Customer Reviews

Sony PRS700BC Digital Book Reader

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I had a Sony reader PRS-505 for a year then bought the new PRS-700 model.
The new model comes with a touch screen put over the letter screen, allowing to turn pages back and forth with swiping motion like iphone. As a result there are fewer buttons for control; a stylus is provided to highlight or search words and make notes.
A little drawback: The added layer of the touch screen causes the underlying letters to appear slightly foggy. However, unless you have a previous model next to the new one to compare, you wouldn't notice it. The appearance of the letters is still excellent. The new PRS 700 offers LED lights around the screen to allow reading in a dark environment. It is slightly thicker and comes in one color. (black). It can now take up to 8G SD card instead of 2G. The grey scale is 8; the resolution is 170 psi---no change from previous model. I upgraded to the new model after thinking about the slightly diminished appearance of the ink letters; I am very happy with the purchase.

I have never left a review on Amazon.com before, although I have bought many products here over the years.
I decided to leave a review for the Sony Portable Reader 700, since there seems to be some misconception regarding this product, and there aren't ENOUGH (real) reviews here, as opposed to the Kindle (Amazon's own proprietary reader, which is heavily advertised here). I think the reason for this is because amazon reading device, is sold EXCLUSIVELY on Amazon.com to Americans. So it's only natural that it has many hundreds of reviews on this site.
The Sony Readers are sold in thousands of locations, airports, stores, online, bookstores etc. and in several countries around the world. Since very few Sony Reader owners bought their device on Amazon, it's only natural that the reviews here are much fewer. (Then unfortunately there are the Trolls, who leave fake bad 'reviews' for the Sony Reader, trying to damage the ratings for some reason known only to themselves).

This is Sony's 4th e-ink Reader. First the Librie in 2004 which was the very first e-ink reader in the world, then theSony PRS-500 Portable Reader System, in 2006. The PRS-505 which came in three colors in 2007 ; Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader,Sony PRS-505/RC Digital eBook Reader - Red, Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Reader System (Silver) and now the latest Sony PRS-700 Reader Digital Book Portable eBook reader with 6" touchscreen display. The reason I mention the 700's predecessors is to point out that Sony isn't new at the e-ink (e-paper) business. In fact, they were the first!

I had a hard time deciding between the PRS-505 Red and the PRS-700. The PRS-505 has a slightly crisper screen and I LOVED the stylish red color of the device, especially paired with a red leather cover. But for me, the PRS-700 has better features, and more fancy bells and whistles (and comes with a free cover).
I decided on the 700, as it had what I wanted most, and it was the latest :).

The device is very grown-up and stylish looking, great to hold, (not too heavy) and looks EXPENSIVE and nice! Non gimmicky and no cheap plastic here, but then again, that is what we have come to expect from a Sony product.
The touch screen is interactive and can be used as a virtual keyboard to make notes. Words can be highlighted and saved, pages can be bookmarked, small natural gestures to turn pages, (there are also small well placed buttons for page turns and zoom etc.) using either the stylus or your fingers. The last page on the books you are reading is remembered, so it takes seconds to continue reading a book where you left off last time.

Page turns are super fast and there is an ability to zoom into PDF documents and move them around on the page. Hundreds of books, documents, photos, images and mp3's can be stored on the internal device and there are two options for expanding. A SD Memory Card slot and Memory Stick Duo slot, thereby increasing the amount space of books to virtually UNLIMITED!

The Sony PRS-700 supports many document types, PDF, ePub, TXT, RFT, to name just a few. So books can be bought from many sources NOT only the Sony Connect store. Your own documents and ebooks that you already own, can be easily and quickly transferred to your device. A free open source library software called Calibre, (that works very much like iTunes) works fantastically with your Sony and even converts file types and adds metadata and book covers for you.

Sony has recently partnered with Google books bringing their book count up to 600'000 books! The 500'00 Google books are free and mostly in the ePub format. Fantastic news!

Some people have complained about foggy screen, but I don't feel that to be the case. Yes, yes.... I hear that the 505's screen is crisper, but since I don't have one to compare with I don't feel the loss and I'm quite happy - MORE than happy with my personal choice. I have sometimes forgotten that I am using a Reader and slathered my hands with lotion before going to bed (to read), but found NO smudges on the screen the next day. The Sony PRS-700 definitely has a fantastic NON SMUDGE screen.

Also complaints about glare.... WHAT glare? Honestly! The only (small) glare that I encountered was a small spot off the metal edge of the device, and then again only if an artificial light was shining directly on the device.. A tiny adjustment to to the angle - GONE! Oh, and fantastic to read outside!!

