Sony Personal Reader System 500 - A Review
Finally - an actual blog entry that is not a book summary!
For Emily's 12th birthday we bought her the Sony PRS-500 for about $249 (although you can get it for less now). Included were 100 "classic" books - but those were either books that I read in high school or books that I should have read.
My initial motivations in purchasing the eBook were to (a) reduce the number of books in Emily's room and (b) to test the technology. The eBook has succeeded on both counts - there are now far fewer books in her bed and we both find the text on the screen to be very readable for long periods of time.
Beyond the expected benefits, we have found some unexpected ones. For Emily the best thing is that we can get new books without having to go to the store and/or wait for an online delivery (the purchase/download process only takes a few minutes) - and we save a little bit of money off real book prices (but not yet enough to justify this on a savings basis). Another unexpected benefit of great value to Molly (and to me also) is the ability to increase the font size - very nice for our aging eyes. In addition, the feel/packaging of the eBook is good (we like the leather case) and the battery life is excellent - we charge it perhaps every 3-4 weeks.
Now for the downsides....
1. The page forward/backward buttons are on the wrong side - they should be on the right for English books, but they are on the left - annoying.
2. The most well known downside and the one that concerned me most is the lack of a backlight. But it is best to think of this as a book (which requires a nightlight) rather than a small laptop. There are special reading lights for this, but that will be a Christmas present.
3. Page turning delay is noticeable - takes about 1/2 second - a bit annoying.
Sony has just released the 505 which addresses #1 and #3 and apparently has a slightly improved display. This is likely to be a Christmas present for Molly (and of course, I will share hers :) ).