Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 41-45 of 64
 Terrible product! December 5, 2007
Randall Richmond (Santa Rosa, CA United States)
18 out of 35 found this review helpful
Unless you are a reader that reads only bestsellers, this is a horrible product. The ONLY books this reads are the ones you download from the Sony website, (they say it will read PDF files, but then you find out the hard way that it has to be a PDF file of a book in the Public Domain - anything you get from someone elses website will be copyright protected so you can't read it), and their selection for anything other than Best Sellers is LOUSY! I have had this reader for almost a year and have only found a dozen titles that I was interested in!! AVOID AT ALL COSTS
 My 1st ereader was a Rocket, now I have the Sony 505 November 29, 2007
Laura (USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Rocket was good for it's day, about 8-9 years ago. But the back light drained the battery, and the variety of books was poor. The Sony 505 is small, light, has a huge memory, and no backlight-so great battery life. I charged it when I got it, about 4 weeks ago, and read every day. I've read Don Quoxite, and the Historian, and still haven't needed to recharge. I really don't like the Sony econnect site. It is slow and very difficult to search and find books. However, once you find one it is easy to buy and to get them on the reader. I have put several Gutenberg project books on it, that I have read as well, and they transfer easily and read well. The key is to coipy and paste into word, then change the font size to a 12-14 then save and import. Overall, the Sony 505 is a good reading experience and is easy on the eyes, the pages turn quickly, I don't have any problem recommending it to friends.
 It's as good as you could expect November 26, 2007
Kent Roorda (Denver, CO United States)
72 out of 75 found this review helpful
We've owned a Sony reader for over a year now. First, it sure beats having to travel with a bunch of heavy and space consuming books. One reviewer said that the font size couldn't be adjusted. This is completely false. The font size can be adjusted VERY easily. Another reviewer mentioned that the screen wasn't backlit. Probably knowing more about electronics than that reviewer, I can assure you that there is a very good reason for NOT backlighting such a large screen... That reason is power consumption. Backlighting requires a great deal of power; even more power than creating the actual letters and words on the screen. Face it, a regular book isn't back lit either! If you would like to read in a dark environment, you can use any number of small, LED, book reading lights that are available for under $10. Otherwise, in standard light, reading the Sony book is just like reading a piece of white paper... very pleasing to the eyes, and, again, you CAN adjust the size of the fonts to suit your eyesight. In addition to being capable of holding up to around 160 books, the Reader can also be used as an MP3 player. Very Cool and Nice! You can listen to music by itself, or, while you are reading. Downloading both reading material and music on to the player is simple via your USB connection. If you want to increase the memory of the Reader, you can do so by using a Sony Memorystick or a standard SD memory card. And, the memory cards just slip in the side of the unit. After you use this product, you'll wonder why you have so many paperbacks laying around. It is extremely convenient, easy-to-use, space and weight saving, and downloading a book costs about the same as the best price you would pay for a paperback book. (There are also many books and publications that can be downloaded for free). This would be a wonderful gift for someone who loves to read.
perfect for my needs November 24, 2007
Avery Wade
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
I've had my Sony eReader for over a year and am very happy with it. I'll spare you all the common complaints--no backlight, impossible to re-size font from a pre-existing PDF--and concentrate on the positives.
While this technology doesn't have the whiz-bang factor of the new Kindle (which I haven't tried and probably won't for a good long while), this is a very nice first step. The picture quality is fabulous, the page itself very close to reading something in a paperback, and the reader itself easy to use. An expandable slot allows you to add more books to your queue or load some music to listen to as you read. Having that nice cover also means you don't run the risk of wasting battery power by having something in your backpack or purse turn on the unit. I've found that the battery power lasts about a week and a full charge requires about six hours (though twelve are recommended).
The CONNECT ebook store started out being fairly spare but has grown over the time I've had my reader and the selection's getting better. I have read that some Kindle users are unhappy with the relative lack of certain authors' books, and that was a problem for CONNECT, too. That is, they'd release the newest book by a particular author and perhaps the one just before that, but that was it. As the store's gone along, though, they've built up a bigger inventory. The prices are pretty good, too, though higher than Kindle's $9.99 flat rate.
Am I curious about the Kindle? Sure. The primary advantage the Kindle has over the Sony eReader is the Whispernet, and certainly delivering newspapers and magazines to people on an electronic reader is a boon to folks who travel or just flat out want to save a tree or two (and my reason for getting the eReader). But it would be hard for me to imagine how you'd actually go about maneuvering through a newspaper or magazine on an ereader: finding what page to go to, focusing on a particular article, etc. A review in Newsweek said the same thing.
Here's the thing, though: If you can delay your wish for instantaneous gratification and buy your ebook over your laptop or desktop and then drag and drop onto your reader, why would you need to spend $150 more for a reader which uses the same imaging technology? If you spend time on any computer, why would you need your reader to do what you can do at your desk or on your laptop? Is it less convenient? Maybe. But I can't imagine that convenience is worth $150.
For my money, I'd stick with the Sony, for now. For one thing, it will likely come down in price (too late for me, of course, but maybe not for you) and my guess is the books will start to come down in price, too. In addition, I suspect there are a more than a few bugs with the Kindle (as there were with the Sony) which will have to shake out over time. Better to wait until the Kindle comes down in price and adds color and video to really get the bang for your buck.
A great product for an avid reader November 23, 2007
W. Russell (where we are today)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I am an avid reader and I love the Sony. Being retired we travel in a motor home full time and my "library" takes up little room.
Some specifics: multiple size print is great, Easy to shift between books, the bookmark combined with the book's reading history means you do not lose your place. Easy to pack or carry, easy to download books and transfer to the Sony, and finally easy to catagorize books for an easy find.
What I would have liked was a back lit capability,but I do not believe it can be done with this technology.
Finally it would be nice if the ebooks available would have a compatible format.
Showing reviews 41-45 of 64
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