All in all, I highly recommend this product for quality, ease of use, support of many formats, thousands of books, stylish design, reasonable price, ability to read in the dark (built in LEDs), and 'coolness' factor!

On a final note I would like to add that there are many ebook and e-ink Readers and devices out on the market now. For eg. The Illiad, Kindle, Bebook, Bookeen Cybook, Hanlin etc etc. There is no wrong or right choice. Do your homework and find the ebook device that best suits YOUR needs. And all those fanatics that support ONLY your own device and try to damage the rating of others.... WHY! That is just plain silly. Who hates their neighbor because they drive a different model car, or hates their friends of family because their mobile phone is a different make or model? I think we should be open minded in order to increase the availability of e-BOOKS, not necessarily of a specific device. IMHO

The most striking change in the new 700 when compared to the 505 is the new touch screen. Unfortunately, this is the exact thing that has actually caused the 700 to be a less desirable product than the 505. The main problem is readibility. With the 505, the E-ink screen is really like paper. You can read it in low light, angles, etc., and it is very clear. That is not the case with the 700. Due to the touch screen addition, the screen now looks much more like the grayscale screen on something like a graphing calculator. There is a significant decrease in contrast (the "white" now looks "gray"). I found it hard to read in some normal lighting conditions and it also had more glare than the 505. For example, when sitting in a normally lit room in the evening, with a light causing a mild shadow on the reader, I could not see then text (but could easily read a book in the same light. And the tragedy about this is the touch screen to me is a big "who cares". The 505 was easy enough to navigate. The only real new features are the notes and search, and I can't say that I have ever wanted to write notes in my books or search for words. Maybe you will, but I don't.

The other downgrade is navigation. By losing some buttons in favor of the touchscreen, more items now must by chosen on screen. An exaple - changing fonts with the 505 is one button press and it cycles to the next font size. With the 700, you have to press the font size key, then touch the screen to the desired font, then touch the screen to close the menu. Finally, in terms of user interface, the previous page turn buttons just seemed to sit at a natural location and were natural to use. Swiping your finger if you are holding the reader now requires a second hand (again, minor but a strange downgrade). (Oh - there are still page turn buttons, but they are now in the middle of the bottom, and awkward to get at with one hand.

The upgrades - a faster processor means quicker navigation, page turns, etc. This is very nice. Also, you can scroll pages and it quickly flashes up each page as you scroll. Very Nice. The built in LED is OK, but the above problem with the decreased contrast means it is already harder to see, and using the marginal lighting of the LED required me to always use a larger font or I could not see the text without straining. Finally, the internal memory is increased, but again, who cares, as an SD card can be added for a few dollars.

This past fall, I bought the Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader a few weeks PRIOR to finding out that Sony was going to be releasing a new model. At first, my inner gadget-aholic was crushed -- I wouldn't have the latest and greatest.

However, after now being able to compare and contrast -- I'm convinced that the PRS-505 is still a better reader.

-- The PRS-505 screen is a non-glare screen so that it doesn't show fingerprints and smudges.
-- I believe the buttons make for a much more user-friendly interface than the touch screen. I just don't really see the value of the touch screen.
-- The screen (and more importantly, the print) is significantly clearer on the PRS-505. This is due to the fact that in an effort to appease the "why isn't there backlighting" crowd, Sony has added LEDs around the frame to try to facilitate reading in the dark. This has had the effect of significantly reducing the contrast and clarity of the type.
-- From a tactile perspective -- I really don't like the ridges on the left hand side of the device. I'm left-handed so I tend to hold the reader with my left hand and it is not a nice feeling.
-- The PRS-505 is nearly 150.00 bucks cheaper than the 700. This will buy a lot of ebooks! And the trade off -- having to push buttons rather than having a touch screen is not worth the money.

It is clear that Sony has put the PRS-700 out to compete with the iRex iLiad Book Edition which has a touch screen and is twice the price. But it just doesn't cut it because the wireless capability is still not there.

If you would like to download newspapers etc, I would suggest checking out Calibre -- though, come to think of it, not sure if it works with the 700.

Calibre is a free/shareware book management utility and it also has a feature that allows you to "Fetch News". The list includes the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Wired, CNN, BBC, LA Times, and many foreign news sources as well. You can set up a schedule to have them downloaded auto-magically to your computer and to your Sony Reader.

Here is the link for Calibre:

http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/

Also, the MobileRead Forum is a very useful place to get information on where to get additional content any reader that exists today:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/

[[ standard disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with either of these sites or organizations -- I just found them to be EXTREMELY useful if you are new to the world of eReaders, DRM issues, device management etc.]]

