- Memory RAM 64 Mb, Internal 512Mb, User-accessible 466Mb; Memory slot: microSD, microSDHC card
- Battery: Li-Polymer (1000 mAh); Size with cover: 4.6 x 5.5 x 0.47 118 x 140 x 12 mm
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Product Description
PB360: Display 5" E Ink Vizplex; G-sensor/Accelerometer built-in; CPU Samsung S3C2440 AL-40 400MHz; Operating system Linux; E-Book formats: FB2, FB2.zip, TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, TCR Image formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF Additional Software: RSS-News, Calendar, Notes, Sudoku, Games Connectivity: Mini USB; Memory RAM 64 Mb, Internal 512Mb, User-accessible 466Mb; Memory slot: microSD, microSDHC card; Battery: Li-Polymer (1000 mAh); Size with cover: 4.6 x 5.5 x 0.47 118 x 140 x 12 mm Size without cover: 4.6 x 5.5 x 0.39 118 x 140 x 10 mm Weight: 5.3 ounces /150 g Color: Ivory What's in the package: PB 360 reader, hard protective cover, USB wire, User Manual
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Ebook readers have been arriving in ever greater tidal waves over the past few years, some loaded with features, others barely able to perform as ebook readers. This January when I began my search, I was looking for one feature, the ability to read books easily, without eye strain. I have no desire to divide my mind with music or the internet while reading.
So when my ivory colored Pocketbook 360° appeared before my eyes--lean, light, and beautiful--I had a feeling that it would be a perfect fit. In fact, being the size of a CD case, and weighing a mere 5.3 ounces (half that of the Kindle or Nook), it fit perfectly in my pocket.
The 360° is the latest model from PocketBook Global, the Ukraine-Taiwan company with offices in Long Island and Kansas City. It gets its name from its built in accelerometer which allows for automatic orientation of pages in portrait or landscape mode. The text reflow looks like magic the first time you see it and is a real boon for lefties.
The device comes well packaged and opens easily. The detachable hard shell protective cover has a beautiful swirling design and attaches to the back for safe keeping, adding no bulk to the size, unlike most eBook covers. It connects via USB and is instantly recognized on Intel Macs and PCs. You simply drag your files onto the icon.
The 360° reads more formats than any reader out there, including FB2, FB2.zip, TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, TCR, JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF. There is also native support of Adobe Digital Editions, which means you can read DRM protected EPUBs and PDFs as well as free library books. It also supports a wide range of languages, Latin and Cyrillic based and also Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew.
EASY ON THE EYES
Sporting a 5" E-Ink Vizplex 600x800 166dpi, with 16 grayscale levels, the screen looks sharp, has great contrast and is glare free, perfect for reading books without eye strain. You can take it outdoors and read easily in direct sunlight.
With the included FBReader, you can choose one of several fonts or add your own, size them from tiny to elephantine, change the margins and line spacing, and zoom in several levels.
SPEEDY NAVIGATION
Speed is the word for Pocketbook 360°. Just 10 seconds after booting, you'll see the menus. Books open in 5 seconds. Flipping pages is as fast or faster than any eBook reader I've heard of. The refresh between pages is about half a second, twice as fast as the Kindle or Nook, and hardly noticeable. And that's with DRM and non-DRM ePUBs and PDFs.
Pocketbook's next version of firmware will add the ability to turn a page with just the flick of your wrist. A turn to the right goes back, a turn to the left moves forward. The 360°s motion sensor will act as a trigger for the page turns.
The feature is already available using a custom version of FBReader from:
[...]
SEARCHING
Simplicity here is a plus. With its large wing-shaped forward/back buttons that give a nice audible click and a very responsive directional joypad, the 360° really flies. No need for a heavy physical keyboard or the glare from a touch screen.
The pop-up virtual keyboard works with dictionaries, applications, working with files and creating notes. It's also a turbo speed searcher. Just a tap of the joypad and a couple clicks and your word is found and highlighted. The 360° always finds your last place in a book, never loses bookmarks, easily jumps to a specific page.
