Sony PRS-505 eBook Reader

Sony Reader PRS-505

The Sony PRS-505 was the first Sony Reader released in the UK. While it’s nominally been superseded by the Sony Touch and Sony Pocket Editions, that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth considering, as the new Readers bracket it, rather than directly replace it! It’s got a 6″ (diagonal) eInk screen, rather than the 5″ screen of the Pocket, so is slightly larger to carry but easier to read – it doesn’t have the Touch’s features of dictionary lookup, search or annotations, but the lack of the touch-screen layer on the display means that many people find the Sony PRS-505 to (just) have the better screen for reading.

Formats

The original releases of the Sony PRS-505s supported Sony’s own LRF/LRX format as the primary formats, but a later firmware update added the industry standard ‘EPUB’ ebook format alongside the LRF/LRF formats. The PRS-505 also supports other formats such as PDF and RTF, as well as audio formats such as MP3 & AAC and JPEG graphics.

PDF viewing

The PDF support is interesting in the way that it attempts to display pages that are typically too big for an eInk screen such that they can be read, albeit with compromises. The two options when viewing a PDF file are:

1. Press and hold the ‘Zoom’ key, to toggle the Reader into ‘Landscape’ mode
2. Press the ‘Zoom’ key quickly, to enable ‘Reflow’ mode’

When in ‘Landscape’ mode the screen will display a little over half of the page and stepping forward will display the other half of the page. (The overlap is displayed faintly by design – don’t worry, your screen’s fine). This option retains all images, but the rotated page normally means that text which was too small to read when displayed as ‘Portrait’ is now readable.

The other option, ‘Reflow’, only works with text-based PDF documents, as it strips out the text from the documents and displays that, ignoring much of the original formatting. As might be anticipated, this works reasonably well for certain types of PDFs, but not at all well for others where images or formatting are important!

eBooks

In common with other eBook Readers, in addition to purchased titles, there are also many 1000′s of classic titles available to be downloaded for free, so you’ll be able to always have something to read!

Highlights

As mentioned, the Sony PRS-505 uses a 6″ eInk screen, which is a display that reflects light just like paper, rather than requiring a backlight as needed by LCD screens. What this means is no more of the eyestrain common to users of those devices – these are comfortable for long periods of reading at a time. An additional benefit of this type of screen is that it only requires power when the text is changing, which results in the Reader lasting a week or two between charges.

It can be put into standby at the slide of a switch but will immediately resume at a moment’s notice. If you want to switch between books, the Reader will automatically store your last position in each book in addition to keeping track of any bookmarks you make while reading.

You can store in the order of 150 typical titles, allowing you plenty of choice, whatever your mood, while the battery typically lasts for 1 to 2 weeks between charges. There’s a huge choice of new titles, bestsellers and classics to buy, borrow or download legally for free – You’re not tied to a single supplier and are able to obtain books both from commercial vendors and free sources as the device supports a wide range of formats including EPUB (the new industry standard), PDF, Text, RTF and Word, in addition to Sony’s own BBeB (LRF/LRX) formats.

In use, the Reader automatically saves your place in each book as you switch from title to title, in addition to being able to store multiple bookmarks in multiple books. You can view your stored eBooks by Author, Title or Date or by user-defined groups of Collections, and when reading, switch between three font sizes as desired.

Features

• Light and convenient, weighing just 220g (~8 oz), the ultra slim Reader is designed to fit easily into your bag or pocket, allowing you to take it with you wherever you go
• Easy to read 6″ E Ink® Vizplex™ paper-like screen has no backlight or flicker so you can read for hours – even in direct sunlight!
• The built-in 192MB memory easily stores around 150 eBook titles, so you can carry a mini-library with you – now more worries about finishing one book while out and about, leaving you with nothing to read!
• Capacity can be extended via Memory Card and SD card slots
• Long battery life with 6,800 continuous page turns from a single charge – enough to last up to two weeks, and get you through the longest journeys.
• Huge choice of new titles, bestsellers and classics to buy, borrow or download legally for free – You’re not tied to a single supplier!
• Supports a wide range of formats including EPUB (the new industry standard), PDF, Text, RTF and Word, in addition to Sony’s own BBeB (LRF/LRX) formats.
• Automatically saves your place in each book as you switch from title to title, in addition to being able to store multiple bookmarks in multiple books
• View your stored eBooks by Author, Title or Date or by user-defined groups of Collections
• Switch between three font sizes as desired.

Technical Specifications