Sony's PRS-505 eBook reader now on sale

That was snappy. Just hours after hearing that Sony's PRS-505 eBook reader would be available "this month" for $300, the outfit is now selling the product right in its own webstore. For $299.99 (to be precise), users can snap up the Digital Book in silver or dark blue, and you'll even get 100 Connect eBook Classic titles (and two lines of engraving, if you wish) gratis with the purchase. As for the estimated ship date? Tomorrow.

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:43PM]

Ohhhh colorless screen! Sign me Up! lol

[Homer J @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:56PM]

What don't they get? I have been longing for the day that I only had to carry one device with me. My treo 600 was a first step, my blackberry 8800 is an improvement, and I think my next gen device (whatever that might be) will be close to perfect. The BB might get a perfect rating except freaking VZW disabled the GPS software on the device - or so I have read. Anywho... good luck with that Sony, hope it works out for you....

[GenericWhiteGuy @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:09PM]

@Homer J,

I think you are the one who doesn't "get it". This is a book reader. Not a gps/organizer/phone/text device. The screen is an ultra-low power eink device. It is as easy on the eyes as printed paper. It has a time between charges of weeks. That's it.

The whole advantage of this thing is the screen technology. You can get plenty of other devices to read with for much cheaper. If you want a device that has roughly the same visual qualities as paper and great battery life you can get this.

Nobody ever said this would do everything for you, but if you want to read text files and are willing to pay the early-adopter price you can get this.

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:16PM]

@GenericWhiteGuy,

Don't worry, everyone 'gets' it.

We just won't be 'getting' it with our money! lol

[Mile @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:20PM]

Only comic books come in color.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:33PM]

@john

Like mile said. Comic books have pictures and stuff, thats like actual photos, this just displays text, black and white will suffice. I really don't think they make books where there are different color texts throughout, at least not if you are old enough to spend $300 on this...

[ark_v2 @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:33PM]

Lord...

I really want one of those. Does anyone know if it plays mp3s?

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:39PM]

Yeah Charlie & Mile, have fun looking at grayscale pictures! :P

That will be so 70's (or something).

[Constable Odo @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:25PM]

It appears everyone wants this one device that can do everything perfectly. I think some people need to wake up. The average consumer's world of technology isn't that advanced yet.

This reader is pretty cool if you're just into reading. Sure color would be nice, but hardly necessary. If it can play some music while reading that might be nice, too. If it could handle PDFs that would be even better.

I wish it could be set up for learning languages with quizzes. It could be a pretty cool tool.

[TrueDis @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:43PM]

Somehow they managed to make the design look like some 1990 vision of what an ebook would look like in 2000.

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:46PM]

You are so right it hurts. I am at a loss on this 'product'.

[mfed3 @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:45PM]

i am an avid sony hater but this is one of the few things sony is pushing that i can stand behind. eink is a great advancement over lcd for static images. i hope this replaces textbooks and newspapers permanently someday, saving countless trees. great work, i still hate sony though.

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:49PM]

Sure new tech is good, but just considering this particular product?... I'd be more impressed with eink if was like a newspaper.

[GoreTEX @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:49PM]

Woo.. just in time for grad school and the 150+ journal articles i have to read this term. I wonder how well it handles scanned pdfs.

[luidabruin @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:58PM]

if you are going into a scientific field, i wouldnt get this. i might be old school, but nothing beats a good old article printed on paper. with it you have so much more freedom of annotation and marking.
as a biomedical researcher, i must read some hundreds of articles every month. i still print a hard copy for every single one of them. PDFs are convenient to organize your library of articles and very useful when you need to look up something quickly, but they are not very friendly on the eyes...

[JennaHatesRick @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:12PM]

I have the Japan-only first gen product (Sony Librie), the PDF handling on that is pretty atrocius. Journal articles are pretty much unreadable, since it renders the whole page as non-zoomable image. The later gen products are supposed to have better PDF support.

Having said that, it's pretty clear that the nay-sayers above have no idea of how useful this device is and most likely have not had much time on it. There's around 100 books in my Librie at the moment. When I moved out for work, I didn't have to bring any of my collections of paperback/hardback novels, since I just need to cram them into a memory stick. (This new version handles SD cards are well, apparently.)

