Sony Reader PRS-500 hands-on + Connect Reader screenshots

Last night we nabbed an exclusive sneak peek at the oft-delayed Sony Reader, which we're happy to report is finally getting close to coming out.

What we can't report, at least not yet, is a confirmed MSRP or when it is actually going to go on sale. Sony wouldn't tell us. But we did manage to get a first-hand look at the final production version of the device, as well as snap a whole slew of pics (and score some screenshots of the Connect Reader software client and Sony's eBook Store). Tech specs are more or less the same as when they announced the Reader at CES this past January -- a 6-inch E Ink display, enough battery life for 7,500 page turns, support for DRM'd BBeB and unprotected PDF, TXT, RTF, and Word files -- but the big news is that this thing will in fact support RSS feeds. Sort of. You can pick from a very limited list of feeds that have been specially formatted for viewing on the Reader (Engadget among them!), you just sync them to the device just like you do with an eBook.

Click on for a bunch of pics!


As you'd expect, the display is incredibly easy to read. It's not quite paper, but text looks way better than it does on an LCD. There's no flicker, but if you look closely you can sometimes see the faint outlines of the last page you looked at.












Comics on the Reader.


And of course, a pic side-by-side with my trusty Treo.


Sony Connect Reader app. This shot shows your library of content which can synched onto the Reader.


You can access the eBook Store directly from the Connect Reader app. Prices vary, but are generally about 20-25% cheaper than what you'd pay for a paper copy of a book.


They're really big on these bundles.

[Ferny @ Sep 26th 2006 1:10AM]

the software is way to much like iTunes. only instead of a light blue highlight they put it purple.

[SHon @ Sep 26th 2006 1:10AM]

wow, that interface looks like a bad version of this other program i use, but its for music...

[L. Kraven @ Sep 26th 2006 1:22AM]

Is it just me, or do other people see the nasty ghosting on those images? Looks like a burned-in LCD screen... that is no good!

[V @ Sep 26th 2006 1:26AM]

Of course there's ghosting. Response time on e-paper is around 1000ms.

[Ryan @ Sep 26th 2006 1:28AM]

seems like it would be pretty nifty if I had any inclination for books whatsoever...

[Kaze @ Sep 26th 2006 1:35AM]

I'm a book fan... I'd buy this if it isn't too much, but if they have Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the store, that'd seal the deal.

Favorite book, ever.

[Aaron @ Sep 26th 2006 1:46AM]

That looks nice. Sure would beat reading e-books on a PDA!

[Kyle @ Sep 26th 2006 9:53PM]

Seriously, I read books all the time on my Palm i705 (nasty) and my m130 (better) It is a pain! Low Rez

[Jim @ Sep 26th 2006 2:11AM]

Is the screen backlit for reading in bed late at night? Don't have to annoy my better half with the light on anymore. Potential is there for a cool gadget! Wireless?? Mac & PC connectivity? I think a larger percentage of Mac users actually read books (just kidding).

[Russ @ Sep 26th 2006 2:51AM]

jim, eink is much nicer than a backlit LCD. it'll look MUCH better under your bedside lamp than backlit LCD. From wikipedia: ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_ink )

"electronic ink, is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of regular ink on paper. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels"

[orangysb @ Sep 26th 2006 2:20AM]

pretty cool gadget, it'll be great if all the books right now have the electronic version, i'll buy such gadget when this time comes

looking forward to the future where everything in paper becomes electronic, everything is so convenient then

[Justin @ Sep 26th 2006 2:27AM]

As sweet a device this looks like and how nerdy I am, I think I'd still rather read from a hardcover book.

I suppose if they gave me one for free (subsidized by the cost of books), I'd gladly take one. . . but otherwise, there's no beating a good hardcover book.

[hoberion @ Sep 26th 2006 2:36AM]

"Of course there's ghosting. Response time on e-paper is around 1000ms."

actually the ghosting is a problem with e-ink, even after you totally refreshed the page the ghost effect is still present, nothing to do with response time.

the iliad (other e-ink device) tries to counteract this by displying a white page first

[Phil @ Sep 26th 2006 2:44AM]

The ghosting gives a more realistic reading experiance. Just like being able to see the text on the other side of pages in paperbacks.

