| |  | Brand: Sony
New (2) Used (12) from $90.00
Rating:  63 reviews
Model: PRS-500
EAN: 4003273008908
Add to Wishlist
Add to Wedding Registry
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 63
 Delivers what I was expecting (plus and minus) February 10, 2008
Donald Cummings (Philly, PA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Ok, I am new to this product so it is early in the test of time factor but as far as initial impressions, he we go.
First off as to the reliability of the hardware, I hope my experience is better than a lot of folks on here. These days defective electronics tend to be throw away items and this would be expensive to just toss out.
I really like this unit. I wanted a reader because I tend to get eye fatigue after staring at computer screens all day I just tend to fall asleep five minutes after starting to read a book. I liked the idea of adjustable font size to keep ahead of my fatigue. On this point the Reader truly delivers. I spend hours reading nowadays without eyestrain.
As far as book selection. I am kind of mixed on this. For those who say it only works well with books purchased from the Sony store I feel that you have not done your homework. Gutenberg books work very well when run through a functional convertor. Yeah a little bit of a pain but well worth the learning curve.
My biggest problem with this technology was the fact that I already own about 8000 books. A large percentage in Hardcover. I really object to paying for these books again. Luckily I am a big fan of the classics. Hint; browse the Sony Classics selections for ideas and then download the book from Gutenberg. It took me about 4 hours to download,convert, and upload 50+ classic titles to my reader. Problem with reading material solved. Now if I occasionally want to add a beach book to the mix I can do so guilt free through the Sony store.
I don't understand the complaints about memory size. I have 50 books on mine and still have 70% of my memory available.
One other complaint I really don't understand is that of no backlighting. Huh? When was the last time anyone of you has ever picked up a book that had backlit pages? If you want backlighting read off your PC monitor. Heck you can do that with the Sony software and not even buy the Reader. My wife does agree with some of you that the contrast is not strong enough. That the white could be whiter. This is why she ordered the 505 it is supposed to be brighter in contrast.
Now to the warts on the frog. It was way too hard to learn what I needed to know about this thing. I am a websearch veteran but I had a bear of a time finding the compatible formats that will work on the Reader. Also I really really want to download some news feeds (via RSS) and I can not for the life of me figure out how to do it. Why didn't Sony do the simple legwork to offer a few newspapers on a subscription basis. Stupid. It is oversights like this which lose the battle in technology marketing wars. I should be able to do a quick link in the am and have a nice mobile format newspaper to read throughout the workday. Again this is stupid. If anyone has figured out RSS feeds please let me in on the secret.
Bottom line. Decent product and very worthy of a $225 investment to tide me over until the clear winner in this tech has emerged and prices have bottomed out in 2 years.
 Big Reader Loves the Sony Reader! February 5, 2008
Ms. Deborah J. Johansen
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have been coveting a Sony Reader for a year...but waited because they were $349 a year ago. They upgraded to a new model in October of 2007...PRS 505, and they dropped the price to $299 everywhere. So my husband bought me one for an early Valentine gift. I LOVE IT!! It is so easy to download books and NO, you dont have to only get them from the Sony book site. Just google up free e-books or e-books for my reader and you get loads of websites with books. Another great thing I discovered is it takes only minutes to download a large book! We live so far out in the country that we still dont have access to high speed internet, so we struggle with dial up. However it only took me 4 minutes to download a James Patterson book to my reader...on dial up! Talk about happy!!! I think it is easy to read and totally understand about not having it backlit to not use up power...perfect! I may purchase a reading lite to clip on after a while. But it really is easy to read and the book doesnt flip out of my hand reading in bed laying down and so easy to turn the page on the reader with what ever hand is holding the reader....buttons are few and easy to use. Yes, expensive....but yes, very cool!!!
Awesome for travel January 30, 2008
Joshua Cooper (Dallas, TX)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
My wife picked this up for me for my birthday a few months ago, and I'll be honest, my first thought was "What a waste of money!" My first assessment was that this would be a neat gadget that I would pick up and play with for a while, then lose interest in a couple of weeks and would never again see the light of day.
I was very mistaken. Since then, I've read 5 books on this, 3 were downloaded from Sony's store, 1 older e-book file, and the one I'm working on now is a PDF. So let me refute the earlier claim, PDFs work just fine on this. I had an issue with one pdf that had the margins set incorrectly, and I was able to correct it with a free tool I downloaded from an e-book reader website, but it zooms to 3 levels, though admittedly that won't help if your PDF is formatted incorrectly. Even if it is, it can be salvaged with that free tool.
I was also skeptical because I've tried e-books before, but it never really felt the same. It wasn't as relaxing sitting at the computer and reading the words off the screen as it was seeing them printed on paper. I even tried it on another portable device and gave it up in less than 10 minutes as a bad job. This is the closest simulation of real paper I've encountered, the only thing it's missing is a screen cleaner wipe that also makes it smell like "new book".
This would easily be a 5 star device, if it had a little more support in terms of the quantity of books you can buy for it (the average user shouldn't have to resort to quasi-legal methods just to read a book they want to) and if the page controls were mirrored onto the right side of the screen as well. (No doubt because in Japan, books are read back to front, they didn't consider it too much)
This won't replace the hardcover treasures and classics that I keep around my house, for sure, but it's incredible for traveling, work reference, or a waiting in line somewhere.
 unhappy owner January 29, 2008
Jerald Somdahl
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Bought this a year ago but it wasn't compatible with my computer program. When I finally updated the computer program the Reader wouldn't work. Called Sony and, as the unit was out of warrantee, paid $100 supposedly to have it repaired. Today Sony called and wanted another $250 to replace the motherboard. This is on a Reader that was never once used. I hope the Kindle is better.
Jerry Somdahl
Great product for the first generation of this technology January 27, 2008
J Hendricks (Bartlett, TN United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have owned mine for over a year now. I originally bought it to read PDF books that are used in my classes. I was disappointed in the fact that many PDF files are delievered in graphic format versus text and thus cannot by zoomed to the level needed for reading by this device.
The concept is sound and the device when used to read ebooks is great. I travel in and out of the country and this device saves me on the weight of a pile of books. I have poor vision as well, and this device serves my needs well. The econnect software is easy to use but I have to admit that my standard of usability is itunes and this software falls far short in many areas. First, it needs to have a simple one button sync feature. It took me some time to realize how to move books to the device. The second is the firmware updates should be integrated into the support software. The list of available ebooks has grown but remains disappointingly narrow. I would really like to see Sony team up with the content providers versus trying to be all things to all people.
Other than those issues, I would have to say if you are looking for a good replacement for paperback books and you can ignore the hype on PDF and MPG file support, this is a GREAT device. The screen is highly readable, the weight perfect, and the battery life long. Finally, the supply of popular books is sufficient to satisfy most causal readers.
Showing reviews 26-30 of 63
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. | |
•