Two weeks with a Sony PRS-700: Preconceptions
FedEx has informed me that my Sony PRS-700 Reader will arrive tomorrow before 10:30 a.m. I get to keep it for two weeks, officially starting Thursday but I’m not complaining about having an extra day to get the jump on things.
I thought that, in the interest of chronicling my experiences, I would sit down and write down the preconceptions I come to this trial period with, so that I can look back in two weeks and see how much they have been changed by spending time with the thing. So, here are my uninformed impressions.
Sony has offered me a generous discount at the end of the fortnight if I want to buy the Sony Reader from them once I’m done reviewing it. At this point, I don’t think I will. Even if I had a steady job right now and could afford the expenditure, based on what I have seen on the MobileRead wiki the Sony would not be the dedicated reader I would choose. There are two major reasons for this.
Connectivity
First, its complete lack of any sort of network connectivity, whether wireless or cellular. To load it, it has to be connected to a computer.
For a long time, I read e-books on Palm PDAs that had no net connectivity, and did not complain about that as I did not know what I was missing. Even the Nokia 770, which had Internet access, did not have any particular way to reach out and download the e-books, save in the same way as you might from the desktop—and your desktop’s browser did not crash all the time like the Nokia’s.
But suddenly, with the iPod Touch, I have the ability to download any book I’ve ever bought from Fictionwise, eReader, or Baen—or any public domain book from Manybooks, Feedbooks, or others—as long as I can get a wi-fi signal. That means I no longer need to exercise great foresight in loading my device; if I want to read some book or other on the spur of the moment, I can have it on my device in seconds (as long as I’m near a wi-fi access point—if I had an iPhone, I could do it from anywhere I could get a cell signal, too). This is also something that Kindle does very well with its own e-books (albeit not its competitors’).
Why, then, would I want to return to the Dark Ages of the PDA by getting an e-reader that I have to load ahead of time at my computer?
Formats
Second, the formats it supports. There is quite an impressive list of them over on the MobileWiki page: PDF, TXT, RTF, LRF, LRX, ePUB, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, DOC. However, when you get right down to it, only four or five of those are actually “e-book” formats. (Maybe six if you stretch a point and call TXT an “e-book” format.) And the only DRM formats it supports are BBeB (which I’ve never heard of) and Adobe’s ADEPT (for ePub and PDF)
Which means that all the DRM-formatted books I’ve bought already from Fictionwise (for eReader and a scant handful in MobiPocket) won’t load. (On the other hand, since Baen recently came out with ePub versions of all its e-books, every Webscription or Free Library title will load right in—and Fictionwise multi-format books can be downloaded in Sony’s own e-book format.) And I don’t know of anyone (apart from Sony’s own store) who sells e-books in DRM’d ePub yet.
Thus, if I wanted to read those DRM’d titles, I would have to crack the encryption (which of course I wouldn’t do, since it’s illegal where I am) and then reformat them with Calibre, which has its own problems.
Now, the Amazon Kindle has its own formatting woes, including not reading eReader either or the becoming-industry-standard ePub—but it reads unencrypted Mobipocket so it can read all the Baen titles, too, and it at least has that free cellular Internet connectivity and the iPhone/iPod Touch Kindle app to make up for it. Although I don’t like all of the things Amazon seems to be doing in its e-book push, even I have to admit they’re doing them darned well.
Benefits
Even with that said, I don’t mean to suggest that the Sony Reader is a bad device. In fact, I will be quite excited to get to hold it, touch it, play with it, and experience it. I certainly would not turn it down if someone were to want to give me one. It doesn’t fit my needs enough for me to want to buy it, even at a discount—but other people might not have the same needs.
The Sony Reader has its good points. The point it shares with the Kindle is, of course, the e-ink nature of its screen. In fact, it uses the exact same screen as the Kindle 2 (albeit rendered a bit more blurry by the touch-screen layer), so by looking at it, I can also get some idea of how big that device’s screen will be and what it might look like to read—though, unlike the Kindle, it has a built-in light.
Battery life is reportedly phenomenal, with a charge lasting on the order of two weeks (assuming you do not use the built-in light). (However, a friend of mine who also has the 700 reports that there is a power drain that means the charge will gradually run down over time whether you use it or not. It is unclear whether this problem is limited to his 700, or common to all.) It also has removable storage media, so you need never run out of books (or places to put them).
