More info on the Sony Reader PRS-505's E Ink display
By Ryan Block 
posted October 14th 2007 2:14PM
posted October 14th 2007 2:14PM
- According to E Ink, this Vizplex chemistry is ~20% brighter than the 500. "You can see it best on the black and white menus compared to the old 500 which are twice as fast."
- Page turns are only a little faster, though; Sony said something like ~20% (but our unit seems like it might be even faster than that). Because...
- When out of the menus and in text-reading mode, most of the new E Ink chemistry's horsepower goes into the reduction of ghosting (a bit of a problem on the 500) and the 8 grayscale levels (doubled over the 500's 4 levels).
- Contrast is also ~20% improved. "The contrast level is better than a newspaper, on par with a book, and a bit below a magazine."
I have this 505 since a week.. it is good..
Batary time is more than a week (actually it won't use battary for display, only when you turn a page).. and mostly it runs on MontaVista linux and GNU utils (http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/PRS-505_UC.html) ... It works natively PDF, MS-DOC files, text files.. It uses LRF format.. there are lot of opensource/Free pdf2LRF converters...
Overall it is very impressive.. only drawback it it's price..$300 is a loooottttt
I concur with Bruno's observations. Also, black or grey (not silver or blue) are colours I'd want for an eBook.
John: Your a Mac user, and you don't know how to 'print to PDF'? For shame! Select File->Print, then "Save as PDF"
Your -> You're, sorry, sorry
I would get that if 1. it was 50 bucks 2. supported any old PDF
Hmm you can draw and take notes on the iLiad - and you can even convert
your notes to text. That sounds like the proper direction, but that
thing is $700?? These e.ink readers will be wayyyyyy cheaper soon. And
if not, well I guess I just won't get one. Because when there is
someone with a paper notebook that cost a dollar next to me, I'd feel
like a total douche bag. I can't justify spending that much on
something that was available (apple newton) forever ago, and should
be a fraction of the cost.
Every try reading a book all the way through on an Apple Newton?
haha ok smart guy
I second randy M.'s comments. Just yesterday I had the opportunity to try out the PRS-500 at Costco ($249 w/ the same 100 point coupon). Even though it was the older model, the image quality was great.
However, the show stopper for me is not the quality - it's the prices of the (DRM) books. Period. I looked at a half a dozen or so new releases at Amazon and compared them to Sony's. Not one was cheaper at Sony. Or worse, it wasn't available at all.
Until the prices are *less* then killing trees, I'm not buying.
Yo Steve,
Which costco is this prs-500 is available to be check out?
@etechshop
Waltham, MA
I've had the 2nd generation device (first gen was the Librie), the PRS-500 for about a year, and have probably read a dozen full books in that time on it. Of course, originally Sony gave out a cash-equivalent coupon with purchase, so I actually got some current books from their (yes, proprietary) store. I agree with many of the comments, but yet, this is technology that bodes well for the future. The device is handy to pack and carry, has lots of capacity, and can be 'tweaked' to minimize some of the annoyances: switching text size to small minimizes the slow page turns and ghosting - and if you want the text larger, it gets pretty BIG. Using it a lot, one actually gets use to the odd schema for page forward/back.
I am looking forward to better PDF support, as I have quite a few from work that would be nice to transport w/o a laptop, and a mobile phone is just not my choice for reading. I had a Nokia N800 and even this was ultimately not as good as the PRS-500 - for reading!
Yes, it's expensive, yes, it's quirky, but think of the PC in its first couple years. Ugh! This technology will only get better, and if the price ever comes down, this could be a compelling technology. As for adding wi-fi, touchscreen input and color, then it goes beyond what it is/was designed for - book reading - but once battery technology gets better, it'll be there. I'm waiting for the organic screen that can be rolled-up ...
I love the idea of ePaper (eInk) but until these devices get closer to $99-$149 no sale, its just too much for a paperback replacement.
What I meant was wait for it to come down in price.
And by first one I meant the PRS-500 which is the first Sony Reader. Not the first generation Eink technology type readers (IE... the sony LIBRIe which is not specifically a PRS model)
PDF on the 500 was OK, you need to create a new PDF with page size 3.47x4.54 and keep the text size 10 or higher for best results. Letter-size PDF is not optimal on this size screen... it's a PDF thing--no reflow.
Also, initial specs stated that PDF support required PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5). Newer versions could display incorrectly. So, printing from OSX to PDF may not create a viewable PDF on the device.
For some reason, PDF fonts are lighter than RTF, most likely because RTF fonts are loaded on the unit and PDF fonts are embedded in the file. Stick to Sans Serif if you generate your own PDF, it provides more contrast.
RTF is fine if you keep the point size 16 or higher. RTF allows reflow and 3 font sizes. The device is not 72dpi, so font sizes are all much smaller with rtf.
Text files are readable but don't allow formatting, so reading text is not optimal.
I haven't tried .doc conversion using the sony utility, RTF seems to be just as good.
why did they add an audio option? that is the stupidest idea ever - stuffing this already overpriced unit with useless features ... there is no smiley that will express my anger :(