When you compare the Sony PRS-700BC against the PRS-505 -- you are MUCH better sticking with the 505.

That said, if you are trying to decide between the Kindle or the Iliad, Sony, in my humble opinion still has the advantage.

-- Cost: The new Sony is still competitively priced with the Kindle and has a much better build and aesthetic quality (no cheap plastic here).
-- Supports a wider variety of formats than the Kindle: Amazon's Wireless Reading Device (though the Iliad is best from that respect -- but not 300.00 bucks better).
-- better response time and page turns

No, the Sony still doesn't have wireless -- but again, that is not a limitation for me. If you really want to read newspapers on the eReader, you can get Caliber (a shareware format conversion and library management program) and download periodicals onto your PC and then use the USB connection to get them onto the reader.

For me, the thing that I really like about the Sony readers is that they are solidly built -- they use a metal case as opposed to cheap plastic. This makes the device heavier but to me, that is a bit like reading a hardcover vs a paperback. I personally prefer the more substantial feel.

The upshot -- if you are trying to decide whether to get the "latest Sony Technology" -- don't. Save your money and stick with the PRS 505. However, if you are trying to decide between Sony and one of the the main competitors (Iliad, Kindle, Ectaco jetBook e-Book Reader - Red), then go with the Sony.

NCJAR

I have never left a review on Amazon.com before, (out of laziness) although I have bought many products here over the years.
I decided to leave a review for the Sony Portable Reader 700, since there seems to be some misconception regarding this product, and there aren't ENOUGH (real) reviews here, as opposed to the Kindle (Amazon's own proprietary reader, which is heavily advertised here). I think the reason for this is because amazon reading device, is sold EXCLUSIVELY on Amazon.com to Americans. So it's only natural that it has many hundreds of reviews on this site.
The Sony Readers are sold in thousands of locations, airports, stores, online, bookstores etc. and in several countries around the world. Since very few Sony Reader owners bought their device on Amazon, it's only natural that the reviews here are much fewer. (Then unfortunately there are the Trolls, who leave fake bad 'reviews' for the Sony Reader, trying to damage the ratings for some reason known only to themselves).

This is Sony's 4th e-ink Reader. First the Librie in 2004 which was the very first e-ink reader in the world, then the Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader System, in 2006. The PRS-505 which came in three colors in 2007; Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader, the Sony PRS-505/RC Digital eBook Reader - Red, and the Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Reader System (Silver) and now, the LATEST offering, the Sony PRS-700 Reader Digital Book Portable eBook reader with 6" touchscreen display.
The reason I mention the 700's predecessors is to point out that Sony isn't new at the e-ink (e-paper) business. In fact, they were the first!

I had a hard time deciding between the PRS-505 Red and the PRS-700. The PRS-505 has a slightly crisper screen and I LOVED the stylish red color of the device, especially paired with a red leather cover. But for me, the PRS-700 has better features, and more fancy bells and whistles (and comes with a free cover).
I decided on the 700 and although it's only available in black, it has the features that I wanted most, and it is the latest :).

The device is very grown-up and stylish looking, great to hold, (not too heavy) and looks EXPENSIVE and nice! Non gimmicky and no cheap plastic here, but then again, that is what we have come to expect from a Sony product.
The touch screen is interactive and can be used as a virtual keyboard to make notes. Words can be highlighted and saved, pages can be bookmarked, small natural gestures to turn pages, (there are also small well placed buttons for page turns and zoom etc.) using either the stylus or your fingers. The last page on all the books you are reading, is remembered, so it takes only seconds to continue reading a book where you left off last time.

Page turns are super fast and there is an ability to zoom into PDF documents, and move them around on the page. Hundreds of books, documents, photos, images and mp3's can be stored on the internal device and there are two options for expanding. A SD Memory Card slot (a 4 GB card is in this bundle) and Memory Stick Duo slot, thereby increasing the amount space of books to virtually UNLIMITED!

The Sony PRS-700 supports many document types, PDF, ePub, TXT, RFT, to name just a few. So books can be bought from many sources NOT only the Sony Connect store. Your own documents and ebooks that you already own, can be easily and quickly transferred to your device. A free open source library software called Calibre, (that works very much like iTunes) works fantastically with your Sony and even converts file types and adds metadata and book covers for you.

Sony has recently partnered with Google books bringing their book count up to 600'000 books! The 500'00 Google books are free and mostly in the ePub format. Fantastic news!

