Manufacturer's Description

Sony PRS-505/LC Reader Digital Book E-book Reader

The Reader Digital Book holds about 160 eBooks or hundreds more with optional removable memory cards. Its portable size makes it the perfect travel companion, allowing you to read a variety of books whenever and wherever you want. With thousands of eBook titles available from the CONNECT eBooks Store, you can choose to download new releases, classics and popular book titles as well as view other document formats such as Adobe PDF10, RTF, TXT, BBeB and Microsoft Word. Its long battery life lasts up to 7,500 continuous page turns, and the amazing paper-like screen technology is easy on the eyes. Also available in silver.

Product Specifications for

Sony PRS-505/LC Reader Digital Book E-book Reader

Most recent User Reviews for

Sony PRS-505/LC Reader Digital Book E-book Reader

• 

  Reviewed by: mikeharknett

  08-18-08

  Duration of ownership: 10 Months

  Strengths: Allows reading of documents/books in multiple formats, pdf, txt, html, rtf plus the proprietary lrf format. Brilliantly clear e-ink screen.

  Weaknesses:no back light so needs external light

  Overall Evaluation: Never regretted getting mine, have total of 150 books/articles on it at the moment. Had to buy a few books but a lot of the authors I like publish on the web , also there are sources for all the classics ie http://manybooks.net/ the gutenberg project, just need to dig a little to find them. Would recommend one of these to anyone who reads a lot and likes to have a book at their side all the time

• 

  Reviewed by: zornrah

  09-11-08

  Duration of ownership: 7 Months

  Strengths: Very nice design, OLED "paper" is very readable. Feels solid in your hands. Pages turn quickly and the UI is easy enough.

  Weaknesses:No Mac support. VERY poor battery life (long during use, poor when unused). Very buggy firmware and software.

  Overall Evaluation: Stick with paper books for now, the data files for this reader cost as much if not more than paper. The software and firmware are some of the worst i have ever seen out of Sony. No Mac support is not surprising, but annoying. Converting files for use is tedious (if not downright impossible at times) and repaying for data is just plain stupid. The battery lasts a long time when you are reading, but if you leave this on your desk for a week or two it will be dead when you turn it back on. So my final verdict is that, ONCE AGAIN, Sony's greed and insistence on introducing a proprietary file format has absolutely drained all worth from what was a very promising and cool little device.

• 

  Reviewed by: bigdogpilot12

  04-07-08

  Duration of ownership: 4 Days

  Strengths: An attractive, compact unit. High resolution screen. Easy to download ebooks and pictures. Lightweight.

  Weaknesses:Limited selection of ebooks offered on Sony website.

  Overall Evaluation: The most impressive feature of the PRS-505 is the high resolution screen. The lettering is crisp and beautiful! Additionally, the fact that the PRS-505 is lightweight makes it easy to take along on trips. Furthermore, I found the Sony PRS-505 to be easier and more straightforward to use than the Amazon Kindle and I have no regrets on my decision.

• 

  Reviewed by: gwinn

  03-23-08

  Duration of ownership: 34 Days

  Strengths: Good size. Holds a large quantity of books. Good tools for use, such as bookmarks, etc. Easy to transfer books from computer to unit.

  Weaknesses:The format used in the ebook limits where you can get ebooks, There are several formats that you can not use.

  Overall Evaluation: The PRS 505 is easy to use and holds a lot of ebooks. You can use memory cards and really hold an unlimited number of ebooks in several cards. It has good control features that make using the unit easy. The main drawback in the limiter numer of formats that can be used. You can use a coumple of formats, but there are several others that you can not. This limits where you can get ebooks. This is an inconvience, but not enough to overcome the very good features of this product.

• 

  Reviewed by: Darkon

  01-16-08

  Duration of ownership: 5 Days

  Strengths: Small and very thin. Screen in PRS-505 provides more contrast and is easier to read in low-light conditions than previous model (PRS-500).Button layout makes much more sense than previous model.

  Weaknesses:Still on the expensive side. Choices and prices of eBooks through Sony are not that great.

  Overall Evaluation: I was given the older Sony Reader (PRS-500) as a gift for Christmas and found that I liked it MUCH more than I thought I would. However, I soon found out that the newer PRS-505 had recently been released with a few improvements. Since I could still return my PRS-500 I decided to do so and upgraded to the newer PRS-505 and I'm very glad I did. The PRS-505 has a higher contrast screen that is quite a bit easier to read, especially in low-light conditions. It is still a bit gray when compared to an actual piece of paper, but is a big improvement over the previous model. Sony also moved the "number buttons" used for navigation from below the screen to the side which is an improvement (though I have to wonder who thought they should be on the bottom in the first place). The "page-turn" buttons on the side have been moved from the left side to the right side. I thought this would be better, but now I wish they had them on both left and right sides because I move the Reader between both hands so both would be useful. There are also page-turn bottons on the bottom left side, but those aren't as useful for me because of how I hold the Reader in my hand. The Sony Connect eBook store selection is so-so and the prices range from good to not-so-good, but I've heard that Sony and Borders bookstores will be partnering in the near future and am hoping that the selection will increase and the prices will decrease to be more competitive with the Kindle from Amazon. I actually considered the Kindle because I really like the idea of being able to get books whereever I am (especially if I finish a book from a set and want the next one while on a trip), but the Kindle is just too ugly and too expensive. Maybe when the second or third version comes out and the prices drop I'll get a Kindle, but until then (and even after) I think I'll still be loving my Sony Reader. If you love reading books and always like to have something good to read wherever you go, I would highly recommend the Sony Reader PRS-505. It's small enough you can always take it with you, the battery lasts for thousands of page turns, and you'll save lots of space in your house (and trees) by buying eBooks instead of printed books.

See more user reviews »