioned earlier, MP3 and AAC formats are supported. Though there is no in-built speaker, the device features a 3.5mm headphone jack for listening to music. The music support is basic (no playlists), but you do get full screen album art as well as the ability to listen to music while reading a book.
Grayscale Pictures
Though a couple of photo formats are supported, grayscale photos are never going to be a favorite feature of this device. Some of them do look cool though.
[BREAK=Vs the Kindle/Other Sony offerings]
The biggest kid on the block today is Amazon with the Kindle 2. Even though Sony was first to market, Amazon did much better execution and is on top of the market right now.
The Sony and the Kindle-2 share the exact same screen from the same company so there is no difference there. The Sony also has better format support and drag-drop is always welcome. Its hard to say, but Sony has the more 'open' device here as compared to the kindle.
Outside the US, the kindle's killer feature: Whispernet wireless transfer, is useless, which brings it to almost the same level as the Sony in terms of features. Where the Sony wins is on price, costing almost 100$ cheaper. I would suggest the Sony to anyone looking for a reader outside of the US. Inside the US, it comes down to what features/compatibility you really need.
For a more thorough comparison, read this excellent blog post.
Sony did launch a newer reader, the PRS-700 a while back, but while this adds touch screen support and a reading light, the touch-screen compromises on the contrast of the screen, reducing the main feature of the device itself. Its also priced a tad higher, equal to the Kindle.
[BREAK=Battery Life / Conclusions]
Battery Life:
Sony claims a battery life measured in terms of 7500 page turns from the internal Li-Polymer battery, since the EInk screen only uses power while refreshing the screen. While 7500 sounds like a lot, battery life is reduced somewhat if kept in standby mode. Nevertheless, the device only needs to be charged once a week or in even longer periods depending on usage.
Music playback isn't really recommended since it drains the battery at a faster rate. The bottom of the screen features a battery indicator which shows the remaining capacity of the battery.
Conclusion:
All in all, the PRS-505 is an excellent device. Its available for 270$ from Amazon though occasional sales are possible with various retailers to drop the price to around 250$. I also went for an eCaddy BookArmor case for the reader since it seemed to be a worthwhile investment. The case is good and protects the reader well.
Its an excellent device if you like new gadgets and are into reading lots of books. For casual readers, the cost probably does not make sense and you should wait for cheaper readers as prices are bound to drop as ePaper technology matures.
For me, its an excellent device giving me the ability to carry volumes of books in a small compact device and to read it whenever and wherever I like.
The PRS-505
Sony was among the first companies to enter the ebook market (before the Kindle) with the PRS-500. The PRS-505 is an enhanced version of the 500 with an improved screen (same as the kindle-2) and better memory and some software improvements. In some ways, it makes much more sense for someone outside the US to purchase one of these over the kindle, the reasons for which I will come to towards the end of this review.
Howz that for compact size?
The PRS-505 is a very compact and slick looking device, with a book-like cover allowing it to be placed among normal books of the paper variety. The difference of course is that it can contain the whole shelf of books (and more) in a pretty thin package.
[BREAK=Specs, Storage and Format Support]
The Specs for the PRS-505, as taken from the Sony website (here):
Weights and Measurements
* Dimensions (Approx.) : 6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3".6 (175 x 122 x 8mm)
* Weight (Approx.) : 9oz. without soft cover
Hard Drive
* Capacity : 256MB available
* Storage Options: SD card slot, Memory Stick slot
Transfers
* USB Port : USB 1.1 or faster USB Port (Optimal with USB 2.0)
Power
* AC Power : Optional AC Charger
* Battery Life (Approx) : Up to 7,500 page turns
* Battery Type : Rechargeable Lithium-Ion
* Recharging Time : Approx. 4 Hours with USB charging from powered Computer or Approx. 2 Hours when using optional AC wall charger
Media Formats Supported
* DRM Text : BBeB Book (Marlin)
* Image : JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP
* Unsecured Audio : MP3 and AAC
* Unsecured Text : ePub, BBeB Book, TXT, RTF, Adobe Digital Editions (DRM), Adobe® PDF10, Microsoft® Word (Conversion to the Reader-requires Word installed on your PC)
Display
* Gray Scale : 8-Level Grey Scale
* Resolution : Approx. 170 Pixels Per Inch
* Screen Size : Approx. 6" Measured Diagonally
* Technology : E Ink® "Electronic Paper"
Service and Warranty Information
* Limited Warranty Term : Labor- 90 days from the date of purchase Parts- 1 Year from the date of purchase. See actual warranty for details.