Some people have complained about foggy screen, but I don't feel that to be the case. Yes, yes.... I hear that the 505's screen is crisper, but since I don't have one to compare with I don't feel the loss, and I'm quite happy - MORE than happy with my personal choice. I have sometimes forgotten that I am using a Reader and slathered my hands with lotion before going to bed (to read), but found NO smudges on the screen the next day. The Sony PRS-700 definitely has a fantastic NON SMUDGE screen.

Also complaints about glare.... WHAT glare? Honestly! The only (small) glare that I encountered was a small spot off the metal edge of the device, and then again only if an artificial light was shining directly on the device.. A tiny adjustment to to the angle - GONE! Oh, and the Sony Reader is fantastic to read outside!!

All in all, I highly recommend this product for quality, ease of use, support of many formats, thousands of books, stylish design, reasonable price, ability to read in the dark (built in LEDs), and 'coolness' factor!

On a final note I would like to add that there are many ebook and e-ink Readers and devices out on the market now. For eg. The Illiad, Kindle, Bebook, Bookeen Cybook, Hanlin etc etc. There is no wrong or right choice. Do your homework and find the ebook device that best suits YOUR needs. And all those fanatics that support ONLY your own device and try to damage the rating of others.... WHY! That is just plain silly. Who hates their neighbor because they drive a different model car, or hates their friends of family because their mobile phone is a different make or model? I think we should be open minded in order to increase the availability of e-BOOKS, not necessarily of a specific device. IMHO

I have sitting in front of me the Sony PS-505, the Kindle, and the PRS-700BC ebook readers. There is no question that the PRS-700BC is the best of the group. All of them function well and do what is expected but the additions to the 700 make it a step above the others. The touch screen is wonderful, although it reduces the clarity of the screen compared to the other two. This is more than made up for with the surround lighting available. You can read in complete darkness with either the low or high setting on the light without eye strain. The ability to organize my books into Collections allows me to find a specific book readily in my list of over 200 books. The Kindle must add this feature soon or it will lose out quickly. The lack of wireless capability is not something I miss. I have never used it on my Kindle although having the option is nice. The ability to directly import Acrobat (pdf) files with no translation is superior for the 700 and is one of the best features. The only thing I would like to see added is the ability to directly import MS Reader files (lit files). There are readily available tools to convert them to either pdf or rtf format, but saving the extra step would be nice. The battery life is great when not using the light. It will easily last over 30 hours of reading. When using the light (low setting) the battery life is over 6 hours. I haven't let it run completely out so it could be substantially more although the battery gauge had gone to its lowest level. I am planning on giving several of these as gifts in the future because quite a few family members are quite jealous. "Spectacular" is only one of many superlative adjetives that come to mind when describing my new PRS-700BC reader.

I purchased the PRS-700 mainly as a means of reading [...] extensive collection of out-of-copyright books without having to sit in front of my computer. The PRS-700 has been excellent for this task.

Some have complained of the contrast of this reader, but I have found the readability to be excellent. While it is true there is a bad glare if the reader is angled so that it is directly reflecting light into your eyes, the slightest of adjustments takes care of this problem. There is no problem using this device in incandescent, fluorescent, or sunlight. In fact, because it has a built in lights, you can use it in the dark as well. It isn't a back light, but rather a series of lights on either side of the page. This makes the illumination uneven, but there is no problem in reading the text.

Because I intended on using this reader with texts scanned by Google into PDF, I was a little concerned about how long it would take to do page turns. With PDFs that have selectable text, the file sizes are smaller, but when the PDF is essentially an image, the files are much larger. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that that the PRS-700 turned the pages quickly, even in these PDF image documents. Page turns take less than one second -- definitely quicker than a regular book.

The biggest problem I have the the PRS-700, for the purposes I use it, is the zoom feature. There are two ways to zoom on the PRS-700. One increases the font size. This works well for books purchased from the Sony bookstore, or for PDFs or other documents with selectable text. Obviously, increasing the font size will not work on documents like Google's scanned books, since those are more like images than text. The other zoom is just like you would expect, and this works well -- except for one fact. The zoom is not persistent. If you are using this second method of zoom, after you turn the page it reverts to the original size and you have to zoom in again. This takes too much time. I wish Sony would make it possible to persistently zoom across page turns. Until then, I have to crop out the margins of some PDF files so that zooming isn't necessary.

That is a small complaint, though, and easy to work around. All in all, an excellent device. Very happy with my purchase.

First of picking an eReader was not easy since all the available models had pros and cons. For instance, I liked the wireless connectivity of the Kindle, but hated it's style and build quality. I loved the design and style of the Sony PRS-505 but it's didn't have a back-light for use in low light conditions. However, the style, price and the superb contrast of the PRS-505 almost sold me when I decided to take a look at the PRS-700.