One of the things I will be especially looking forward to is simply having the device in my hand. All the illustrations of the device, which generally show it all by itself, make it hard to judge scale. I will not see how big the 700 truly is—and, for that matter, how clear the picture actually is—until I unbox it tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see how my opinion changes after using the device. Will having it in my hands cause me to fall in love with it? Will I be more sorry to see it go than I expect?
I can hardly wait to find out.
Regarding battery life, I’ve had a Sony 500, 505, Kindle 1 and 2 and the battery does not run down if the units are unused, or at least not noticeably so when left for a couple of weeks. It’s either a 700 quirk or your friend’s 700 is defective. I suggest he call Sony support and see what they say.
Looking forward to your typically astute observations. Despite the Kindle’s problems with formats, I find that the connectivity is persuasive. As a matter of fact I find that I’m using the Kindle software on my iPhone almost more than the Kindle itself.
Li-ion batteries self-discharge, it’s a fact of life. No mystery there. For reading I prefer the Sony over the Kindle. The connectivity thing is the great innovation of the Kindle, and no one else has a book store that can really compete. That said, I personally can live without the connectivity. I’ve been downloading over the computer for 11 years with my Rocket eBook. Would it be nice to have… yes. My eBookwise reader can get books off a phone connection.
Kindle needs a touch screen, lighting, and ePub support. Not buying until then. Sony has the best design at the moment. Let’s see if they had wireless in the next iteration.
I have a similar “problem” on my Sony 505: the battery does run down, even not using the device, if I let it on “standby” for about three weeks – but I don’t think this is a real problem, it only was bad the first time as it come as a surprise and I was in a train for two hours without any other reading device (and no book o magazine or newspaper); now I also own an IPod Touch which is my backup reading device!
As to DRMed ePub:
You said that “And I don’t know of anyone (apart from Sony’s own store) who sells e-books in DRM’d ePub yet.”
Well, I know about at least three bookstores who sell them (and I’ve bought from one or two and transfered the books to my Sony without any problem): Waterstones and VHSmith – which are the Sony bookstore substitutes on Europe – and BooksonBoard.
The Sony store only sells LRX ebooks. As McLabb says, try WHSmith or BoB for ePubs.
Many places sell Adobe PDF, and US lending libraries (if they stock ebooks at all) tend to have many Adobe PDFs. A few lending libraries now have ePubs as well.
Both my wife and a friend have Kindle 2’s while I have a Sony 700. They both like the ability to download books without a computer, but they have “light” envy. The built in light is much more important to actually reading then the need to pre-plan and load your reader with a few books, so you always have something to read. I can read with no other light on in the room, while they need a lamp on. This is the biggest negative of the Kindle (other than format choices), while the 9.99 book pricing is a big plus, if you read best sellers.
I have a Sony PRS 500 and love it. The issue of no wireless or cellular connectivity is not a big deal for me. If I’m traveling I always have my computer with me and if there’s a book I really want, I’ll download to computer then transfer to device. For me, it’s not a big deal.
As far as battery life goes, I’m a little disappointed on this front. My battery doesn’t seem to last nearly as long as Sony advertises, and the battery does go dead if I don’t use the device for several weeks.
I’m seriously considering upgrading to the PRS 505 for the ePub capability.
I just wanted to point out something about your dislike of the “formats” available. You complain about not being able to load previously purchased DRM ebooks onto the Sony because it doesn’t support that format. I don’t think that’s Sony’s fault, but instead your own stupidity in previously purchasing said DRM formatted books. That’s the problem with blindly accepting DRM’d formats and if you had thought long and hard about the future of those purchased ebooks when you paid for them, you would have come to the conclusion that purchasing DRM’d formatted ebooks is risky and thus you have to take responsibility for your own actions. Perhaps if you vocally protested and didn’t support said formats, we could all get DRMless ebooks or even a DRM “standard” that will be available on all future devices.
@Mark: A valid point, but on the other hand if I had waited for Peanut Press to drop DRM, I’d still be waiting—and would not have had the enjoyment from all the books I’ve bought from them up to this point. That’s called “letting the perfect be the enemy of the good” or perhaps “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
Whatever e-reader I end up getting, there will probably be DRM woes involved sooner or later. I’ll just figure out how to deal with them if and when that time comes.