Sony Reader 505 for $205 at SonyRewards.com

[dmanko]

Yeah, how do you get the lower price?

[poorjohn]

Quote from Tnyc : According to my research, the PRS-700's screen doesn't have better contrast than the 505. In fact, the 505 screen is better than the 700 because SONY added a useless touchscreen feature to it which makes the text appears "foggy". I mean how hard could it be pressing a button to go to the next page? Why do you need a touchscreen on an e-reader? Shouldn't Sony be concentrating on improving the screen instead of putting illogical features? I was thinking about getting the 700 but after reading about the bad screen, I'm incline to get the older 505. Until I read that the 505 doesn't do PDF files too well due to only having 3-level of font size adjustment. Plus I HATE Sony customer service. You will hate it too when you try to deal with them over the phone. Don't believe me? Call them if you have an hour to waste Many people who did the double the mall giftcard value promotion recently did not speak highly of the B&M store manager either. No wonder SONY is not doing so well lately. Better wake up SONY or else you will be another casualty of this crappy economy with your inflated prices and bad customer service.

I read a blog yesterday by a guy who got a 700 as a gift and passed his 505 to his wife, with apologies. Side by side, he realized that she clearly had the better device (mostly because of the brightness issue iirc). But isn't the Kindle the best choice for those who intend to buy books for their reader, because Amazon's prices are so cheap? (Also I think for some trivial sum like 15 cents you can e-send a document to Amazon who'll convert it to Kindle format and send it back to your device (and store it on line for you forever))

[HexiumVII]

The page flipping still really bothers me how they have to invert the whole page before refreshing. And it still takes about half a second, which is still have a second too long. Anyone remember displays that weren't refreshed in the area of 30per/s? I've tried to replicate the ebook experience with palms/iphones/gameboys, but those are way to small and my eyes burn after 15 minutes. I also have a tablet, but they are all way too heavy still. They have the 505 right next to a 700 at borders, and it's really sad to see how the 700 has by far an inferior screen. Touch screen is kind of nice though. I almost the second gen one when they had them for $50 with visa sign up, but i didn't have any credit back then so couldn't get one. What they really need to do is to start dropping the prices on the readers and make money on the books ala game console strategy.

[jaguar5822]

You guys have brought up some good points. The 700 model actually has a better screen with 8 level grayscale instead of the 4 level on the 505 (also the same exact screen on the Kindle). It doesn't look as good because of the touchscreen and reading light overlays as already mentioned. My biggest pet peeve is the screen on the 700, I've used many other touchscreen devices where the touch membrane is 90 something percent clear. The page refreshing is also universal to any reader using this type of screen, the screens are all made by the same manufacturer. The touchscreen is a great feature which gives you flexibility that is not possible to achieve otherwise. The page turns on the 700 are slightly faster than the 505 due to a faster processor. Both the 505 and the 700 are compatible with txt, rtf, pdf, BBeB, and epub formats. You can also put word docs on there, the sony program on your computer will convert them to rtf automatically. The battery life on both sony's is FAR better than on the Kindle, but they do lack the ability to buy books wirelessly, and you can't use them with a Mac unless you have a windows emulator installed. You would do good to NOT read books on your computer, tablet, or smartphones, the reason you get eye fatigue is because you're essentially staring into a light bulb. The screens used on these readers are made by E Ink, and do not give you any fatigue whatsoever, I've actually had some people say that the reader can be better for your eyes than a printed book due to the excellent contrast.

Between the Kindle and the Sony readers, there is no clear winner. The biggest plus on the Kindle is the ability to buy books wirelessly, and internet access. The biggest downside is that it's fugly, and the buttons are easy to press on accident while trying to read, as well as maximum of a week of battery life for most users, 1 day or less if you leave the wireless feature on. Also, it is held back by the fact that you have to buy from Amazon, or use pdf's or text files. The Sony readers both have excellent battery life, typically 3+ weeks for average users (you can read 300 pages a day for 2 weeks straight). The 505 (the direct competitor to the Kindle) is also only .4 inches thick compared to .7, and much smaller in the other dimensions as well. The Sony readers are also capable of getting books in epub format (the international standard). Epub is to books as an mp3 is to music, so you can get your books from any source you'd like, there's no requirement to buy them from Sony, which greatly offsets the available titles in Sony's favor. Prices are also a factor, the Kindle is $360, where the 505 is only 300 normally, and much cheaper through this deal. The 700 is 399, no news on whether or not that will go down in the near future. Also, some people like having the capability to manage their library through their computer at home as opposed to the Kindle.

