Sony - Reader Pocket Edition Digital Book - Silver

Overall my experience with the Sony Line of eReaders has been wonderful. I have tried nearly every eReader on the market since Sony’s PRS505 and have found myself the most satisfied with Sony's new PRS350. Why? Well it's the most practical in terms of taking notes, navigating books (page numbering), looking up words and portability (user interface). My second favored device to the Sony lineup would be the Kindle3; it seems to be the closest in comparison for such a cut throat market. The Kindle3 has wonderful customer support, screen quality, wireless options, pricing (books and eReaders) and whispernet. However I have to knock the Kindle3 for all the key pressing for any need to navigate or markup text and look up words. It's also difficult to keep track of where you are reading if you are looking up entries and words due to Amazon's page numbering scheme. The Nook, well it doesn’t seem to be competing too well and I don't care for the interface, battery life or the contrast of the screen in comparison to the newer devices that just hit the market. These main pitfalls to the Kindle3 and Nook are why I choose the Sony over its distinguished competition. I'd have to say the only pitfalls to the PRS350 is Sony's higher pricing in regards to their competition, the bookstore software has lackluster performance and can definitely be given more of a Sony focus/touch on aesthetic quality and design (user interface), and the lack of wireless on the device. I’m an active duty Soldier in the Army and would at least like to have wifi on the move when given the opportunity so it can stand alone from a computer. However, I just make sure to stock up my library with books I know I’ll read, particularly series to offset the lack of wireless. One other note on this device is that the screen is fairly small for my preference, but that comes with the cost of portability. However the higher contrast screen does a pretty good job of offsetting the smaller font sizes. If you are ok with the premium pricing and lack of wireless, I think Sony has finally distinguished themselves with their beautiful new line of readers. Overall I'm a pleased customer and have been satisfied with both the product and customer support I have received from Sony and the Sony Style store.

I've had experience with several e-Readers, including the big three- the Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader. This product is by far the best one I've ever used. A lot has been made about Sony's two smaller readers not having wi-fi or 3G like the Kindle or the Nook, but when it comes down to it, this is not as big of a deal as most people make it out to be--the experience of purchasing a book is a very small percentage of the time one will spend with a reader. Where the Sony Reader wins out is the experience of reading itself. The PRS 350 is very light, very portable, and extremely comfortable to hold. The Nook feels like a brick compared to it, and even the Kindle 2 seems over large in comparison. I was worried about the touch screen, since the last generation of Sony's really failed in that department, but the technology is wholly different this time around, and the screen is remarkably responsive to even a light touch. The display is crisp and clear thanks to the Pearl e-ink screen (another new technology in this year's iteration--same as the latest Kindle), again, a vast improvement over the last generation of Sony readers--the ink is now unmistakably black instead of grey, and there are far more levels of greyscale for images. Page turns seem faster this time around too. It will be a tough call for some between this one and the Touch edition with a one-inch larger screen, expandable memory, and sound playback, but the size of this one is what won me over. This thing is literally pocket sized; even smaller than last year's Pocket edition. The improvements in this year's model are well worth spending the extra dollars. Everything is as advertised with this Reader, I had no trouble at all setting it up, transferring my library, checking out a book from the Carnegie Library for it, adding pictures, etc. It was all a breeze. Obviously I would recommend this reader to anyone!