[kansei @ Sep 26th 2006 7:09AM]

That's why I figured they didn't do anything to deal with the ghosting. I thought it was a feature until I read the comment trail here.

[adin @ Sep 26th 2006 7:00PM]

The problem is that the parent poster (and I) want to *not* use a lamp in bed, driving our respective spouses crazy. In that regard, an LCD is better.

I could see something like "indiglow" on the watches being a nice nighttime option for the e-ink displays, not too bright, and wouldn't consume too much power.

[Russell @ Sep 26th 2006 2:55AM]

It's even got the same online STORE interface as iTunes - and the location for the login name... honestly, what person in Sony isn't laughing at it?

[Ravi @ Sep 26th 2006 3:10AM]

Does the reader show colour or not? I know in the shots it's only black and white, but is that just a setting preference or is it always like that?

[KTR @ Sep 26th 2006 3:10AM]

I am not fond of the idea of black and white ebook readers? Sony, but why stick to black and white. Why get the ebook reader where you can get a Sony Mylo which is cheaper and has wifi, mp4 and mp3 capability.

kobiata.blogspot.com
myspace.com/kobiata

[cle604 @ Sep 26th 2006 3:18AM]

This is aimed to replace paperbooks. The ink is formulated to replicate ink so that it is easy on the eyes and cannot yet produce colour (as far as i know, at least cost effectively at least). The mylo uses or any other device like uses traditional LCD's which use illuminated pixels to display an image which as we all know can become fatiguing on the eyes after prolonged viewing.

[Mark D. @ Sep 26th 2006 3:38AM]

I definately like the side-by-side with the Treo, gives me a good idea of the rough size it'll be to my T|E. I've been reading ebooks off my PDA since my Visor Neo and this will be a welcome upgrade, as long as the price is fairly reasonable (probably wait a year for it to drop.) Though it does lose some of the portability that I enjoyed in my PDA, the trade-off of having tons of books stored in one device is great. I like books, but sometimes I like to have something thinner and less cumbersome (especially when I want to read without risking damaging the book.)

Also, I'm a sucker for new gadgets and have been itching to buy a larger ebook reader for ages, holding off for something lighter with good battery life and solid format support.

[Josh S. @ Sep 26th 2006 3:51AM]

Does this thing come with a built in dictionary, highlighter, bookmarks, etc. ?

Other then size/weight, that's would be a big incentive for me to buy one of these. Otherwise, I'm not so sure...

[Taz @ Sep 26th 2006 4:38AM]

It's nice to see that it is PDF capable, but I would also like to see it handle CHM and HTML.
As a software engineer - I like to keep a whole big pile of eBooks close by, that I can search and index... When I'm travelling (and I have a lot of flight time) - I would love something like this that would allow me to read through some of my programming tomes.
I wonder if there are any search facilities for searching through reference material - I'm also curious to see how it handles technical diagrams.

It would be extremely cool if it could search and index ALL of the documents on the memory stick (currently, I have about 4Gb of eBooks) - so that I could just call up the relevant text (Google Desktop is awesome for this).

It would also be extremely useful if it could handle flash diagrams (or at least animated diagrams) - that would give it a fantastic boost over paper books... shame the response time on eInk would prohibit that though.

[zoara @ Sep 26th 2006 4:42AM]

The actual unit itself seems typical Sony; nice technology but terrible UI. Why so many buttons? And if you're going to have numbered index buttons, why are the numbers down the side on the screen but across the bottom on the unit?

The technology is great but I won't be interested until someone comes out with a unit that is far simpler and easier to use.

[Alexander @ Sep 26th 2006 5:08AM]

If you are interested, we have also two hands-on previews on the Reader

here http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=7714
and here http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=7713

Alex

[flipper @ Sep 26th 2006 5:25AM]

What's the refresh rate on this thing when changing pages? The iliad is much much too slow.