[taerain]

Quote from travisowens : Tempting but I'm holding off buying an eBook reader until they just accept major formats natively (CHM, PDF, TXT, RTF). With the way things are going, I won't be surprised if we're talking another 5yrs.

I was pretty much of the same opinion, although I did buy the Sony Reader 505 for around $160 during the Ebay Live cashback bonanza. I was getting really frustrated with my decision to buy such a flawed product until I downloaded Calibre. It performs every function well, from seamless conversion to uploading the converted books to your device, and even converting newsfeeds into ebooks for reading at your leisure. I can't recommend highly enough that anyone that buys a Reader has to get Calibre for their ebook management.

calibre [kovidgoyal.net]

It turned my sour purchase into something I've read hundreds of books on.

[bigwavedave]

Ok now. Thx.......

[zhadina]

Quote from bigwavedave : Thumbs down for not posting a link...............

Sorry fixed now

[SDRebel]

I bought one for my uncle and I oepened it to test it and I really liked. I wish someone gave me one

[dockuttu]

Is there a way to add something else (cover with reading light) so as to make the total more than 299$ to qualify for the cashback.

[jamestren]

I am extremely interested in this deal because of the the $150 offer as I do not have a Sony card. However, I am a little worried because the $150 offer applies to $299 purchases made at Sony Style Stores or Sonystyle.com. Technically this deal is through Sonyrewards.com (which appears to be different)..... I would add more items to get to the $299 min., but I am afraid the purchase would still not qualify. Does anyone else have an opinion on this (or experience)?

[dvd_xtreme]

Looks like a good deal to me... but I will rather wait a couple of months for the plastic logic reader... :-) google it.

[compguy]

Quote from dvd_xtreme : Looks like a good deal to me... but I will rather wait a couple of months for the plastic logic reader... :-) google it.

If you google it, you'll see pilots for that are slated for end of 2009 (ie Reviewer copies) and production to start in 2010. So I guess by a few months, you mean over 12... unless I'm somehow missing something.

[MrLoserX]

I just applied for a new sony visa in order to get in on this deal with the extra $50 credit. I got to the you are approved window, where it recommends closing the window for security.... I never got a CC# or CVV2# during the whole process, is it supposed to come in an email?

I called up both sony and chase and they say i have to wait for the card, they can't give that info over the phone. The sony guy says I should have seen the CC info on the last screen.

Anyone have any experience with this? I might just buy it for $216, since I've been wanting this for a long time... but I'd hate to lose out on easy 50-60 bucks.

[jamestren]

I went the other way.. I do not have a Sony Card, so I went ahead and signed up for the $150 offer, and bought the red one off Sonystyle for $299. I know it costs me $100 more, but I will get $150 back on it, so it's a wash. Plus, I was able to get it in red, get it engraved for free, and get the 100 free ebook classic downloads (even if they are lame)... Since it is on credit, I will never pay more than the purchase price out of pocket anyway, so this seemed like a good route.

I have been on the fence on one of these for a while, so even if I did not use the OP's deal, rep for getting me off the fence! Thanks.

[TMPOOLE]

Quote from Nicnac : The problem is there are a lot of promised do-it-all ebook readers but no real products to show: http://www.netronixinc.com/product_e-book.htm http://www.astak.com/e-book.html

That's not really the case here. This isn't a do-it-all ebook reader. It's a does .pdf ebook reader that might support eReader format in future.

But I don't disagree. Seen plenty of intro dates that have come and gone.