Rob's Rants

It’s been more than a month since I bought my e-reader and I’m still very happy with the purchase. I’ve already finished three books on it and I have to say that the combination of Sony and Calibre is difficult to beat. Rather than write yet another review which covers the same ground as all the others out there, I thought I’d specifically address the areas that are most often cited as weaknesses on the Sony, particularly when compared to the Kindle.

The Screen

There is no question that the Sony screen has more glare than the Kindle. The touchscreen layer definitely reduces the sharpness and creates an extra layer for reflections to show. But I haven’t found this really any more or less annoying than any of my other mobile devices, including the smooth-screened Dell laptop I’m using to write this. In fact, the size of the PRS-700 means that there is almost always an angle at which you can tilt it to make the glare move to a different part of the screen. After using the PRS-700 while commuting by train and while waiting in a few lines, the glare isn’t a problem, whether I’m in bright sun sitting in the window seat of a train or reading at night in bed with the built-in light. I will admit that I am lucky that I have good eyesight, so the reduced sharpness also doesn’t bother me — your mileage may vary in this regard. Judging by the reactions of the friends and colleagues I’ve shown this to, the sharpness may be an issue more than the glare. Bottom line: The screen is acceptable to me and not a reason to forgo this device. To borrow from the Mythbusters, this is plausible, depending on your eyesight.

Tethering / Downloading Books

Much has been made of the Kindle’s wireless ability and the Sony’s lack of wireless. I haven’t found it a real problem not to have an immediate wireless connection to download a book. Wireless access to the Amazon store is certainly an interesting feature, and it may be the wave of the future, but I think it’s a “nice-to-have” feature more than a “must-have.” I mean, really, who needs to buy another book RIGHT NOW while in some odd location? In this world of constant connections (I’m writing this on a train via a Verizon mobile broadband connection) who doesn’t have a moment to sit, plug in, and organize your books. And another thing, the wireless connection on the Kindle is certainly good at getting books and things onto the device, but how do you manage them once they’re there? Or is the Kindle designed to be some kind of electronic bookshelf where the hot novel of the moment is read and then left to sit and rot for the next 20 years? I get that the books will be available on Amazon for future download so backing-up isn’t critical, and you can always delete right from the device, but I’m not buying it — I think I would want to easily move my e-books around and back them up on my own. The Calibre software makes this really easy, but more importantly, it does so much more including scraping news feeds that I can’t imagine I’d even want to use a Kindle without it, so I’d be tethering it anyway. Bottom line: Wireless is nice but not really that useful a feature. In homage to the Mythbusters, I call bullshit on this one … lack of wireless is not a reason to forgo the Sony.

Content

Much is made of Amazon’s expansive library of e-books compared to Sony’s and the other electronic booksellers on the web (ebooks.com, etc.). But I don’t see it. Any popular, recent book seems to be available to the Sony, and I haven’t run into anything that I really can’t find yet. And more importantly, since the Sony can digest more formats than the Kindle, I’ve been able to throw a lot of non-book PDFs and other formats at it with no problem. This includes the news feeds that Calibre gathers for me as well as PDF versions of user manuals and journal articles. And, if you’ve looked at Amazon’s magazine and newspaper selections lately, even though they’re improving, the selection is certainly limited and the editions seem to be expensive. Calibre can grab better content directly from the publisher and cut out the middle-man. I like that. Bottom line: Sony’s easy support for more formats means it wins hands-down over the Kindle.

Battery

This is an area that I didn’t see in many other reviews and it should be. Because if the PRS-700 has a major weakness, I think that it’s the battery. Compared to what my Kindle-owning friends tell me the Sony battery is pathetic. A friend tells me that reading a couple of hours a day, they recharge their Kindle every few weeks. With that usage, I’d be surprised if the Sony made it a full week. And worse than that, most of my normal USB chargers don’t push enough current to actually recharge it. I’ve plugged it into an old BlackBerry 8100 charger I had and a portable travel USB charger and neither will top off the battery. Ditto for the small portable AA powerpack that I carry to keep my phone going. So in this case the Sony is a big loser — you need to tether it to charge it or cough up $19.99 for the wall wart (the Buy.com price) or figure out what the current draw is and find some other charger with enough power to charge it.

Final Verdict

I haven’t regretted purchasing the Sony PRS-700. I’ll admit that the battery thing is a bit annoying, but it’s manageable. If you’re like me and carry a laptop almost everywhere, there is really no need to worry about the Kindle’s wireless connectivity being an advantage, or about not being able to charge the battery. And the screen has acceptable sharpness and the glare isn’t an issue.

Given the chance I’d still buy the PRS-700.

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1. Sony PRS-700 Update
2. Kindle DRM Hacked
3. Joined the E-Reader Crowd