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Home » Laptops & Computing » Peripheral » Sony Reader PRS-505 - eBook Reader » Video

Sony Reader PRS-505 - eBook Reader video review

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The eBook revolution won’t be for everyone, but if you’re willing to give digital books a try, the Sony Reader is well worth investing in. The screen on this device is nothing short of staggering, and with 6,800 page turns between battery charges, you won’t have to worry about running out of juice halfway through War and Peace. The Sony Reader is beautiful to look at, a joy to handle and incredibly easy to use. If anything can usher in the digital age of literature, this can. Read full review

Overall

9/10

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By Riyad Emeran
Reviewed 14 October 2008
Updated 26 May 2011

Price as reviewed

£199.00

  • Review
    • 1: Sony Reader
    • 2: Sony Reader
    • 3: Sony Reader
    • 4: Sony Reader
  • Video Review
  • User Reviews
  • Comments
  • 9 Photos
  • Reviewed by Riyad Emeran
  • 14 October 2008
Read the full Sony Reader PRS-505 - eBook Reader review
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Awards

  • Recommended by TR

Sony Reader PRS-505 - eBook Reader details

Value
9/10
Usability
10/10
Features
9/10
Design
10/10
Overall
9/10

Price as reviewed

£199.00

Manufacturer

Sony

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lifethroughalens

12:32 AM on 3 September, 2008

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Great review, I'm sold and will be getting one as soon as they are on sale. I would have liked to have heard a bit more about the MP3 playing abilities and the battery life whilst playing music since this could really hammer times between charges. Now if it only had wifi and wimax and got my newspapers delivered to it twice a day and had a web cam for skype and maybe a keyboard, oh. Hang on...

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tomasinho

2:05 AM on 3 September, 2008

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I used the Sony Reader in Waterstones today and got a distinct feeling it couldn't keep up with my reading speed (page turning delays). I am also surprised you have scored it so highly.


You are right, the design and paper display technology are fantastic, but the product is by no means perfect. £200 is very expensive when you could buy atleast 20 new books for that.





As a book and .pdf lover I do think this is a fab idea; I will wait another iteration or so before purchasing the technology.

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ilovethemonkeyhead

8:26 AM on 3 September, 2008

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does anyone know if any libraries offer services where you can borrow ebooks, like they do with real books? if so, i will definatley run out and get one. if not, i'll still get one :D





perfect for university

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Moche

8:31 AM on 3 September, 2008

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I've been a little amused (bemused) at the coverage of the Sony Reader in the media. The ITV news last night had an article about it that pretty much conveyed the impression that the Sony is the first device of its kind. The start of Riyad's review has a similar feel, though not the same misguided message. Surely TR readers know about electronic ink by now? Maybe not, but there is an almost reverential air here suggesting that now Sony are selling a reader the technology is real at last. It is only by the latter stages of the article that a another brand of reader is mentioned.





The Sony does look good externally, but I'm pretty sure that screen-wise it will be of a similar quality to the Bookeen. Really this is all just marketing hype, trying to create the impression that something new is happening. In reality, the device itself it old news and the new thing is that the technology has at last got some marketing clout behind it. It would have been nice, given TR's readership, to see a little more acknowledgement of that in the opening to Riyad's review.





I'm also concerned that there is little mention of compatible formats for the Sony. I could be wrong here, as I haven't the time to check the details, but my understanding is that the Sony has a proprietory format and can also read PDF's. This means that Sony owners in the UK will get caught-up in a Waterstones/Sony centric closed market. This isn't new, with Apple the worst culprit, but it would have been good to see this given some coverage.





On eBooks generally, Riyad is right. I bought the Cybook Gen 3 on the strength of the TR review and have not been dissappointed. I still have paperbacks and hardbacks, but the Cybook comes into its own when travelling. Having a selection of even twenty books, means that you never face that holiday horror of finding you hate the two paperbacks you took with you.





The biggest frustration I have is the US centred market for ebooks themselves. If I see a decent book that is high in the UK market it's sometimes extremely hard to find it on Mobipocket, Fictionwise etc. Also, many ebooks do not surface until the physical book gets a paperback publication. No doubt this is there to protect revenues somehow, but given the price they charge for ebooks is pretty steep they could get them out earlier.





I had real hopes that the Waterstones site might answer the US centred issues. However, it seems likely that they will be selling the ebooks in a Sony format. Maybe I could get around that with some conversion software, but it seems an almighty hassle and what about the DRM?