At first glance the PRS-700 has some key problems that make it seem unattractive. The touch screen comes at the cost of a lower contrast screen and one that has a little more glare than the others. So, let me start by saying that under bright conditions the PRS-700 is probably the worst performer of either the Kindle or the PRS-505. However, in a brightly lit environment, the 700 by itself (if you were not comparing it to any other eReader) is very good. I've not had any trouble reading a book. The main problem is that the background below the text is not white but slightly off white. As a result the black text does not stand out as much.

Given that it passed the bright light environment. I now looked at other factors. Here is where the PRS 700 really stood out and presented to me the best value among all eReaders today, including the new Kindle2.

1. This reader can be used in all lighting conditions since the backlight is integrated inside the screen. So it works great whether you are on a threadmill or on an airplane or reading on the couch with the TV on in the background.

2. It was the only one that came with a cover and the cover closes neatly on the screen using small magnets so it does not fly around and is excellent when reading (no distracting buckle or hanging closure staps etc.

3. It has the highest capacity of all readers and holds almost 2x as many books as the PRS-505.

4. The touchscreen is excellent for flipping pages, adding bookmarks and such. Makes it much more usable overall. The benefit of flipping a page with your finger is great!

5. Battery life is excellent, but I am not sure how it compares to other Readers. The optional AC charger pretty much charges it up from empty to almost full in 20-30 minutes. Charging via USB takes much longer.

6. Includes 5 preset font sizes which is a breeze to select. Depending upon the situation and reading conditions I often adjust the font.

7. The screen has an anti fingerprint coating and hence stays pretty clean. Again, not sure if other Readers also have this coating. Some of the glare could be due to this anti fingerprint coating on the screen.

8. The build quality is just superb. You have to see it to appreciate just how well built it is.

9. It came with software that allows me to playback books purchased from the Amazon store as well as Sony. The Sony ebook software is nothing fancy, but very easy to use. Reminds me of how itunes used to be. Simple and to the point. No gimmicks of any kind.

Overall, I think Sony has done an excellent job in building a product that can be used effectively in all types of reading environments. On the one hand all other eReaders are better in bright conditions, but all other eReaders are worse in low light conditions (even when you account for an external reading light). In a nutshell, this Reader has the best user interface, the best build quality and the best suited for low light conditions. Other readers are excellent in good light, but terrible is low light. This reader is excellent in low light but good in good light.

Price wise if you consider that the cover in included, that the backlight is included (you can't buy any external light that can compare with a built in back light) that it has the highest capacity and has the most solid build quality one can easily make a case that the touch screen comes for free!

I've owned many products (many of which I have reviewed here), I can easily say that the eReader is one of the most addictive products for me. I prefer it to my itouch now (did I mention that you can store music to external cards if you want?)

I have to admit, I was waiting for this reader to come out purely to push down the price on the Sony PRS-505. It finally came out and when I went to buy my 505, I had to wait.... and I sat and played with the 700.

I have to admit, the elephant in the room is the contrast issue, and this was the main reason (along with more $$) that I was going to stick with the older version. And it's true, next to the Kindle, or the 505, the contrast is significantly lower. But alone, and reading in regular light, the contrast really isn't an issue. The built in lights also aren't stellar in half-light, but are great in the pitch dark for reading (IE reading and not waking my significant other up without eye strain).I dislike the eBook reader software, but have discovered Calibre to organize my ebooks.

I'd also like to point out the other huge selling point for me: The 700 also includes amazing support for PDF files. I have several versions of textbooks, as well as primary literature I use for my job, and have previously carried around piles of journal articles at times. But voila! I can open any journal article I need, and add notes to it.

On a side note, the touch screen "swipe" to turn the page is great, it's very similar to the natural motion you make to read a paper book.

On the paper the PRS-700 is really what we waited for , more powerful CPU , light , touch , zoom in PDFs etc ...

However in reality addition of the touch screen and second layer for illumination caused the screen to be too gray , about the same level as PRS-500 while PRS-505 is way more clear - the white is whiter and the black is blacker :)
Touch is a really cool feature but removal of page forward and back buttons on the right side of the screen made it impossible to hold it in one (right hand) and read "with one hand" as we used to (and very convenient) on PRS-505.
Again being touch makes screen to become dirty too fast.

Bottom line - add to page buttons on the right and make screen better (at least 505 level) and it would be great product , without it ... better stick to much cheaper 505.