[rockintom99 @ Sep 26th 2006 5:42AM]

Oh man, I would kill for one of those... especially if it wasn't made by sony. I hate how they wont let you put whatever the hell *you* want on it.

Screen looks amazing.
Management program is the biggest iTunes ripoff i've ever seen.

[Alexander @ Sep 26th 2006 5:57AM]

Well, you can now preorder it... it will be out on or before October 31!

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;?CategoryName=pa_pdr&Dept=audio

Greets, Alex

[keith waddington @ Sep 26th 2006 6:05AM]

The wide border around the screen is a total waste of space. I don't know why they have 2 controls. Just makes it messy. Also more waste of space. Black and white screen? Mmm. Total iTunes rip-off? Mmm.

I guess it's a start, but this thing will not sell every well IMHO.

waddo
http://www.waddo.net/

[Smitty Werbenjaegermanjensen @ Sep 26th 2006 6:30AM]

Why I'll just run right out and buy new copies of my dozens of eReader
books that I have purchased over the past several years. NOT!!!

[sinjinn @ Sep 26th 2006 6:42AM]

This is ok if you have the money but I already have an ebook reader made by sony . its called a PSP. The only trade off is a 4.3 inch screen instead of a 6 inch and a battery life of around 20 hours ( if used as a book reader alone with cpu running at 5/10mhz in BOOKR ). All that and its in color and i can read pdf's ( BOOKR) and comics(PEPviewer) and its all in full colour.
I have about 50 books in my psp and theyre all free. The only downside is that outdoor reading in the daytime is nigh in impossible.

[Snesgirl @ Sep 26th 2006 6:43AM]

almost $350 bucks ?

WTF.

geddouttehre!

that **thing** will not sell many at that price point. Shame as I am in the market for a decent ereader, but that ain't it

[Jeff Myers @ Sep 26th 2006 7:16AM]

I notice an audio listing. Does it play mp3s? Does it take a memory card (hopefully, not a Sony memory stick)? Now, if there were only some way to keep a schedule and contacts on it...

Jeff

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 26th 2006 7:52AM]

Sony misses the mark again.

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 26th 2006 7:52AM]

I'm sorry they probably don't deserve that.

[Prester Dave @ Sep 26th 2006 8:25AM]

Yes, any word on HTML support? The Sony site says:

"Adobe� PDF, JPEG, BBeB Book and plain text formats natively supported. HTML and other text formats require conversion using included software."

but the Engadget hands-on comments never seem to talk about this. What are the restrictions on the HTML? Does any of the Word formatting get stripped in the conversion? Inquiring minds would like to know. (I have in mind the books on Project Gutenberg, an increasing number of which are available in a lightly marked up HTML format. No javascript, just HTML and CSS, for the most part.)

[brian @ Sep 26th 2006 8:58AM]

Everyone complaining about this needs to do some research first. Yes there are a few downsides to the reader but along with the iliad they are the first of their kind. Its innovative and has room to improve. As for color, http://www.eink.com/press/releases/pr86.html

Since e-ink doesnt use any power while displaying a page I see the reader outlasting the battery on anyones pda or even the older eReaders. anything with lcd's for that matter. I wonder if anyone sees the potential for one of these devices in education. Being able to carry all your books around in a device no bigger than a notebook. No more scoliosis for 6 year olds.

[Dante @ Sep 26th 2006 9:05AM]

It would be nice if it could read cbr and cbz files, that would clinch the deal for me.

[tristanfey @ Sep 26th 2006 3:57PM]

Well this is capable of of reading jpeg files and cbr/cbz files are essentially just rar/zip files with jpegs in them and renamed. Not sure if this converts color pics to greyscale or if they need to be that way to begin with. If each set of jpegs could be put into its own directory you could put the contents of the cbr/cbz files in them and view in picture mode.

The link Brian posted indicates that color-capable screens will start being mass produced in the last part of this year. So maybe future versions of this reader will be color-capable or, more likely, an upgraded model. The problem is the text in cbr/cbz comics can be hard to read, when using the setting to fit to screen. I am sure they would be even harder to read on this 6 inch screen.