MENUS
The main menu offers quick access to your two recently read titles, plus icons to take you to eBooks, News (via a Windows-only RSS feed downloader), favorites, photos, dictionary, notes, apps, calendar or settings. Applications included are a clock, a calculator, a dictionary, and games (solitaire, chess, Sudoku, SeaBattle).
While in a book, tapping the center of the joypad brings up a quick menu. When reading EPUBS, the lower right hand icon brings up a settings menu for choosing almost any font size. Though not available with PDFs or DRM files, you can still use the up arrow to chose from five levels of zoom.
The 360°'s speed covers folder support too with hierarchical and directory structure. You have 3 ways to view content--with icons, thumbnails, or in a list. Flags next to the icons signal whether a book is not yet read, being read, or finished. Comparing to the big boys, the Kindle still lacks folder support and the Nook has a more complicated, split screen personality.
SLEEP, SHUT DOWN, AND BATTERY LIFE
The Pocketbook 360° has a sleep mode, key lock mode and automatic shut off, but with such fast boots, I just turn it off manually when I'm done.
The battery is rated 8,000 page turns, so if you use it 4 hours a day without sleeping or locking the keys, you'll enjoy 2-3 weeks of reading. Even with the accelerometer activated, long shut-off settings, and an SDcard inserted, you'll still get over a week of use. And best of all, the battery is user-replaceable, so you won't ever need to send it in for a pricey replacement, as with the latest Kindles and all Sony models.
WHAT I'D STILL LIKE TO SEE
Naturally, there's always room for improvement. Luckily, all three of my suggestions are scheduled to be fixed in future versions of firmware. Pocketbook software engineers regularly read forum suggestions and respond to them.
1. An option for starting at the first or last entry when entering a new module--Books, Pictures, etc.
2. A more elegant way to eject the 360° from a Mac. Right now you have to pull the plug to stop the 360°'s icon from reappearing. One user has already posted a fix that works fine using a free program called Hidden Cleaner. [...]
3. On Macs, you need Leopard OS X 10.5 to recognize the 360°. Older versions of OS X do not work yet.
FLEXIBLE FIRMWARE
The 360°'s firmware is another feature that distinguishes it from the crowd. It's completely user configurable. You can change the functions of the all buttons, and even modify the Fbreaders' config file through the main menu.
Thanks to PocketBook's developer kit many applications are also available. Already loaded are several games (chess, cards, sudoku, seabattle) as well as applications (a clock, calculator.) Also available are a language learning program and a terminal emulator for those who can work with Linux.
PRICE TAG
The PocketBook 360° sells for $239.99 at the Pocketbook website, [...]. For $20 extra you get an AC adapter and MicroSD card, so that puts it at the same price as the Kindle and the Nook. But then, Pocketbook's 2 year warranty gives the 360° a clear advantage in value.
SUMMARY
The Pocketbook 360° is one of the simplest, fastest, and most beautiful eBook readers out there. If you want to focus on reading, this may just be the one. If you need 3G and/or Wifi, consider the upcoming Pocketbook 302, but if you just want to read books, you'll appreciate the total ease of use of the 360°.
* Small, light, easy to hold.
* Very fast page turns.
* User-replaceable battery.
* ADE connectivity to buy books or borrow from your library
* Sturdy protective cover.
* Large page turn buttons with left-handed compatibility.
* Excellent customer service replies within hours rather than weeks!
* Two year warranty - twice the standard length
So when my ivory colored Pocketbook 360° appeared before my eyes--lean, light, and beautiful--I had a feeling that it would be a perfect fit. In fact, being the size of a CD case, and weighing a mere 5.3 ounces (half that of the Kindle or Nook), it fit perfectly in my pocket.
The 360° is the latest model from PocketBook Global, the Ukraine-Taiwan company with offices in Long Island and Kansas City. It gets its name from its built in accelerometer which allows for automatic orientation of pages in portrait or landscape mode. The text reflow looks like magic the first time you see it and is a real boon for lefties.
