Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 84
 For the price, not enough features... June 11, 2010
Drew Cannon (Tulsa, OK)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am not going to make this a long review at all but I purchased this item off a site new about a week ago. Got the item and turned it on feeling very excited I finally have a ebook reader. Well the first thing that is seen when you open the box is that you do not have an AC adapter that comes with it and you have to plug it into your computer (To buy the adapter is $20-40 used to new). Not that big of a deal but I mean come on, we are charging extra for a home AC adapter now? So I take the reader out of the box and turn it on, the screen comes one and is black and white (no big deal) but flickers and immediately reminds me of an old palm screen. Still no deal breaker, as long as I can read my books thats all that matters. Well as long as there is light you can that is. The thing DOESNT HAVE A BACKLIGHT, so you have the black and white palm gen 1 screen with no way to read my books in bed at night without leaving my light on and keeping my wife awake. When I talk about palm gen 1 style, you may also remember that there is a 1.5s delay on every button that you press on the touch screen, this is also true even when you are trying to type a note. The last issue I had with this reader is the fact of the books on the reader itself. When you put books on there you can open them no problem and there are a decent amount of cool bookmarking and note taking features on it (though they have the delay on every button as mentioned above). But with the book opened the default setting is small and is the only setting that will have a even ratio for the actual book pages. Which this is not possible, at least for me to use, because the font is so small that I could not sit comfortably for any amount of time to read. The ratio I am talking about is this, you take the text size to medium (i would hate to see what their XXL looks like) and now you have for every page that you want to read you have to click through 2 pages on the ebook reads, essentially making a 500 page book 1000 pages. No that is an issue that I just HATED and was the straw for me returning it the next day. Some of the things I have mentioned are definitely just my opinions and all of the owners of this reader may not think this at all. But I really feel that I am not a hard person to please and unfortunately was not at all pleased with this.
 Excellent product June 8, 2010
Daniel K. Nogueira
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As far as I'm concerned with reading e-books, this device is everything I need. Of course, there are other of the kind, with more advanced features, such as touchscreen, word-search and so on, but, for my purposes, it is perfect.
I'd bought it before, but a burglar stole it at my home... I believe that my second purchase says it all about my opinion.
Excellent choice, excellent seller, delivered on time.
Very Nice Entry Level eReader. June 4, 2010
R. Mok (NH United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you like to read, buy it and you'll love it. If you don't like to read, buy it and you'll start to read!
This is a great entry level eReader. It provides all the basic functions in a very reasonable price. Things that I like: 1. small size, easy to carry 2. nice and easy to read screen 3. with the Calibre software. It is very easy to install books, newspapers and magazines. 4. good battery life per charge.
I'd bought one for my daughter and I fell in love with it too. Now I am going to buy one for myself. Just remember, this reader only has 3 font size, no build in dictionary, no wifi (that means you have to connect it to a computer to download books). If you need those than consider a higher level model.
 nice little ereader, love it May 30, 2010
Laura B (San Jose, CA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Let me begin by saying that I am a gadget nut. I love new techie toys and own far too many of them. I also love to read. I already own a Kindle and love it. What I don't like about it is my inability to download books from my library directly onto the Kindle since most of them are in epub format. If the Kindle accepted epub files, it would be even closer to perfect. So, when I saw a good deal for one of these little Sony pocket readers, I decided to jump on it and add to my gadget collection.
I love this little reader. It is almost as great as my Kindle (though the Kindle is still first in my heart).
Pros:
1. The size! It is very light and fits the whole thing fits into my hand.
2. It reads epub, pdf, doc, txt files. I can download files from the library and put them right onto the reader to carry with me.
3. Organization of the books on the reader. If you tag your ebooks, they are put into "Collections" on the reader so they are easy to find. I get annoyed with the Kindle because you have to view all the books on the device and cannot sort them into folders. This is especially nice for books in a series. I use Calibre and have all the books in a series listed out and when I put them onto the reader, they are listed in order of the series. No more trying to figure out which book came first!
4. Cost. It is quite a bit less than other readers. It doesn't have all the features of the Kindle or Nook, but its cost more than makes up for what it lacks.
Cons:
1. No wi-fi. This is a good thing as well...it is a no frills reader. Simple and it does what it is supposed to do. But, if you are traveling and want to get a new book, you need to connect it to a computer to get a new book.
2. Although the resolution is good, it is not as good as the Kindle.
3. The Sony store. You must download the software to purchase books from the Sony store. Not as easy as other ebook stores and a bit of a pain to me. I don't plan on using it too much, anyway. I use Calibre to keep track of my ebooks and download to the reader.
4. The battery. It is not user replaceable, so when it dies, it is done. It also does not come with an ac charger, so either you have to purchase one (if you own a PSP, they are the same and it can run around 30 bucks) or you rely on plugging it into the computer via USB to charge which takes quite a while to charge.
Overall, I love this little guy. it is small enough to carry around in a pocket or my purse. It is my "library book" for all the ebooks I download from the library. Right now it is my favorite new toy.
A really great reading experience May 15, 2010
T. Thiel (St. Louis, MO USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have been reading using the Sony Pocket Reader every day and love the experience. In normal light the screen is bright. At night I use a small book light and read very comfortably in bed. The screen refresh rate on page turns is 1-2 seconds (similar to a manual page turn) and it does not bother me at all. I have Calibre on my computer (free software for managing e-books - look it up on Google) so I can automatically download free newspaper articles every day and when I plug the Pocket Reader into my computer it automatically downloads the news to my Reader. I have checked out library ebooks, bought a couple of ebooks online, and downloaded free public domain ebooks. Calibre can convert most books without DRM protection to ePub format for the Sony eReader. This reader is basic, which you would expect from the low price, but it provides access to many books and provides a great reading experience, which is really all I need, at least for now.
Pros
Small, light, portable, and easy to use.
Nice screen with no glare (which is much more of a problem with the touch screen Sony Readers)
Three font sizes, but font is determined by the book publisher so fonts can be quite variable in size. Although I was concerned that there were not enough choices in size, this has not been a problem.
Software - others have complained about the Sony Reader software but I had no problem installing or using it on Windows XP. You need it if you want to read library books.
Works well with small book lights because the screen is small.
Cons
Small screen.
No search, annotate, dictionary (which would be useless without search), wireless, or external card (but I doubt I will ever fill the space on the Reader and it is easy to move books between the computer and the Reader).
So far these cons have not been an issue for me, but if they were I would consider the Sony Daily Edition (which is bigger and costs more than twice as much as the Pocket Reader).
The bottom line for me is the reading experience, and it has been great with the Sony Pocket Reader.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 84
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