16-level grayscale would be nicer for manga of course, but 4-level is still fine, just need to tweak the palette a bit when converting images. But colour-images? how many novels have colour images, other than the cover? Sure, colour would be _nice_ if this device is to act as some sort of multi-functional photo-viewer, but colour eInk is likely to be prohibitively expensive at this point. I guess there's just no pleasing some people, if Sony added colour e-Ink, they'd probably complain its inability to play videos.

I've also read plenty of books on my trusty Tungsten E2, but seriously, the Librie is much much better as a e-book reader.

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:47PM]

@GoreTEX,

First. Who are you kidding about reading all those articles in grad school?
I hope you can speed read cuz you won't wake before noon every day! lol (just kidding).

Seriously - Check out a tablet pc. Check out motion tablets. They are fantastic.

[Ypoknons @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:16PM]

I'd love to get one if I could put all my textbooks on it - bigger screen than most PDAs, after all - but the $300 price tag is too much for this customer.

[GenericWhiteGuy @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:14PM]

@luidabruin,

Agreed. I have the original model and the only thing it does well is display linear fiction. Using this for research or reference is pretty much useless. There aren't any search or annotation capabilites and the slow refresh of the screen keeps you from browsing rapidly through pages.

If you want to read novels, this is great. Anything else is just forcing a solution and will require too much work to be worthwhile.

[DSC @ Oct 3rd 2007 2:39AM]

Yes it will play mp3s. The original, which I have, also plays mp3s but I've used it for this purpose. I've always used the reader for reading and an ipod for audio and video.

It's surprisingly effective for what it needs to do.

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:41PM]

@Charlie

Mile is making a different point than mine. Sure, color is not necessary to read text. That's wonderful. Thank you both for pointing that out.

If you wanna be an early adopter on this fork out your $300 and be my guest.

[Brian L @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:59PM]

I'd bought PRS-500 (the previous design) a few weeks ago and carried it around for my business trips. Last week the screen was somehow damaged while in my bag, and I sent it in for repair under warranty. Today I got a call from Sony Repair Center advising that the e-Ink screen (this guy said LCD screen!) is not under warranty, and that I have to pay $270 to fix that. I replied just ship it back. The leather cover certainly does not stand up to daily carrying around.

Another thing is that the navigation UI is not good, and it takes some learning. This definitely needs some serious updates.

One more thing is that you cannot read and listen to music at the same time (this device can play back certain types of music files).

So buyer beware! If you plan to carry it around, get a hard case, and be real careful not to drop it.
As for me, I'll wait for the day when color e-Ink screen comes around with better resolution.

[TonyB @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:46AM]

Maybe You should try reading the manual... The PRS-500 plays music and reads at the same time...I'm doing it right now! I love my Sony reader, I have 200+ books on mine, I keep it in my backpack, I charge it once every 2 weeks or so, and it just does what it's supposed to do. Plus it can use the same AC adapter as my PSP, so It's one less cable to carry around(I travel a lot). Quit hatin' haters!

[ts @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:15PM]

"Premium Leather Case": so now instead of using trees they kill animals... what a progress!

[projekt84 @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:24PM]

What's with the senseless bashing of this item?

If you like reading, this is actually a great device to own.

I've seen one at a Borders book store, the eink looks good and is REALLY easy on the eyes(meaning it's not supposed to be a super bright LCD screen like you'd expect), its resemblance to regular paper is amazing.

[john @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:41PM]

Do you how much regular paper you can buy for $300?! ..
Why get this when you can have the real thing?.. ..

[kerunt @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:00PM]

Hey John,

Go out to your local store and buy yourself $300 worth of paper. Now try to stuff all of it in your pockets. Now write all over that paper, and try to find a certain paragraph in the middle of it all.

[kevin @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:23PM]

I'm most perplexed by the senseless support of this item. Maybe more people don't mind tossing around $300 than I thought, because I was sure after I used it for the first time that it would be a flop.

I think you need to reconsider calling this "bashing", senseless.
While I understand there are plenty of people who don't carry a laptop and are allergic to paper, I don't think THIS is the all mighty solution. This should be $100, maybe $150, for what it does and how it does it.

Yes I like reading. No I don't like having to spend $300+ to do so.