I bought a Color Nook for the tablet functionality, never thinking I would use it to read books. I read a free book on it and was hooked, however, I noticed that my eyes blurred after hours of use (I work on PCs ALL day, but it still bothered me, yes I increased font size, changed lighting, etc). I showed a co-worker my Nook and I got to see the e-ink of the Kindle, so I thought I would give e-ink a try. Kindle was out for me, I wanted an epub reader. After weeks of research, I settled on the PRS-350. I work in networking and am online ALL day. It is actually refreshing that the PRS-350 is nothing but a pure reader, no WIFI. It's much more pleasant for me to peruse libaries/book stores and read reviews on my laptops, then download it there. Transfer via Calibre is easy and quick. On my Nook, while reading I would be checking email, the weather, Android app updates, listening to music. Nothing wrong with that, unless you really just want to read. I use Calibre to format/transfer books and didn't even bother with the provided Sony software. I LOVE the touch screen (very responsive and useful for me) and the stylus. The memory is more than enough, after 2 weeks I have enough books to last me close to a year and I'm reading about 2-3 books per week. BTW, the transfer time of these books if I timed it would be, what, 2 minutes? For months upon months of reading. Yeah, WIFI is critical, gotta have that. The e-ink is beautiful, but I didn't like the standard font nor the standard size choices. I changed the firmware (easy to do) and the fonts are much nicer now. I use Calibre to increase the size to 11 and set it to medium. Reading is a pleasure, my eyes don't hurt after reading for hours, it's VERY VERY light, TRULY pocketable, long battery life and relatively quick charging. The build quality is excellent and it looks great in silver. The dictionary isn't very useful for me as the font for it is too small and I don't think that can be changed. Overall, I find it very navigable and I like that you can saturate the font. I'm not really a fan of Sony (stop it with your irritating proprietary stuff) at all, but this reader is great and Best Buy had the best price and gave me a free cover. So thumbs up to Best Buy and Sony for the PRS-350. BTW, I still love my Nook Color as a tablet and the occasional reading.

My public library now loans ebooks, most in epub or pdf format with DRM (essentially encryption) by Adobe. Not all ereaders can read these books, notably Kindles cannot. Iphones, pads, pods, etc. can't either, although it may be possible that an application will provide that. (I see that apple is in a dispute to prevent the Sony IOS reader app from loading books except through iTunes, which would indicate that you won't be able to read borrowed library books on apple devices.) These readers can read epubs, but can't decrypt Adobe DRM protected files. I selected the Sony prs350 because it can read borrowed library books, because it was relatively cheap ($130) while on sale, and because the onboard software and touchscreen are quite good. The prs350 uses the eInk pearl technology, just like the 3rd generation kindle. It is very readable when well lit and pages change rapidly enough that you don't feel the wait for them. It is not readable in dim light (nor in my opinion is any other eink device). You must use a computer to load ebooks into the prs350. There are no wifi or cellular connections. If you run out of books while traveling, you'll need your computer to purchase and download new books. Your own computer will be required because you must have two pieces of software (Adobe Digital Editions and Sony Reader Library), and they must be registered with your own Adobe ID, which you obtain (no charge) from the Adobe website. There are many good free ebooks on the web which you can read. These all tend to be older works with expired copyrights. (These you could transfer to the reader with a friend's computer, if you have the right cable with you.) Other than that, you will have purchased books or books borrowed from a library. I am mostly pleased with the software on the reader. Navigating books is easy. Its easy to adjust the font size, or switch the screen between horizontal and vertical orientation. The interface with the numerous built-in dictionaries is great. Books can be grouped so you might have a group for mystery, one for history, etc. I find this to be rudimentary, and feel it should be improved. The reader can hold more than 1000 books but this basic organization will likely be inadequate with far fewer books. To enter a note or jump to a particular page number, an on screen keyboard is used. The touchscreen works well for this. As I wrote at the start, the only reason I purchased an ereader was to borrow from my library. I'm happy with the prs350 for that purpose, except for some of its ergonomics. The slick surface makes it difficult to hold. Dropping it is not recommended. It must be well lit in order to read it. BUT the front bezel reflects a bright glare when it is well lit. What designer thought the front should be a bright reflective metal? (Probably that was sales, not engineering.) SO... How can you use it? Sony sells a cover with light for a mere $50. That's $35 more than it should cost, in my opinion. Reviews of this cover complain that the reader attaches by two plastic tabs that break within a few months (for some reviewers anyway). I have not used one and don't know if glare is a problem with it. Why, oh why, hasn't Sony considered how a person will hold and light this reader? I guess they have, and they expect, having bought the reader, the consumer will have to fork over another $50. OK, I bought a small photo album for $2.50. I pulled out the album pages. I bought velcro with adhesive backing for $2.50 and applied to the album and the back of the ereader. I now have a perfectly fine cover for $5. The cover is slightly taller than the prs350 which provides space for a clip on light. My cover with a better light than sony's cost less than $15. I applied painters blue masking tape to the bezel of the reader to get rid of the glare caused by the reflective metal. (Tape cannot cover the black between the screen and the silver bezel, or it will interfere with the touchscreen.) Since it's held in by velcro, I can remove the ereader from the cover. On the back of the reader, I used duct tape to attach a rubber O-ring, just a bit of the ring is held. The O-ring is large enough that my middle finger can pass through it. A sliver of duct tape goes through a portion of the ring but that piece is reinforced with more duct tape to hold it to the reader. When I want to use the reader outside of its cover, the ring folds out, my finger goes through it, and I can hold the reader comfortably and securely. I tried different locations on the back of the reader and I have one that works whether the reader is in a horizontal or vertical orientation. When the ereader is in the cover, the O-ring folds flat against the back of the ereader and fits in the offset created by the thickness of the velcro. Finally, one last rant. The price of ebooks is absurd. I have priced them at several different stores. I find them to rarely be less than the same title in paperback and often more. Surely they could be priced less by the cost of printing, paper, and distribution. For now, the market is willing to pay more, though I don't know why. If I buy a paperback, when I'm done with it I can loan it to someone, or I can donate it to my library, a nursing home or someplace else where it will be appreciated. I can take a paperback to a paperback exchange store and use it to partially pay for my next book. With an ebook, you can't loan it, you can't donate it, you can't exchange it, you can't resell it, and, should you get lost in the woods, you can't burn it. Shame

