I've been looking for a portable reading gadget for a while now. I tried so many gadgets like the nokia n810, i tried a small laptop a couple lot more of gizmos which I thought would suffice my reading and my mobility requirements. A lof them have their own strength and weaknesses. The n810 is good for portable internet access, Instant messaging with it is also a breeze but the battery life is not that great. At any any rate, i would say i like it but not for reading my e-books. I tried a small laptop like the Sony P series. Its a great laptop considering its size and weight plus all its cool features like the built-in 3g radio. For an internet road warrior, its a perfect fit. like a marriage made in heaven. But still not for reading my e-books. I read a lot, I read all kinds of things from fiction, non fiction, tutorials, self help, "how to get rich scams" etcetera. There are a lot of reading materials that you can get from the internet for free, if you know how to look for it. You can download the latest book of any famous author for free. YES! for free, look for it in the FORUMS. You know what forum is? its like a community billboard where people share their idea, thoughts and of course free but illegal software. I wouldn't recommend it but if you choose to do so, its all up to you. There are many different formats of e-books. Some are PDF from Adobe, BBeB Book, TXT, RTF, Microsoft® and some are closed proprietary formats. You can also buy a lot of ebooks from independent e-book only publisher like E-BOOK. They offer books from their wide range of catalogue. From Health, business, self-help, fiction, and many other things. They're like an ordinary online bookstore but they only sell E-BOOKS. its worth checking it out in preparation for getting your own e-book reader. Now that you know where to get your ebooks, You need an e-book reader. I looked at kindle and explored all it's features. Its pros and cons. I came into conclusion that its a good book reader but the price and its closed platform drove me away. See the specs for yourself here; Kindle: Amazon's Wireless Reading Device
. So I continue my search and I stumbled into some "no name" brands that are not widely sold yet. Two of which are the REX ILiad Book Reader and the BeBook Ebook Reader, they are some pretty good choices but product support can be a problem with it later. So the quest continues......Until the the day internet brought me to the doors of Sony, and Sony Ebook Reader(Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Reader System (Silver)
) came into my sight. I held it carried it, opened it, pushed some of its buttons, read from it. Perfect! I found what I'm looking for. It is light, at 9 0z. and fits in my front scrub pocket (I'm a Nurse) so I can carry it around even at work (size is 6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3) . Dont tell my manager alright!. It comes with a soft cover, I picked the brown and silver combination, Silver Ebook reader and brown soft cover. It looks nice and neat. I went home and I charged it as recommended by manufacturer. Meanwhile, I installed the software that comes with it. Its intuitive and easy, which was done in round 2-3 minutes. I also checked my ebook collection, especially my computer programming books which only comes in e-book form. After 4 hours, I hooked the ebook reader to my laptop and start transferring my books to it. Transfer is quick but it depends on how big your ebook is. normal transfer takes around 30 seconds to a minute. I Unplugged the USB cable and the reader refreshes its content and brought me to the main menu. Menu system is pretty much easy to navigate, It shows your collection of books, which can be sorted by title, author or by date. Bookmarks are part of the main menu for easy access. Your pictures and audio collection can also be found on main menu structure. There's an easy access button on the right side with numbers from 1 to 0. Which can be used to enter pages number or select its corresponding menu button.The display works as advertised. It uses e-ink technology which is easy on the eyes, sharp and consumes very minimal power. The manufacturer claims that it only uses power when you flip or change page. When on standby, it doesn't use power, and that's their secret recipe for its long battery life. They also claim that a full battery charge last for 7500 page flips before it runs out of juice. It comes with built in memory which can hold a hundred books or more. You can upgrade storage by adding Memory stick or SD card. I haven't used my internal memory yet as of this writing. Mp3 can also be downloaded to its memory and you can plug a regular headphone and you can listen to your music collection while reading. COOL! One less gadget to carry on my long trips.
Sony E-book reader works as advertised with all its good attributes as well as flaws. These are the pros and cons:
PROS:
Price- Cheaper than Kindle
Open Architecture-compatible with a lot of ebook formats
Portability-lightweight and small form factor, Fun and easy to use.
Good screen resolution- works as advertised, high resolution, easy on the eyes,sharp
CONS:
Screen size- Sony can you make it bigger? at least extend it by an inch
Price- e book readers are ridiculously expensive these days. I think its overpriced
Limited catalog- Sony e-bookstore has limited offerings compared to competition. I told you already, there's a lot of books on the internet. check it here
No backlight- Sony, How much would a back light cost you?
Regardless of all these cons, Sony E book Reader (Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Reader System (Silver)) is still the best reader in the market today. Considering price and its performance. I am very happy with it. Its one of the best purchase I've ever made.
If you love books, I'm sure, you'll love it.
Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Reader System (Silver)
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