Obviously Sony will be putting some muscle into the campaign, but I still think that Waterstones missed a trick here. Why not sell ebooks in all the major formats? If they did so and had the UK books available they would surely have more customers than through Sony alone? I know they would have had one at least.

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John Dann

8:35 AM on 3 September, 2008

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Never having seen/used one of these I'm not acquainted with how flexible it is in terms of document format. Obviously its #1 use AFAICS is for reading paperback format books. But if say I have to spend a lot of time reading A4 PDFs can I do that job with the eBook Reader? Can it read PDFs direct or is there a PDF==>eBook format converter? And how practicable is it to read A4 size documents on what looks more like an A5 size screen?

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needlegun

9:06 AM on 3 September, 2008

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The Sony Reader certainly looks like a triumph of design. However, it will be nothing more than an elegant piece of metal gathering dust in the corner unless it is supported by good content, so I shall wait with interest to see what titles become available for it, and how quickly they are released in comparison to their real life counterparts.

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markypants

10:00 AM on 3 September, 2008

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ilovethemonkeyhead hit the nail on the head there...library services is the killer app here. Much like the amazon Kindle build in some wireless connectivity, pay a small monthly subscription and bang unlimited library rentals!

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Luan Bach

10:18 AM on 3 September, 2008

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About the missing mains adapter, if you've got a PSP the adapter for that should work. It worked on the original reader.

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Luan Bach

10:21 AM on 3 September, 2008

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@John Dann





I wouldn't use it to read A4 pdf. You can do it up to a point, if you do a bunch of conversion and touching up, but it's painful to read as the fonts will always be too small and the graphics layout is awful.

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trini

10:29 AM on 3 September, 2008

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Having read the review and the comments above I just had to add a few thoughts that echo what has been said above and maybe clarify a few things as well:


1. Tomasinho hit the nail on the head about the sony ereader and I am surprised that Riyad didn't mention it. The length of time it takes for the eink page to refresh between pages. It is one of the 2 reasons I haven't bought a sony reader before. When one hits the turn page button the screen goes blank and then refreshes with the next page this process can take up to 5 seconds depending on who you listen to. spending 5 seconds staring at a blank screen for EACH page would be mind numbingly tedious. That is why, like tomasinho I will probably wait a generation before buying an e-ink reader


2. The second reason that I wouldn't buy the Sony is ebook formats. This is still a very immature industry with many different formats for different publishers and hardware floating around. Because of the dreaded DRM this can mean you are left with a lot of books that you can't read as the hardware and business evolves. In fairness to Sony they do support other formats as well as their own. In fact, recently they announced that they would with the 505 support the epub format which is one of the more popular and generally available formats for ebooks that publishers use. So Moche is a little off base there when saying you could be trapped to only buying from Sony or waterstones closed market


3. However, Moche is absolutely right to say that ebooks are a US centric market (which really really makes me mad) like un-DRM mp3 music (come on Amazon both for access to mp3s and ebooks in the UK). Why does the rest of the world have to wait years before getting their hands on some of this tech!


4. I am surprised that Moche has trouble finding books. I have purchased over 200 e-books with DRM from a variety of sites ranging from the big ones like fictionwise and mobipocket to actual publisher's websites. Have you tried going direct to the publisher that manages the book you want? Most publishers these days at least acknowledge ebooks on their website if not actively sell them.


5. Moche is also right that ebooks are very very old news. I started reading ebooks on a palm back in the late 90s in the UK! There a host of readers out there now, each with their own niche (Annoyingly, mostly US focussed e.g. Kindle) But I also accept that the vast majority of the ignorant public do need a little educating and that can only be a good thing for increasing the choice of hardware and books available. I respect the reviews I get from trustedreviews but I have always accepted their UK focus as well so I will give Riyad the benefit of the doubt.


6. As often with "bleeding edge tech" (said it with a hint of sarcasm) the best locations to find more info is on forums. This is a good one if anyone is interested http://www.mobileread.com/


7. In my view, of the current generation of e-ink books the sony is one of the best (I have always been a sucker for pretty things!) with the iliad and bookeen getting honourable mentions (I ignore the Kindle on the principle it ignores me and the rest of the world except the US plus it is really really ugly). But the fact remains that the current generation of ebook readers might look great but all have a bit of a refresh problem and until I can get a continuous reading experience I will continue to get some eye strain but use a phone to read my books...did you know the iphone can make a damn good reader as well with the app store now having various format readers available!

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