The device comes well packaged and opens easily. The detachable hard shell protective cover has a beautiful swirling design and attaches to the back for safe keeping, adding no bulk to the size, unlike most eBook covers. It connects via USB and is instantly recognized on Intel Macs and PCs. You simply drag your files onto the icon.
The 360° reads more formats than any reader out there, including FB2, FB2.zip, TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, TCR, JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF. There is also native support of Adobe Digital Editions, which means you can read DRM protected EPUBs and PDFs as well as free library books. It also supports a wide range of languages, Latin and Cyrillic based and also Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew.
EASY ON THE EYES
Sporting a 5" E-Ink Vizplex 600x800 166dpi, with 16 grayscale levels, the screen looks sharp, has great contrast and is glare free, perfect for reading books without eye strain. You can take it outdoors and read easily in direct sunlight.
With the included FBReader, you can choose one of several fonts or add your own, size them from tiny to elephantine, change the margins and line spacing, and zoom in several levels.
SPEEDY NAVIGATION
Speed is the word for Pocketbook 360°. Just 10 seconds after booting, you'll see the menus. Books open in 5 seconds. Flipping pages is as fast or faster than any eBook reader I've heard of. The refresh between pages is about half a second, twice as fast as the Kindle or Nook, and hardly noticeable. And that's with DRM and non-DRM ePUBs and PDFs.
Pocketbook's next version of firmware will add the ability to turn a page with just the flick of your wrist. A turn to the right goes back, a turn to the left moves forward. The 360°s motion sensor will act as a trigger for the page turns.
The feature is already available using a custom version of FBReader from:
[...]
SEARCHING
Simplicity here is a plus. With its large wing-shaped forward/back buttons that give a nice audible click and a very responsive directional joypad, the 360° really flies. No need for a heavy physical keyboard or the glare from a touch screen.
The pop-up virtual keyboard works with dictionaries, applications, working with files and creating notes. It's also a turbo speed searcher. Just a tap of the joypad and a couple clicks and your word is found and highlighted. The 360° always finds your last place in a book, never loses bookmarks, easily jumps to a specific page.
MENUS
The main menu offers quick access to your two recently read titles, plus icons to take you to eBooks, News (via a Windows-only RSS feed downloader), favorites, photos, dictionary, notes, apps, calendar or settings. Applications included are a clock, a calculator, a dictionary, and games (solitaire, chess, Sudoku, SeaBattle).
While in a book, tapping the center of the joypad brings up a quick menu. When reading EPUBS, the lower right hand icon brings up a settings menu for choosing almost any font size. Though not available with PDFs or DRM files, you can still use the up arrow to chose from five levels of zoom.
The 360°'s speed covers folder support too with hierarchical and directory structure. You have 3 ways to view content--with icons, thumbnails, or in a list. Flags next to the icons signal whether a book is not yet read, being read, or finished. Comparing to the big boys, the Kindle still lacks folder support and the Nook has a more complicated, split screen personality.
SLEEP, SHUT DOWN, AND BATTERY LIFE
The Pocketbook 360° has a sleep mode, key lock mode and automatic shut off, but with such fast boots, I just turn it off manually when I'm done.
The battery is rated 8,000 page turns, so if you use it 4 hours a day without sleeping or locking the keys, you'll enjoy 2-3 weeks of reading. Even with the accelerometer activated, long shut-off settings, and an SDcard inserted, you'll still get over a week of use. And best of all, the battery is user-replaceable, so you won't ever need to send it in for a pricey replacement, as with the latest Kindles and all Sony models.
WHAT I'D STILL LIKE TO SEE
Naturally, there's always room for improvement. Luckily, all three of my suggestions are scheduled to be fixed in future versions of firmware. Pocketbook software engineers regularly read forum suggestions and respond to them.
1. An option for starting at the first or last entry when entering a new module--Books, Pictures, etc.
2. A more elegant way to eject the 360° from a Mac. Right now you have to pull the plug to stop the 360°'s icon from reappearing. One user has already posted a fix that works fine using a free program called Hidden Cleaner. [...]