[Agent Smith @ Oct 5th 2007 2:33PM]

Another point - do you know how many free (legal) ebooks you can get online to use with this device? Just start at Gutenburg.org and go from there. The size and weight alone made the 1G reader worth it for me - the fact that the internet is brimming with free text content to use with it is just a bonus. If you are an avid reader you can imagine the thrill of being able to carry around a whole library with you everywhere you go - contained in the size and weight of a small paperback with better readability and ease of use than any book due to adjustable text size and bush button page turning. Holding and using the reader is far more comfortable than a real book. I find that I can relax much more while reading since I don't have to hold a book open or worry about page turning - I also seem to reader faster with the reader. The only disappointment is that my copy seems to get only about half the promised battery life (about 3000 pages between charges, consitantly)

[PaulnJean @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:36PM]

Two words " NO BACKLIGHT". If I can't read it in bed its utility is very limited (well, at least to me). My RCA ebook is still working and is a fairly intuitive to use. Why do they have to keep bringing out new devices, why can't they just update and perfect the devices that are out there by maybe doing some market researce on the people that already have a reader of some sort and ask what they want in the second generation of the device. Sure the Sony has a cutting edge screen but what else does it offer? Hell, my PSP now lets me look at pictures and listen to mp3s. A brand new device , from the same company (Sony) doesn't have this feature? What do the people that write the code for these devices do all day?

[kerunt @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:56PM]

Oh, so I take it you expect your washer and dryer to play MP3s and show pictures, too?

If PSP and the eBook reader were intended to do the same thing, they wouldn't be TWO DIFFERENT FUCKING PRODUCTS.

Believe it or not, not everyone wants every single piece of electronic equipment to play MP3s!

[KerryB @ Oct 3rd 2007 3:57PM]

@PaulnJean

Hm, I seem to have no trouble reading books in bed. "Lamps" sure are a handy invention.

Sorry, maybe I have shitty eyes, but trying to read more than an article-length text on an LCD is quite literally torture, especially after a whole day sitting in front of one for work.

Also, "backlights" only work for transmissive displays, which this is not.

[PaulnJean @ Oct 3rd 2007 6:29PM]

Well kerunt, No, I don't normally take my washer and dryer with me when I leave the house like I would with a portable device. My point, in case you missed it, unlike the point on your head which is impossible to miss, is that a device that is able to display pictures (text in this case) and is able to playback music should to be able to do both at the same time. Congratulations on finally being able to count to two (2)by the way.
I am as sure as you are that not every one wants all of their electronic devices to play music but I thought I was talking about a device that already has this ability what are you talking about?
And as for kerryb Yes I too am familiar with " Lamps" they work well. If the new Sony ebook reader had a backlight, it would work well. If you like it so much go ahead and buy one and use your lamp. I will just use my RCA ebook with its built in "lamp" and save a few cents by not having my bed side "lamp" on.
As for your job sitting in front of a computer all day, maybe you just have a shitty outlook on life and not bad eyes, If I was you I would take one of the cords off of a "lamp" and hang myself.

[Cyotik @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:45PM]

I'm seriously contemplating buying one of these. Fuck reading books on a smartphone.

[kerunt @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:57PM]

Same here. Although I want to see some reviews first. I used to read tons of books on my Pocket PCs, so I have a ton of .lit eBooks. I wonder if I can convert those to PDFs or another format that this eBooks reader will recognize...

[kerunt @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:53PM]

Good point, lets save the animals.

Perhaps we can convince Sony to hunt down those Engadget readers who make completely stupid, pointless, radical & off-topic comments and use their skin instead? Won't somebody please think of the bunnies?

[blessingx @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:28PM]

I'm interested, but Sony, so Windows only. Too bad.

[john @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:28AM]

@kevin: Exactly.

@kerunt: If you want to 'write' on the paper get a tablet PC.

[John Doe @ Oct 3rd 2007 2:34AM]

Yep. Get a tablet PC along with its 2-3 hour battery life....

[GazzyC @ Oct 3rd 2007 6:02AM]

Will John ever shut up?

[john @ Oct 3rd 2007 8:15PM]

Will Gazzy ever change that gay name?