Accessories Supplied
* Tan Soft Case
* USB Cable
* Quick Start Guide
* CD-ROM
Note:
1. The PRS-505 is probably the first Sony device to try to conform to some widely accepte standards. It features an SD card slot in addition to the proprietary Memory Stick Slot. Both of them can be used at once, if required, supplying a disproportionately high amount of memory, which isn't really required.
2. The charging/data transfer is enabled through a standard mini-USB port as well, no weird custom port.
3. The AC adapter is a standard PSP charger, which should be widely available most places.
4. Format support on the PRS-505 is extensive, allowing support for ePub, BBeB (DRM books as well as Sony's own lrf format), Adobe Digital Editions, TXT, RTF, Adobe PDF with re-flow, Word support (requires Office present for proper conversion to compatible format. In addition, there are some excellent free program available to convert many formats to compatible e-Books. ePub is also gaining significant traction as the format of choice for the ebook market.
This marks a welcome change coming from a company usually criticized for trying to impose its own standards on the market.
[BREAK=Appearance]
In case you missed it the first time...
The PRS-505 is a very sleek device. The body is metal, which gives it a very solid and well-built feel. The default cover provided with the device also feels pretty good though its probably a good idea to buy a proper case to protect your investment. Note that E-Ink screens have a glass back so really rough use is not recommended.My reader has survived a few falls, though people have had cracked screens too if dropped from a height.
Top Photo
The top of the device contains the power switch as well as both the SD and the Memory Stick card slots. Both the slots come with dummy plastic cards in them to keep out dust etc when they re not being used. Also present is an LED to indicate charging progress.
Switching the device on/off is a breeze. The device has a standby mode which is the default mode and switches on in less than a second. Battery life is not affected much by this as well, unless you leave it lying around for 2-3 weeks. There is also a proper shutdown from the menu in case you will not be using it for a while and want to save battery life.
The Front
The screen is a 6" screen from 'EInk'. At first glance, most people mistake it for a touchscreen device. The screen has improves contrast levels as compared to its predecessor, the PRS-500.
Most controls are present on the face of the device. Menu navigation is possible using the D-pad or by using the buttons present beside each option on the screen. The device features a menu button to move to a higher menu, a bookmark button, and a button to increase font size. 3 font sizes are supported. These can either be default values or can be customized when creating the e-book on the PC before transferring it to the reader.
Keeping both left and right handed people in mind, the device features two different sets of buttons for turning pages. The ones for left handers are a bit hard to press, though they might become softer with use and I mostly use the other pair anyway.
The Ports
The bottom contains a volume rocker, headphone jack, PSP/AC adapter jack, mini-USB port as well as a slot for a wrist strap.
Back
The back is plain, just featuring some device info and a reset button.
[BREAK=Screen/Reading Experience]
Font Sizes
For those used to reading on LCD screens, the EInk screen is a completely different experience. Contrast on the device is good and its possible to use the smallest font while reading books without any issues. The absence of a backlight eliminates any eye-strain which is an inherent problem while reading text from an LCD screen for any length of time.
Both portrait and landscape modes are available. Landscape is especially useful for PDFs which may otherwise be a bit difficult to read.
Much has been written about the refresh rates of e-Paper screens. While you can actually feel a pause while the screen refreshes itself, the lag is very little and is not a noticeable distraction from the reading experience.
While most books are automatically formatted and appear OK on the screen, PDFs with images can have some formatting issues. Adobe re-flow works well to split the page but most such documents are inherently designed to be displayed on larger sheets (A4 and the like). In case you do NOT want to reformat such books to a different format before transferring it to the PRS-505, your mileage may vary. Help is at hand though. There are many free tools available online and a very active community providing suggestions and support on such issues over at the mobileread forums as well.
The best part is that images inside books are supported by most of the formats and can also be displayed by the reader (in black and white of course).
[BREAK=The Software]
The OS on the Sony takes some time to start depending on the books present on the device and has a few quirks but works well overall. The internal memory of the device (256 Mb) as well as both memory cards are displayed as removable storage once connected to a PC. While 256 Mb may appear small, so long as you don't intend to carry along a ton of songs or something, its actually a large number. I have filled it with up to 200 good sized books without hitting the memory limits. One complaint is that while books can be transferred by simple drag drop operations in explorer, the Sony does not support folder based navigation.
