Review: Sony Pocket Edition Reader

Here’s a nice, simple, down-to-earth review of the Sony Pocket Edition Reader by Livejournal blogger cbeveridge. He does a good job of explaining why he went with the 300 model (5″ screen) over the 600 model (6″ screen and touch screen capability) and answers issues real consumers would like to know like does it read well in sunlight and is it comfortable to hold and read?

We think Sony is really taking the right path by offering EPUB files and partnering with Google. They also have the cheapest reader on the market. A reader that according to the following review by cbeveridge, is well worth the $199 price tag.

See our previous posts about Sony’s new line of Readers coming out in December and find out how much of the eReader market Sony currently has compared to the Kindle.

Thanks also to TeleRead for linking to the review.

Sony Reader Pocket Edition (PRS-300)

So after much waffling and debate, and finding a fair number of books that I’d want to read on it, I went to the Sony Style store in Burlington on Monday to check out in person their new ereader books. The 300, which is a 5″ screen, and the 600, which is a 6″ screen with touch capability and a few other features I believe. I wanted the 600 but they didn’t have any in stock, and upon experimenting with it more I think that model would have frustrated me. I’m too used to the very smooth nature of the iphone that in going to something slightly less responsive it would have driven me up a wall.

I was intending to the the PRS-300 model for Amethyst for Christmas, as she devours books and this would give her something really different and I could use it to easily expose her to more classics that are in the public domain. She went with me to check it out and really liked it, enough so that she picked the silver one for herself. I was going to get the red 600 for myself, but opted for the black 300 in the end.

I’ve fallen out of reading for the most part in the last couple of years, only being able to read a few pages here and there and taking an age to read a normal 500+ page book. I want to read more but I don’t want to own a lot of physical books. I can’t reread a book in all honesty until it’s been about ten years. Every time I pick one up that I read recently, it all comes back strongly and it loses the appeal. So having a simple storage system like this is very, very appealing.

The reader weighs about the same as an A5 standard sized manga book so it feels natural in the hand, though my hand is now natural for holding devices of this nature from using the iphone so much for so many tasks. The interface is decent, easy to move about in (not so much a fan of the PC software, but that usually improves in time anyway, and sony interfaces aren’t always the slickest so that was expected). The readers navigation is straightforward and easy to setup, though resizing a book can be problematic depending on the size of the book. Don’t change the 5000+ page Lord of the Rings book from Small to Medium without expecting it to take a bit of time.

I purchased a few books upon bringing it home. Podkayne of Mars, Lord of the Rings, Temporal Void and Time’s Tapestry: Conqueror. I also grabbed a few free books off of Google’s 500,000+ out of copyright books, but these are much more variable because they’re not formatted specifically for the reader, though they look good. They simple flow a little differently. When it comes to the books purchased though the Sony Connect storefront, they’re really very good. Pages changed very quickly and the flow works even better than turning a physical page I think. The first night, I took it with me on my walk while Amethyst was in Tae Kwan Do class and I got in an hour of reading while walking. I can’t read a paperback while walking, but this felt natural and very easy to do.

Wearing sunglasses, walking in bright sunlight, shaded areas and cloudy moments, the screen was extremely clear and print-like and I had no real issues with glare because of this particular model. I had a much smoother reading experience overall as there weren’t any shadows from other physical pages or issues from the breeze and so forth. I spent two evenings out walking reading Podkayne of Mars and it was a real treat.

My mindset is that I’m only buying books that are paperback prices or just a bit more. Temporal Void, for example, is still in hardcover and will be until February 2010. The hardcover price is $28, but on Sony the ereader version is only $11. I’ll pay a few bucks more to get the book that much earlier. But that’s the extent of it. There are only so many newer books I’ll get over time, depending on how much I read, but I’m more interested in acquiring older books that I no longer have or simply want to read again in this format instead. There’s a good bit out there, and I’m admittedly interested in just reading SF and some fantasy books, so this works out pretty well for me.

I like the reader. A lot. It’s the right size, very easy to use and at $199, it is at the right price point that I’ll get into it. A bigger screen may be nicer, but I think it’d be just a bit too much and less comfortable overall for me.