3. On Macs, you need Leopard OS X 10.5 to recognize the 360°. Older versions of OS X do not work yet.
FLEXIBLE FIRMWARE
The 360°'s firmware is another feature that distinguishes it from the crowd. It's completely user configurable. You can change the functions of the all buttons, and even modify the Fbreaders' config file through the main menu.
Thanks to PocketBook's developer kit many applications are also available. Already loaded are several games (chess, cards, sudoku, seabattle) as well as applications (a clock, calculator.) Also available are a language learning program and a terminal emulator for those who can work with Linux.
PRICE TAG
The PocketBook 360° sells for $239.99 at the Pocketbook website, [...]. For $20 extra you get an AC adapter and MicroSD card, so that puts it at the same price as the Kindle and the Nook. But then, Pocketbook's 2 year warranty gives the 360° a clear advantage in value.
SUMMARY
The Pocketbook 360° is one of the simplest, fastest, and most beautiful eBook readers out there. If you want to focus on reading, this may just be the one. If you need 3G and/or Wifi, consider the upcoming Pocketbook 302, but if you just want to read books, you'll appreciate the total ease of use of the 360°.
* Small, light, easy to hold.
* Very fast page turns.
* User-replaceable battery.
* ADE connectivity to buy books or borrow from your library
* Sturdy protective cover.
* Large page turn buttons with left-handed compatibility.
* Excellent customer service replies within hours rather than weeks!
* Two year warranty - twice the standard length
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
I'd been in the market for an e-reader for a while, but none of them seemed to fit my extremely basic list of requirements: native HTML support and user-expandable storage.
Enter the Pocketbook 360. Unlike most e-readers, it runs good old Linux, meaning that independent developers can port programs to the device, everything from games to map viewers. The 360 ships with multiple programs to display e-books, and users can set their favorite as default. Most seem to prefer the open-source FBReader, which is extremely customizable and handles a wide variety of e-book formats, including epub, fb2, pdf, html, rtf, and txt.
The customization options, both for the device and the software, are staggering. Button functions can be reconfigured to suit the user's preferences, as can the device's start-up behavior and menu layout. But control over the display of e-books is where the Pocketbook really shines. Users can load their own fonts, set margins and spacing, and specify precise styles for about 30 different text elements. I love the ability to tweak my reading environment to be exactly as I like it, rather than having to settle for manufacturer defaults.
Pocketbook 360 also has a nifty feature I've never seen in another e-reader. The latest version of FBReader includes the option to use the 360's internal accelerometer to turn the page simply by tilting the device, without pressing a single button. And for an example of the detail of customization, you can select the speed of the gesture, the degree of sensitivity, and the direction of navigation.
The device itself is a pleasure to use. Small and lightweight, with good screen and a clever built-in protective cover. Response speed is extremely good, buttons are well positioned (for both left and right-handed users) and don't feel flimsy. It lacks a touchscreen and a wireless connection, but as these options would have added size and weight and decreased screen clarity and battery life, I don't miss them at all.
Last but not least, customer support is excellent, and the 360 comes with a two year warranty, double that of most other e-readers.
Anyone in the market for a solid, flexible e-reader should take a serious look at the Pocketbook 360.
Enter the Pocketbook 360. Unlike most e-readers, it runs good old Linux, meaning that independent developers can port programs to the device, everything from games to map viewers. The 360 ships with multiple programs to display e-books, and users can set their favorite as default. Most seem to prefer the open-source FBReader, which is extremely customizable and handles a wide variety of e-book formats, including epub, fb2, pdf, html, rtf, and txt.
The customization options, both for the device and the software, are staggering. Button functions can be reconfigured to suit the user's preferences, as can the device's start-up behavior and menu layout. But control over the display of e-books is where the Pocketbook really shines. Users can load their own fonts, set margins and spacing, and specify precise styles for about 30 different text elements. I love the ability to tweak my reading environment to be exactly as I like it, rather than having to settle for manufacturer defaults.
Pocketbook 360 also has a nifty feature I've never seen in another e-reader. The latest version of FBReader includes the option to use the 360's internal accelerometer to turn the page simply by tilting the device, without pressing a single button. And for an example of the detail of customization, you can select the speed of the gesture, the degree of sensitivity, and the direction of navigation.
