Chris Beveridge reviews the Sony PRS-300
Chris Beveridge, founder of animeondvd.com (now part of mania.com) has posted a review of the Sony Reader Pocket Edition (PRS-300) to his LiveJournal.
Beveridge is overall quite impressed with the 300’s form factor and readability, and has been doing quite a bit of reading on it already.
Wearing sunglasses, walking in bright sunlight, shaded areas and cloudy moments, the screen was extremely clear and print-like and I had no real issues with glare because of this particular model. I had a much smoother reading experience overall as there weren’t any shadows from other physical pages or issues from the breeze and so forth. I spent two evenings out walking reading Podkayne of Mars and it was a real treat.
All in all, Beveridge finds the $199 PRS-300 to be a good compromise between price point and size. Judging from the photo Beveridge posted, it certainly looks a lot clearer than the PRS-700 I spent two weeks trying out.
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
hey! i read podkayne of mars in high school! i liked it quite a lot. maybe i’ll download the kindle ed. once i’ve finished the — well, in print it’d be a doorstop — that i’m reading now.
i’m a kindle owner at present, on account of the superior functionality for my purposes. (i annotate & underline.) but prefer the appearance of the sony. i like to read reviews of all readers out there. i have more than one bookcase; why mightn’t i eventually have more than one e-reader device?
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Someday, I plan to read it on my iPod Touch, just so I can say I read “iPodkayne of Mars”.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Thanks for posting this review! I’ve been eyeing the Sony PRS-300 to replace my ‘ancient’ PRS-500 (mostly so I can take advantage of the ePub capability and have a device that is still supported by Sony). Reading this review might just nudge me over the line to buying one!
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:25 am
As a side note. Buying books from stores that use Adobe Digital Editions now go through the Sony software directly. No longer does ADE open first. The download goes directly into your Library. Pretty good.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I bought a Sony 300 last night. I love my 700, but it’s just not very comfortable to read in low light, or where the light in the room might reflect off the screen. It’s great on a plane though.
The 300, however, is _much_ easier on the eyes in low light, and much easier on my carpal-tunneled out wrists (now that the 700 is wearing Book Armor – but that’s another story completely).
However, I’ve gotten so used to my iPhone and 700 that I spent the first 15 minutes out-of-the-box reminding myself that I had to use the buttons below the screen… I guess I can live with that for $199.
So I’m a happy camper with both readers. I’ll most likely stick paperbacks on the pocket and PDFs on the 700 from here on out.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Jean–keep us posted on your new PRS-300! Best of luck with it! David