I love the touchscreen. It really gives you more of the book feel since you can "turn" the page. The screen is slightly smaller and has a little more glare than the Kindle's, but the eInk is pretty much identical. It uses the ePub version of books which allows me to shop around online for a better price than just being bound to purchasing from Amazon. In my line of work, I've used many different touchscreens. The touchscreen on this reader is one of the best I've used. It doesn't always register small movements, but I've yet to use a touchscreen that does. I like how you can change the saturation of the screen for differently lit environments. I think it's kinda neat how you can set a picture as your screensaver when you have it in "sleep mode". It really suprised me how well it renders pictures in grey scale. It doesn't have all the "bells and whistles" like the Kindles and Nooks do. It doesn't play music and you can't surf the web with it, but last time I checked I was purchasing an electronic book not an iPod or Netbook. The only thing I really wish it had is wireless capability. You actually have to plug it up to the computer to transfer files. Sony also didn't include an AC adaptor with the unit. You have to buy that seperately otherwise you have to charge using the USB with the computer. I'm not too awfully fond of the Reader Library. It works, but I prefer to just drop the files in manually instead of messing with syncing. I don't read the books on my computer so I don't care. All-in-all, I love this little unit. It fits perfectly in the inside pocket of my jacket. It's visually appealing and very solid feeling. Much sturdier than the Kindle. I've been recommending this to anyone whose been looking for an eReader. Great job Sony, you've got me hooked.

I love my Sony Reader. I have had it for a month. It is small enough to take with me everywhere I go. I purchased one book and downloaded many more from my local library. One complaint, it sometimes "freezes up." I have to push the reset button. Overall I am very happy with my purchase.

I like this Sony Reader Pocket Edition a lot. The screen is crisp and clear, the touch capability is nice, it's very light, and the build quality is superb. This last differentiates it from the Kindle and Nook, which are of lesser quality in my opinion. The lack of wifi is a slight hindrance, but it takes only a few minutes to download books onto the device, so it's not a huge issue. The $179 list price is steep, but at $119 it's a great deal !

What a great device for use in high school and college. Store your text books and reference books on it. ( when you buy a text book from now on, you should get both the hardbound edition as well as the E-book in an ePub file. Put the pressure on for this to happen.) Write your own PDF files and read them on the Sony. Write notes by hand or as virtual text copy using the Sony apps. And finally, store the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare, etc., downloaded from Gutenberg.org as free books. (ePub files copied to media files on the reader.) Did I mention the remarkable collection of dictionaries already installed? Oxford English, Oxford American, and several others. These are really useful as you read. Throw away your backpack. Carry a Casio Prizm, Sony PRS-350, and an IPod Touch, and you can have all you need with you at all times on campus.