The device itself is a pleasure to use. Small and lightweight, with good screen and a clever built-in protective cover. Response speed is extremely good, buttons are well positioned (for both left and right-handed users) and don't feel flimsy. It lacks a touchscreen and a wireless connection, but as these options would have added size and weight and decreased screen clarity and battery life, I don't miss them at all.
Last but not least, customer support is excellent, and the 360 comes with a two year warranty, double that of most other e-readers.
Anyone in the market for a solid, flexible e-reader should take a serious look at the Pocketbook 360.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
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PocketBook 360 eInk eReader / B003470UH4
NOTE: There is a video that accompanies this review. Amazon can't seem to upload it, so I've placed it on YouTube - the link is in the comments following this review. Thank you!
My household is quickly becoming quite the collection of eReaders - I have an android phone stuffed to the gills with various reading apps, a Nook Classic, a Nook Color, and now a PocketBook 360. I love all my eReaders, but I love my newest member of the family the most because it meets so many of my needs so eloquently.
I have a bad back, and lately I've found that instead of carting around my two (wonderful) Nooks with me everywhere I go, I've been relying more and more on my phone for my "out and about" reading fix. This was not an entirely satisfactory solution, though - my phone was almost impossible to read in full sunlight and my phone didn't easily hold a charge for very long and my constant reading was draining it too quickly. I decided that I needed something that was about the size of my phone (small, light, portable), but with the advantages of eInk (visible in sunlight, slow battery burn). After a LOT of searching online I finally narrowed my choices down to the PocketBook 360 and the Sony PRS-350.
I eventually went with the PocketBook 360 because I felt it met my needs more than the Sony PRS-350, but it's important to note that the differences between the two devices are slight and the relative importance of these differences is going to be subjective. My own mother was terribly excited to see my PocketBook 360 - after having heard so much about it, she had decided she wanted one for Mother's Day - but after sitting down with it for awhile, she finally admitted that it wasn't quite what she wanted after all. I asked her what was important to her in a device, and five minutes later, I told her what she needed was the Sony PRS-350. We went down to look at one and bought it that day, and she couldn't be happier - so it really is a matter of personal preference. With that in mind, here is my own run down of the differences (in my opinion) between the PocketBook 360 and the Sony PRS-350.
1. Memory size and expansion options. The PocketBook 360 comes with a relatively meager 512MB of memory, but has a micro SD card expansion slot that is capable of holding up to 32GB of extra memory. The Sony PRS-350, by contrast, has a nice-sized 2GB storage, but doesn't provide SD card expansion - 2GB is all you ever get. There's a lot of estimates online about library sizes, but for my own needs, my 740-book library is about 3.5GB, or in other words about 1.5GB more than the Sony can accommodate.
For me, SD card expansion was a crucial "deal breaker" issue for two reasons. Firstly, I have an almost compulsive need to have my library available at all times - it's the main reason that I set up my phone to be able to download any title in my library pretty much anywhere in the world (as long as I have 3G or wireless) from a private account I set up specifically for this purpose. I didn't want to give that up with my new portable eReader, since it would feel like a major step backwards. Secondly, I knew with this purchase that I would have 4 eReaders in the household and I didn't want to have to keep my library current on all four of them at once - better to just have my library on a single card that I could slap in and out of the different eReaders as necessary.
On the other hand, my mother basically uses her eReader to read library books and she might in the future start buying books for it, but I am fairly confident that 2GB will meet her needs for a long, long time. So where SD card expansion was a major deciding issue for me, it was almost meaningless as a factor when shopping for her.
2. Device weight and portability. The PocketBook 360 is almost exactly the size and shape of a standard CD jewel case. The Sony PRS-350 is a little larger and thicker, but not noticeably so. Both are extremely light - the PocketBook is 5.3 ounces by itself and 6.6 ounces with the snap-on cover, and the Sony PRS-350 is 5.65 ounces by itself with the covers coming in varying degrees of weight. (By contrast, the average CD jewel case with a single CD is 3 ounces. The Kindle 3 is 8.7 ounces, and the iPad is approximately 24 ounces!)