[TekGeek @ Sep 26th 2006 9:09AM]

Great pics! As someone who regularly carries around multiple back-breaking books, I'm excited about this thing. Interesting to see some accessories coming online also. M-edge (http://www.buymedge.com) has a neoprene case shown on their website and Gizmodo just previewed a suede case and night light.

[dan @ Sep 26th 2006 9:42AM]

Sorry this is somewhat off-topic...what's that OS you have on your treo?

[Antemeridian @ Sep 26th 2006 9:48AM]

See, I don't really have a problem with a lot of the specs, and the price, well, that could be offset as well. But the biggest thing I have a problem with is the cost of ebooks. I mean, seriously, about 3/4 of the price of a physical book? So I can buy a paperback which I can throw in my bag, not have to worry about damaging or losing or anything, for about $10, but its going to cost me $7.50 for an ebook to read on my $350 reader? Sorry, that just doesn't work for me.

[Dan @ Sep 26th 2006 10:04AM]

So, this technology (e-ink) doesn't require a battery to keep the page that is being displayed? Does it mean that when you turn off the device, the page will stay here as long as you leave it there...

[toemaz @ Sep 26th 2006 6:55PM]

Yes, completely right!

[brendan Sheehan jnr @ Sep 26th 2006 10:15AM]

Two problems I can see with this device are:
1. It's waaaaaaaaaaaay to expensive!
2. Software is like iTunes, but not as good.

When Apple brings out the fullscreen iPod, and starts offering books for download (which is only a matter of time with movies and pdf's now and all). They can leverage this whole thing by firstly selling the whole thing of the movie and music iPod, and then the whole monocrome scaling and advanced touchscreen reading inteface. Not to mention the make-all-your-mates-jealous-cool-factor. iTunes and apple will actually making reading cool! Imagine that!! and imagine the amount of mothers who will be well aware of this.

Now about that advanged UI for reading. A number of months ago Apple did to things: they ordered a major publishing house to get all thier books in digital form over to Apple a.s.a.p., and they also filed a patent for a touchscreen reading UI in which the user turns a page in the book by sliding their finger accross the screen /the page on the screen appears to turn as a read book would using a transition effect they now have in iPhoto slideshows called "page flip". How's that for coolness and ease-of-use. Wait though there's more. If the reader/user uses say three fingers when they are sliding their fingers accross the screen, then three pages turn. And if they go a page too far, they simply slide one finger the opposite way accross the screen. If they use two fingers, two page turn, and five fingers, five pages. Nothing more to add, but w ow

[BT Hathaway @ Sep 26th 2006 10:37AM]

Any odds on them managing to keep the price under $200.00???? Actually, I would prefer to buy it through one of my regular book sellers like Barnes and Noble or Borders rather than have to rely on Sony. I never did like their music download software. Why should this be any different?

Do you think we will ever reach a point where these executives and investors understand that technology people should do technology and media people should do media and that the two don't mix in the same company very well? Sony should make the reader and then get out of the way. Not to d*** likely but I can wish.

BT

[MANDY @ Sep 26th 2006 10:45AM]

I like it because I hate holding books. I just do. But, it's not very pretty.

[Jacob @ Sep 26th 2006 11:01AM]

It would be nice if they could release a model that shows two pages side-by-side, like in a real book.

The reason being that sometimes illustrations are applied across both pages.

THEN we could get comics on it. It would save a whole buncha space.

(It would be even better if it folded like a book, and had a minimal bevel between pages.)

[Gautam Desai @ Sep 26th 2006 11:19AM]

I lug around many many books and it is just to bulky to deal with, this may not be perfect, but seems to fit the bill for me. In any case, I just pre-ordered one, and the estimated ship date is 09/28/06. Let's hope this is true. BTW, ground shipping is free, and expedited shipping came up as $271!!! And ultrafast shipping was over $350! I wonder if this was some sort of system glitch, hope so.

[phi @ Sep 26th 2006 11:19AM]

how fast does it render PDFs? I have the nokia770 and it is dog slow in rendering pdfs with images on it.