A serious "book alternative" for new generation book lovers!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Light weight, crisp, clear image, extremely well-made and sturdy.

Cons: The PC software is a bit clumsy.

The Bottom Line: 
It is a joy to use and gives infinite access to loads of (free) books on the internet. You may never have to buy a book again.

Author's Review
Looking for a way to reduce luggage weight & size while traveling? Love to read, but run out of space of your bookcases? Looking for an digital book that doesn’t need charging every four hours?
 
The Sony Reader Digital Book PRS505 is a new generation ebook that is easy to use, even for those who fear or dislike advanced technology or complex devices. 

The PRS505 has been around for a number of months, and is proving to be one of the best of its kind! There are reviews that do not award the PRS505 all the appreciation that it deserves, and in my humble opinion that is mostly caused by a person’s lack of understanding on how the product really works and by pricing strategies currently used by one of the preferred content sellers. Read on, and discover why the Sony Reader Digital Book PRS505 can tempt even the biggest paper book lover into using a Sony Reader Digital Book.

The Sony Reader Digital Book PRS505 is a very compact and light weight-weighing device, weighing only 9 oz. (282 g). It has a 6 inch display (90 × 120mm) using “Electronic Paper”, which makes it as easy on the eyes as other printed media, with a near 180º viewing angle. Electronic Paper (or e-Ink as it is officially called) is a new display technology that has the distinct advantage of only using power for page turns, and does not consume power to maintain a page display. Most importantly, electronic paper provides a crisp, clear image that rivals print seen in paper books.

Text and illustrations are displayed using 8 gray levels, with a screen resolution of 170 pixels per inch (ppi). 170 ppi is currently the highest resolution that is currently available for electronic paper. 

I read a lot, especially when on holiday, and I always have an issue with the weight of my luggage. I can slip this device in my bag and I've got all my latest books with me. The PRS505 is extremely well-made and sturdy. It can easily take the beating that it is subjected to during travel and normal use (including it falling of your lap while waiting for your flight in an airport lounge). I have never had to worry about charging the PRS505. The only time that power is consumed is when you turn a page (or access the menu). The amount of content that is stored in the devices standard memory lasts me about a week. By that time I hook up the PRS505 to the USB port on my PC to exchange the content. During that time the battery is also being recharged, so far I have not needed to separately recharge the battery. A fully charged battery should allow for approximately 7000 page turns…

Sony has been selling e-book devices since 2003, and that experience clearly makes a difference in their product. The screen is easy to see, even if you read in bed by a small light and the feel and weight is no mare than an average medium paperback book.

The display can also be changed from portrait to landscape so you hold it horizontally (my preferred way of using the PRS505). The page change button is in a natural place, under your right thumb. The buttons down the side provide a kind of browse feature while reading. To open the book near the beginning you press one of the buttons near the top, the middle button skips to the half way point etc. Hold down the page turn button to skip on 10 pages. This is also an easy way to skim through a book and get an idea of the content without reading it all, although this kind of browsing is not as “nice” as with a paper book. The OS is very intuitive and the navigation controls are very well thought-out. Reader itself is easy to use.

The reader itself is only lacking a search function, which would be useful if one has many books on it, but there is still an alphabetized list by author or by title. On the other hand a search feature would require the use of a keyboard or touch screen...

Besides reading ebooks, other sources can also be used for offline reading. One of the most exciting things is that RSS feeds can be downloaded to the Reader. You can get daily updates from all kinds of news feeds like BBC news, The Guardian and the New York Times. Go to http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/ and get Calibre to add your own feeds. They display well on the Reader and include images. You can also load blogs, web pages and Wikipedia for offline use.
Adobe PDF files can also be displayed, but note that PDF files look better when optimized with the Reader’s screen size, because text may appear small if it has not been optimized.

Waterstones is one of the biggest content partners for the Sony Reader Digital Book PRS505. Unfortunately they seem to have a high pricing structure (a minimal pricing difference compared to printed books), without the bargains often found with printed books (e.g. 3 for the price of 2, etc). The Waterstone's website also looks like it was designed by a somewhat stupid child. Fortunately, there are a number of other sites, although you do have to watch the format. When you start searching, it is almost unbelievable how much free and cheap content there is available! New books coming out are reasonably easy to obtain, as are classics.

Books can be loaded using the somewhat clumsy software that is included in the kit, and the device can also be filled manually as a USB drive.

My conclusion:
Great Buy! A fantastic product for book lovers who are not fully addicted to the actual feel of a book. 

Technical Details:
Sony Reader PRS505 Silver
100 classics Ebook CD ROM included
Sony AC Adapter AC-S5220E
Reading flex light exclusive for Sony Reader
O/S is Linux 2.4.17

Product details:
Product weight is 282 g (9 oz.) without the Soft Cover
Measurements are 6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3". (175 x 122 x 8mm)
6 Inch display using “Electronic Paper” makes it as easy on the eyes as other printed media, with a near 180º viewing angle.
Display print quality of approximately 170 Pixels Per Inch  (8-level grey scale)
Up to 7500 consecutive page turns or 14 days (based on normal use of up to 300 pages per day when in sleep mode)
Integrated online eBook store has thousands of titles to choose from, ranging all major genres and subjects.
Internal Memory (192MB) capable of storing up to 160 books (Based on average un-illustrated eBook file size of 1.2MB)
Memory Slot for optional Memory Stick Duo media and SD. Memory Cards- allows for storage of even more books. 16GB memory holds approx. 13000 books.

Media Formats Supported:
Unsecured Text: BBeB Book, TXT, RTF, ePub, Adobe PDF , Microsoft Word (Conversion to the Reader-requires Word installed on your PC)
DRM Text: BBeB Book (Marlin)
Unsecured Audio: MP3 and AAC
Image: JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP

Desktop Application for downloading books, managing content, and importing content. Using the included eBook Library 2.0 PC Software, you can easily transfer Adobe PDF documents, Microsoft Word documents , BBeB Book, and other text file formats to the Reader.