[John Doe @ Oct 3rd 2007 2:32AM]

No e-reader integration == no sale. I have a crap load of e-reader books. There is no way in hell I'm repurchasing those because some company doesn't have the stones to go and work out a deal.
I've mentioned this in other threads and I will again. Apple's damn priorities are screwed up on a level that isn't even funny. I'm not an Apple fanboi (Truth be told I hate all [insert company name here] zealots.) but the thought of a very simple, easy to use, lacking a shit load of buttons ereader from Apple that integrates into iText Media Store that is linked to ereader.com makes me drool.
Music players are a dime a dozen at this point. Books on the other hand are mandatory for school. Imagine a tab on that media store that takes you to your campus's inventory where you can buy your books right there. Maybe even redeem credits for free books or something. Add the ability to mark up the book, search, and integrate with searching your notes in spotlight on OS X?
Apple is a fool for not jumping into this market NOW.

[ks-man @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:03AM]

I definitely like the concept of the e-book reader but I'm still concerned that the e-book market isn't yet ready to go mainstream. I think two things need to happen first.

1) More books need to be released as e-books. While there are lots of e-books around, it seems that for every 10 new books release only 1 is available as an e-book (no scientific data or data at all for this number). I want to read the books I want as an e-book, not choose what books I want to read based on if they are available as an e-book

2) Publishers should allow you to buy the hard copy book and also get an e-copy of it. I'm sure they can figure out the DRM issue, but there are still many of us that would like the hard copy for a home library or for physical backup. I'd like to buy a book at the store and then have the option to download an e-copy to my reader. I'd also be fine with flexible pricing ($5 for e-copy, $7 for hard copy, $9 for hard copy + e-copy). They could either provide a CD or direct you to a website.

I really love the idea of the e-book reader but I just can't see myself getting one yet when there are so many issues left to be resolved. Thoughts?

[Dave @ Oct 3rd 2007 8:45AM]

Aww cmon.. I'd love this for all my downloaded pdf books but it sounds like their PDF "conversion" relies on word and acrobat playing together. Something that may not work with acro reader v10 and word vista 2009. Looks hokey and given sony's track record it certainly could be. I'll wait on a review. My reader must be clear and can display PDF's clearly. Even ones with tons of photos in them and the device needs to convert them to that 4 layer greyscale. I shouldn't have to post process them.

[carpecervisi @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:44AM]

I've had the PRS-500 for almost a year now and use it every day. I love it. The price of the device is higher than I'd like; this reader for $150 would be awesome.

I don't care about the screen refresh time, it's minimal and easy to get used to, but I do wish it had a search feature and some type of lighting. Backlighting will not work on e-ink and maybe there'd be too much glare on the screen for side lights, but man, it'd be nice if you could read in the dark.

On the other hand, carrying around a couple hundred best-sellers that you illegally download to justify spending $300 on this is great. There's a couple of great sites dedicated to that. Yay for piracy!

[TekGeek @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:53AM]

M-edge Accessories (www.buymedge.com) has some great accessory jackets/cases for the Sony Reader (PRS-500 and 505). They make an Executive style case in multiple colors as well as a sleeve case that provides perfect protection for your Reader at the beach, pool, or gym. I highly recommend both!

[DaMaDo @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:33PM]

I like the idea of e-ink ebook readers. Regular screens hurt my eyes after a while, and an ebook would allow me to take many many books with me on trips while only taking up a small amount of luggage space.

I still think it's a bit too expensive at the moment, but I'm sure once there's more competition, it will get a lot cheaper. I wouldn't buy this one even if it was cheaper though, I hate Sony.

[sg60 @ Oct 6th 2007 5:40PM]

Does anybody know when this product is going to be available outside of the US? I'd really like to see this in Canada.

[makeshift @ Oct 7th 2007 2:34AM]

TekGeek - Do you know if Sony made a metal case for the PRS-500. I just ordered my my PRS-505LC online and i am expecting it on monday.

Hey guys--- I read all the comments and i just wanted to include my two cents. The device is expensive and im not a real fan of sony after buying a laptop from them a few years ago. The support is lame. This a technology that i have been following for a few years and i am just happy that somebody has brougth it in to the mainstream in format thats appealing and that i hope will excite and create a deman for more of the devices which translates in further development of the technology. So ill be one of the first suckers or praisers of the device. I will keep this group posted as i see there are other people who are cosidering buying it. Plus i couldn't say know to their 1 year not interest deal plus, their 100 dollar credit to buy accessories, and their 100 free books download. From what i understand they have increased ther book publishers membership. According to their site they have 20,000 books available..