Obviously, weight-wise, the PocketBook 360 and Sony PRS-350 are extremely similar. For me, the Sony PRS-350 *felt* heavier - the device has a solid metal chrome frame around it that seemed to feel weighty. By contrast, the PocketBook 360 has a very light plastic feel that seems (to me) easier to hold and balance over long periods of time. I can see some people preferring the Sony PRS-350 for the more solid feel and sturdier construction; for me, since I was looking for the lightest device on the market, the softer plastic feel was exactly what I wanted.
3. Library management, software interaction, and device customization. The PocketBook 360 is a very easy-going little device - it's more than happy to help you customize it to your heart's content and interface with the device however you please, but conversely it doesn't really hold your hand through the process. The Sony PRS-350 is much more strict - you can only do certain things a certain way, but on the other hand, it's harder to muck those things up by accident. Where you fall in terms of preference will probably depend on how much of a control-freak you are over your electronics.
For me, it's absolutely essential that I be able to do precisely what I want with my device, so the PocketBook 360 is ideal. The device has eight buttons, all of which distinguish between "short press" and "long press", and it's possible to map almost every function on the device to one of those keys. I have my device setup so that a short press on the right directional key takes me to the next page, but a long press on the right directional key pulls up the "go to page..." prompt. Pressing the up directional key once zooms in the text, but holding the same key down for a long press creates a bookmark on the current page. Being able to customize my device completely like this feels incredibly intuitive to me, but for someone like my mother, this would be intimidating. Since the keys can be mapped to almost anything, there aren't helpful pictures next to the keys in case you don't immediately remember what does what. The Sony PRS-350, on the other hand, has helpful little pictures on the keys - the arrows turn the pages back and forth, the house button takes you to the home screen, the "options" buttons brings up the appropriate list of options every time. You can't change them, but if you don't *want* them changed, then that's a good thing.
You'll see the same mentality when interacting with the device on your computer. I'm a "drag-and-drop" kind of girl (or, recently, "hit Load Device on Calibre and go to bed while it works" kind of girl) and I use folders and nested structures to organize and navigate my huge library. The PocketBook 360 is extremely friendly to a drag-and-drop mentality, both on the device itself and on any SD card you load in. The Sony PRS-350 on the other hand, seems to really prefer that you use their "Reader Library" management software - you can't even authorize your device with Adobe Digital Editions (i.e., "the software you use to get library books onto your reader") until you've installed the Reader Library program on your computer! As for drag-and-drop, you *can* drag-and-drop books onto the device, but it seems like all the books sensed on the device are dumped into a single "Books" interface, and there's no real way that I could see to enforce nested structures for organization. This is okay if you only have a few dozen books on your device, but (again) if you want to carry your whole library with you at all times, you'll be in a bit of a bind.
For someone like my mother, having a nice new software program managing her device for her is a dream, but for someone like me, having to abandon my carefully controlled folder system is a nightmare. In the same way, I'm "techie" enough to pick and choose my firmware updates, but my mother doesn't want to handle that stuff when she could be reading her library books. When the Sony software insists that, no really, there's an update that needs to be installed, she doesn't mind clicking through and letting the update through. On the other hand, when my PocketBook 360 starting occasionally freezing during routine system locks (all buttons except the "power" button will lock up after a set period of time as a "sleep" method), I was pleased to find a MobileRead forum thread stating that the existing 101.15.1 firmware was a bit buggy and that flashing back to the 101.14.2 would take care of the issue. Five minutes later, my firmware was "back-dated" and problem solved. (Other things you can do quickly and easily from the PocketBook 360 device include resetting to factory settings, wiping your SD card entirely, moving books from SD card to the device and vice versa, and resetting your books to an "unread" state - i.e., no bookmarks, no notes, no last-read-page remembered, etc.) Once again, it's very much a matter of personal preference.
