Product Description

Sony PRS-600 eReader Touch Edition - Black

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2435 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: PRS-600B

Features

• Sony PRS-600 eReader Touch Edition - Black

Customer Reviews

So glad I didn't get the Kindle
I researched this and the Kindle well. With the Sony Reader can buy books from Blackwells, WH Smiths, Waterstones, Borders... With the Kindle you're stuck with Amazon. Check compatibility - for me the EPUB and PDF formats are big selling points. For one, you get public domain stuff for free (example: Oliver Twist) in PDF but pay for it on a Kindle.

Research aside, little things: being able to tap a word for its meaning; being able to keep track of peoples names and places (in a novel) for quick referencing; being able to read and turn pages standing in a crowded train; being able to read and turn pages whilst eating breakfast; being able to easily fit my "book" in my camera case no matter what I'm reading; being able to keep a few books lined up without having to worry about packing space.

I am very impressed and can't sing the praises of this little device enough.

Goes everywhere with me
This now has my entire course module documentation on it plus supporting reading/reports, a couple of books I bought from Waterstone's, some download-for-free-classics and Charles Dickens' Greatest Hits (which came with the machine)- about 50 books in all. I read what I want where I want without having to carry reams of A4, textbooks and paperbacks, which suits me fine.

I have no problems with the screen resolution, which is excellent and easy to read - perhaps a little reflective in bright light, but nothing too problematic. Turning the page is easy with a thumb/finger, and the touch screen is very responsive. Battery life is great - as long as you remember to shut it down properly if you're not going to read for a while, since it has a 'sleep' function which enables quick start, but does drain the battery, albeit slowly. The built-in dictionary is a really nice feature - tap on a word and it is defined for you - love it - and the note-taking allows me to highlight text and find it easily later, which is a useful feature.

A huge range of formats are supported - it's not rejected anything I've uploaded to it yet, though it can load some pages a bit oddly if they've not been formatted for an e-reader. The PRS-600 has no wireless feature (unlike the new Kindle), but I thought about this and decided that a) I have no need to download documents on the go and b) I don't want 'another' wireless device about my person for health reasons, especially if it's going to be resting on my lap or thereabouts. Know what I'm saying?

The e-reader software is quite basic, hence the four stars, and the screen protectors (which you need to buy separately) are horribly pricey - theft, I'd say. You'll also need to get a decent cover/case for it, as the slip it comes with is thin & pretty useless, and you'll need a mains charger if you're not going to be anywhere near a USB port - all smells strongly of 'spend more money' to me - but in all I can't fault this great little reader on function and usability. It goes everywhere with me and I read more as a result which is a good thing, in my view.

Better Untouched
With this product Sony have shown that anything with the word "touch" in its description is best left to Apple.

The PRS 600 is in most respects a downgrade from the Sony Reader 505 and a classic case of engineers ruining a great product because they allowed fashionable new technology to cloud their judgement.

On the face of it giving the Sony Reader a touch screen must have sounded like a good idea. The trouble is that in doing so Sony have done away with the best feature of the machine it is supposed to replace, the 505, which has a clear and sharp screen. Not so the PRS 600. The screen looks dim by comparison, almost murky. The irony is that the touch technology - which is what gives the screen this appearance - is pretty poor as well. Don't expect to flick between pages with a light touch of your finger as you can with the iPhone or the IPod Touch. On the PRS 600 this simply has no effect. The screen only responds properly to the stylus which slots into one side. But this is a real step backward. The whole point of touch technology surely is that you can use your fingers to operate it. Instead Sony have come up with the astonishingly poor idea of making a touch-operated device that only works when prodded with a stylus which inevitably will get lost anyway.

The only advantage which might slightly offset these two giant steps backward is that the pages turn faster then on previous models although still with the annoying flash to black as you do so. However all in all the PRS 600 is a downgrade from the 505 which is a gorgeous device in most respects. What on earth were Sony thinking when they came up with the 600? We can only hope that Apple really are working on that mythical tablet computer - the supersized iPod Touch - because it will probably turn out to be what Sony hoped for with the PRS 600, but failed miserably.