Books are instead arranged by name, author, collections etc based on the metadata which can be edited a required using a suitable ebook library management program. The OS seems stable and I haven't had it crash or hang on me, yet.
Sony provides its Connect software to transfer books to the device. However, like most of Sony's software, the interface is a bit clunky. The good news is that you only need to use the software if you want to transfer a DRM book bought from the Sony Connect book store. The store has a decent collection of titles though it does NOT rival Amazon in size. The good part is that eBooks purchased from other stores in a number of formats are compatible and can be read on the device as well.
Other utilities are available online for library management. The one I use most is called Calibre (calibre). It is a library management as well as a cool conversion program for the Reader and supports a number of formats as well. The best part is that its under constant development and features regular updates from the developer. Calibre takes care of syncing books as well as converting them to the proper format for reading on the device.
[BREAK=PDF Rendering/Landscape Mode]
Normal text pdfs look well without any issues. Even pdfs with 2 columns etc can be rendered without issues so long as the formatting in the original pdf has all correct paragraph breaks etc and is not messed up.
Something that looks like this:
can look like this in medium size:
or like this at largest font size:
This is the magic of Adobe pdf reflow. I believe only the Sony reader has the capability to render native pdfs like this.
More complex pdfs like this:
are sometimes stupidly formatted with pages actually being images/embedded images/ improper formatting etc.
These do not look good with reflow, but look much better in landscape mode:
Of course, there are lots of programs out there to convert such pdfs to better looking ones in other book formats.
PS: Sorry for the redacted text in the above pdf, but it was a really good sample and I took some good pics before realizing it was a document not meant for public circulation.
[BREAK=Music/Photos]
Music and full size album art
As mentioned earlier, MP3 and AAC formats are supported. Though there is no in-built speaker, the device features a 3.5mm headphone jack for listening to music. The music support is basic (no playlists), but you do get full screen album art as well as the ability to listen to music while reading a book.
Grayscale Pictures
Though a couple of photo formats are supported, grayscale photos are never going to be a favorite feature of this device. Some of them do look cool though.
[BREAK=Vs the Kindle/Other Sony offerings]
The biggest kid on the block today is Amazon with the Kindle 2. Even though Sony was first to market, Amazon did much better execution and is on top of the market right now.
The Sony and the Kindle-2 share the exact same screen from the same company so there is no difference there. The Sony also has better format support and drag-drop is always welcome. Its hard to say, but Sony has the more 'open' device here as compared to the kindle.
Outside the US, the kindle's killer feature: Whispernet wireless transfer, is useless, which brings it to almost the same level as the Sony in terms of features. Where the Sony wins is on price, costing almost 100$ cheaper. I would suggest the Sony to anyone looking for a reader outside of the US. Inside the US, it comes down to what features/compatibility you really need.
For a more thorough comparison, read this excellent blog post.
Sony did launch a newer reader, the PRS-700 a while back, but while this adds touch screen support and a reading light, the touch-screen compromises on the contrast of the screen, reducing the main feature of the device itself. Its also priced a tad higher, equal to the Kindle.
[BREAK=Battery Life / Conclusions]
Battery Life:
Sony claims a battery life measured in terms of 7500 page turns from the internal Li-Polymer battery, since the EInk screen only uses power while refreshing the screen. While 7500 sounds like a lot, battery life is reduced somewhat if kept in standby mode. Nevertheless, the device only needs to be charged once a week or in even longer periods depending on usage.
Music playback isn't really recommended since it drains the battery at a faster rate. The bottom of the screen features a battery indicator which shows the remaining capacity of the battery.
Conclusion:
All in all, the PRS-505 is an excellent device. Its available for 270$ from Amazon though occasional sales are possible with various retailers to drop the price to around 250$. I also went for an eCaddy BookArmor case for the reader since it seemed to be a worthwhile investment. The case is good and protects the reader well.
Its an excellent device if you like new gadgets and are into reading lots of books. For casual readers, the cost probably does not make sense and you should wait for cheaper readers as prices are bound to drop as ePaper technology matures.
For me, its an excellent device giving me the ability to carry volumes of books in a small compact device and to read it whenever and wherever I like.