4. eBook formats and DRM limitations. The Sony PRS-350 supports ePub, LRF, PDF, RTF, and TXT; the PocketBook 360 supports CHM (now you, too, can read computer help files on your eReader on the go!), DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTML, MOBI, PDF, PRC, RTF, TCR, TXT. The PocketBook 360 has different "reader apps" on the device and the user can set which readers to use with which formats by default. (For instance, PDF files can be viewed in "AdobeViewer" or "PDFviewer". Read more ›
NOTE: There is a video that accompanies this review. Amazon can't seem to upload it, so I've placed it on YouTube - the link is in the comments following this review. Thank you!
My household is quickly becoming quite the collection of eReaders - I have an android phone stuffed to the gills with various reading apps, a Nook Classic, a Nook Color, and now a PocketBook 360. I love all my eReaders, but I love my newest member of the family the most because it meets so many of my needs so eloquently.
I have a bad back, and lately I've found that instead of carting around my two (wonderful) Nooks with me everywhere I go, I've been relying more and more on my phone for my "out and about" reading fix. This was not an entirely satisfactory solution, though - my phone was almost impossible to read in full sunlight and my phone didn't easily hold a charge for very long and my constant reading was draining it too quickly. I decided that I needed something that was about the size of my phone (small, light, portable), but with the advantages of eInk (visible in sunlight, slow battery burn). After a LOT of searching online I finally narrowed my choices down to the PocketBook 360 and the Sony PRS-350.
I eventually went with the PocketBook 360 because I felt it met my needs more than the Sony PRS-350, but it's important to note that the differences between the two devices are slight and the relative importance of these differences is going to be subjective. My own mother was terribly excited to see my PocketBook 360 - after having heard so much about it, she had decided she wanted one for Mother's Day - but after sitting down with it for awhile, she finally admitted that it wasn't quite what she wanted after all. I asked her what was important to her in a device, and five minutes later, I told her what she needed was the Sony PRS-350. We went down to look at one and bought it that day, and she couldn't be happier - so it really is a matter of personal preference. With that in mind, here is my own run down of the differences (in my opinion) between the PocketBook 360 and the Sony PRS-350.
1. Memory size and expansion options. The PocketBook 360 comes with a relatively meager 512MB of memory, but has a micro SD card expansion slot that is capable of holding up to 32GB of extra memory. The Sony PRS-350, by contrast, has a nice-sized 2GB storage, but doesn't provide SD card expansion - 2GB is all you ever get. There's a lot of estimates online about library sizes, but for my own needs, my 740-book library is about 3.5GB, or in other words about 1.5GB more than the Sony can accommodate.
For me, SD card expansion was a crucial "deal breaker" issue for two reasons. Firstly, I have an almost compulsive need to have my library available at all times - it's the main reason that I set up my phone to be able to download any title in my library pretty much anywhere in the world (as long as I have 3G or wireless) from a private account I set up specifically for this purpose. I didn't want to give that up with my new portable eReader, since it would feel like a major step backwards. Secondly, I knew with this purchase that I would have 4 eReaders in the household and I didn't want to have to keep my library current on all four of them at once - better to just have my library on a single card that I could slap in and out of the different eReaders as necessary.
On the other hand, my mother basically uses her eReader to read library books and she might in the future start buying books for it, but I am fairly confident that 2GB will meet her needs for a long, long time. So where SD card expansion was a major deciding issue for me, it was almost meaningless as a factor when shopping for her.
2. Device weight and portability. The PocketBook 360 is almost exactly the size and shape of a standard CD jewel case. The Sony PRS-350 is a little larger and thicker, but not noticeably so. Both are extremely light - the PocketBook is 5.3 ounces by itself and 6.6 ounces with the snap-on cover, and the Sony PRS-350 is 5.65 ounces by itself with the covers coming in varying degrees of weight. (By contrast, the average CD jewel case with a single CD is 3 ounces. The Kindle 3 is 8.7 ounces, and the iPad is approximately 24 ounces!)
