Sony PRS-505 Reader eBook Reviewed (Verdict: Better, If Barely)

Crave.CNET.com has given a light review pass to the Sony PRS-505 Reader, the latest update to the eBook/ePaper product line. It sounds better, for sure, but not amazingly so:

Just based on what I've seen so far, however, I think it's fair to say that there's no particular reason to upgrade from the PRS-500 to the PRS-505. If you don't have an ebook reader at all, though, the PRS-505 is the one to get.

In turn, a reader comments:

The Bookeen device is confirmed to release this month, and the Amazon Kindle is rumored for October 15. If these prove to be vapor ware, or if they fail to deliver, then the Sony may still be the best. However, if you don't have one yet, I would wait two weeks before committing.

I'm glad Sony has worked out the kinks all the same. I feel strongly about the ePaper market of the future, but on the other hand I've yet to buy a Sony Reader myself, so I can't feel that strongly about it.

The Gizmo Report: Sony's PRS-505 Portable Reader System (part 1, hardware) [Crave.CNET.com]

Previously: • Sony Reader PRS-505 Officially Announced [BBG]
• Sony Reader ePaper Upgraded, Leaked [BBG]

[#1 posted by Anonymous , October 9, 2007 2:33 PM]

Personally, I'm waiting for a OLPC machine to use as an ebook reader and mp3 (well, ogg and flac really) player. Oh, and as a linux laptop too.

[#2 posted by Anonymous , October 9, 2007 9:51 PM]

I hope that it's compatible with more interesting books than Wuthering Heights.

[#3 posted by dculberson , October 10, 2007 7:30 AM]

Nope. It's all Bronte, all the time.

[#4 posted by phi , October 10, 2007 8:40 AM]

Seeing how you can get the old version from sony for 50 bucks (by signing up for a sony rewards credit card), there is no reason to purchase the newer version for 250 bucks more just to have a newly designed case and a little better refresh rate.

[#5 posted by hemidemisemiquaver , October 10, 2007 8:37 PM]

From the article:
"I think 10GB of ebooks ought to be enough for pretty much anyone."


Do you really?

[#6 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator , October 11, 2007 4:12 PM]

What do you mean, "more interesting books than Wuthering Heights"? You must have read it as though it were important literature, not the batshit production it really is.

How can you not love a book where all the important entrances and exits in the plot are via windows? Where the moment a character passes beyond the invisible boundary line enclosing Thrushcross Grange, Gimmerton Kirk, and Wuthering Heights, he or she completely vanishes from the plot, and doesn't reappear until back inside the line? Where, for all the book's reputation as a romance, the plot is driven first and last by money?

Not to mention all the grownups behaving badly, which they do, with considerable verve and relish. Go back and look. See if I'm not right.