Obviously, weight-wise, the PocketBook 360 and Sony PRS-350 are extremely similar. For me, the Sony PRS-350 *felt* heavier - the device has a solid metal chrome frame around it that seemed to feel weighty. By contrast, the PocketBook 360 has a very light plastic feel that seems (to me) easier to hold and balance over long periods of time. I can see some people preferring the Sony PRS-350 for the more solid feel and sturdier construction; for me, since I was looking for the lightest device on the market, the softer plastic feel was exactly what I wanted.
3. Library management, software interaction, and device customization. The PocketBook 360 is a very easy-going little device - it's more than happy to help you customize it to your heart's content and interface with the device however you please, but conversely it doesn't really hold your hand through the process. The Sony PRS-350 is much more strict - you can only do certain things a certain way, but on the other hand, it's harder to muck those things up by accident. Where you fall in terms of preference will probably depend on how much of a control-freak you are over your electronics.
For me, it's absolutely essential that I be able to do precisely what I want with my device, so the PocketBook 360 is ideal. The device has eight buttons, all of which distinguish between "short press" and "long press", and it's possible to map almost every function on the device to one of those keys. I have my device setup so that a short press on the right directional key takes me to the next page, but a long press on the right directional key pulls up the "go to page..." prompt. Pressing the up directional key once zooms in the text, but holding the same key down for a long press creates a bookmark on the current page. Being able to customize my device completely like this feels incredibly intuitive to me, but for someone like my mother, this would be intimidating. Since the keys can be mapped to almost anything, there aren't helpful pictures next to the keys in case you don't immediately remember what does what. The Sony PRS-350, on the other hand, has helpful little pictures on the keys - the arrows turn the pages back and forth, the house button takes you to the home screen, the "options" buttons brings up the appropriate list of options every time. You can't change them, but if you don't *want* them changed, then that's a good thing.
You'll see the same mentality when interacting with the device on your computer. I'm a "drag-and-drop" kind of girl (or, recently, "hit Load Device on Calibre and go to bed while it works" kind of girl) and I use folders and nested structures to organize and navigate my huge library. The PocketBook 360 is extremely friendly to a drag-and-drop mentality, both on the device itself and on any SD card you load in. The Sony PRS-350 on the other hand, seems to really prefer that you use their "Reader Library" management software - you can't even authorize your device with Adobe Digital Editions (i.e., "the software you use to get library books onto your reader") until you've installed the Reader Library program on your computer! As for drag-and-drop, you *can* drag-and-drop books onto the device, but it seems like all the books sensed on the device are dumped into a single "Books" interface, and there's no real way that I could see to enforce nested structures for organization. This is okay if you only have a few dozen books on your device, but (again) if you want to carry your whole library with you at all times, you'll be in a bit of a bind.
For someone like my mother, having a nice new software program managing her device for her is a dream, but for someone like me, having to abandon my carefully controlled folder system is a nightmare. In the same way, I'm "techie" enough to pick and choose my firmware updates, but my mother doesn't want to handle that stuff when she could be reading her library books. When the Sony software insists that, no really, there's an update that needs to be installed, she doesn't mind clicking through and letting the update through. On the other hand, when my PocketBook 360 starting occasionally freezing during routine system locks (all buttons except the "power" button will lock up after a set period of time as a "sleep" method), I was pleased to find a MobileRead forum thread stating that the existing 101.15.1 firmware was a bit buggy and that flashing back to the 101.14.2 would take care of the issue. Five minutes later, my firmware was "back-dated" and problem solved. (Other things you can do quickly and easily from the PocketBook 360 device include resetting to factory settings, wiping your SD card entirely, moving books from SD card to the device and vice versa, and resetting your books to an "unread" state - i.e., no bookmarks, no notes, no last-read-page remembered, etc.) Once again, it's very much a matter of personal preference.
4. eBook formats and DRM limitations. The Sony PRS-350 supports ePub, LRF, PDF, RTF, and TXT; the PocketBook 360 supports CHM (now you, too, can read computer help files on your eReader on the go!), DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTML, MOBI, PDF, PRC, RTF, TCR, TXT. The PocketBook 360 has different "reader apps" on the device and the user can set which readers to use with which formats by default. (For instance, PDF files can be viewed in "AdobeViewer" or "PDFviewer". Read more ›
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