Sony Digital Reader Pocket Edition – Dark Blue
- Lightweight design with 5″ display
- Holds up to 350 books at a time
- Content is accessible from a wide number of online bookstores
- Paper-look display for natural reading
- Two full weeks of reading on a single battery charge
Product Description
The Reader Pocket Edition features a 5″ display and an elegant, lightweight design that’s easy to slip into a purse or jacket pocket for convenient, on-the-go reading. Not sure which books to bring on your trip? With the Reader Pocket Edition, you will never have to make that choice again. 512MB of onboard memory lets you carry up to 350 of your favorite books3 at a time. Enjoy access to a wider number of books from a wider number of places. By supporting both industry standard formats, ePub and PDF, you can access books at Sony’s eBookstore, check out books from public libraries, access over 500,000 free public domain titles from Google, as well as sharing sites, online aggregators and personal publishers. The Reader Pocket Edition utilizes EInk screen technology to deliver an amazing, paper-like display that’s more like ink on paper and fully readable in direct sunlight. Intuitive eBook Library software makes it easy to download eBooks, manage your colle… More >>
Sony Digital Reader Pocket Edition – Dark Blue
Like this post? Subscribe to RSS feed!
5 comments
Russ on December 18, 2009 at 4:12 pm
This is by far the best deal around for an eReader. If you’re looking for an eReader and don’t need it for technical use (i.e. converting to audio, making notes, highlighting, etc) this is for you. I use it for reading fiction and non-fiction every day books. I don’t need it to read magazines and newspapers or technical manuals, etc.
This eReader is much less expensive than the Kindle and other more “elite” machines. However, it does what it says it does and it does it well. If all you need is to read, then this is it! It connects to a Mac and a PC easily, it charges via the USB cable to your computer, moving and removing content to your reader is simple as can be. The Sony eStore have plenty of selection at great prices. Amazon does not own the eBook market. Sony also has the free public domain books with Google. There are thousands of books for free that can be easily read on this reader.
Ease of use, durability, portability, design, features, it has it all and they are all quick and easy to navigate!
Jessica A. Lepore on December 18, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I am impressed with this little reader. It is my first digital reader and I am glad I made the purchase. I decided on this so that I would not be tethered to Amazon, and because of the ability to use the library as well. I have downloaded two books with ease – one free and one purchased. I have found the eBooks site to be reasonable. I also find it very easy to use – similar to my iPod. I definitely see myself reading more because of this device. My mom checked it out and wants one for herself as well. I can imagine the wireless would be nice for instant purchases, but I can’t imagine ever being that desperate that it is a necessity.
UPDATE! Besides easily loading a free public domain book and purchasing from eBooks, I was also able to easily check out a book from the public library. This is one of the main reasons I purchased this reader over the Kindle. I found the process super easy. The book is in PDF format, but if I up the font size one level it is perfectly easy to read. The best part is I get the book for two weeks and then it is automatically “returned”. No worries about late fees or anything of the sort. This part of the SONY reader really excites me!
Eagle on December 18, 2009 at 7:23 pm
My reading consists mostly of fiction for this the reader is good. Very easy on the eyes and there is hardly any difference to the actual paper. I use the small size text with no issues since it’s the same size you get on a ordinary paper back. Screen going black on page turns is there, but once you get used to it, you hardly notice it (its like when you are into a good book would you notice your page turn??) and the delay is acceptable… at least to me. Does not handle PDF magnification all that well, but normal txt books are right on the money.
Downside… the device is pretty slow. Apart from the page turns, when you press other buttons, you are not sure if the button worked or not for sometime… hence till you get used to the slowness you are likely to press the button a couple of times…. And after a while the reader executes all the button presses…Mmm… if your are computer geek.. it’s a bit like running Windows xp on 128RAM. LOL. The real device turn off button is hidden deep in the menu. And once you do turn it off, the starting process is again pretty slow. But if you use the normal turn off, the device appears to be in a hibernation / standby mode so it then starts fast. But Sony say a “little” bit of power is consumed in this state. If you load a large list of books (I loaded about 250 books), then the device takes time to sort them out and browsing for them is again very slow so you are better off getting then organized into collections of some sort so that there are less books in one collection and you can get to your book faster.
So overall… it does what it should… that is, present your books like you get in normal paper and reading is a breeze … but the processor appears to be struggling to cope if you happen to press a button. Am I happy with the device?… yeah definitely, I now have all my favorite books on my hand and can read whatever I’m in the mood for. Which is great
suzatm on December 18, 2009 at 9:57 pm
For the past 6 years I have used the ebookwise reader which has been very reliable. The only problem I have with it is that most of the books I read are not available. I looked into the Kindle and also looked at the information on B&N’s Nook and realized that they both contained more than what I really wanted and needed. I don’t want to surf, I don’t want to read newspapers or magazines, I don’t need to be able to download books immediately – I don’t want to use a keyboard. I decided to look at the Sony Reader Pocket Edition. The biggest selling point for me was what books are available for the reader. I took a Romantic Times magazine and started searching all of the titles and authors from RT and Sony had every single one of them. That hooked me. Also a couple paranormal books slated to come out by November 1st on that exact day became available in the Sony bookstore. I bought the reader and have already read six books. It was easy to start up and use, it’s easy to download the books, there are three sizes of font to use, there is no backlight but if you use a clip-on Mighty Bright you can see perfectly. The print is very clear. Page changing is fast. I like how compact and light it is. Currently it is holding 38 books and I still have a lot of space left. The other thing I like about it is that the additional cover (which is purchased separately) gives you the feel of reading a regular paper book. It has a front and back cover just like a book does. All I wanted was a reader and the Sony Pocket Edition is just that. I am very, very happy with the product.
areldthomp on December 19, 2009 at 12:08 am
I’ve owned my reader over a week. I did alot of research reading reviews here, Sony, and on CNET. I decided to go with the Pocket Reader for size and price. I ordered the cover with the light for a more book like experience when I hold the book. This is the only cover so far for this reader. The reader is more black than blue. I chose the dark color so I could focus better on the screen. It was a good choice.
I’ve downloaded 2 books from my library for free. I have finished one and reading the other. I have 7 days to read them and the reader has a handy count down for me. The files were Adobe and they downloaded easily. The only issue I had was the small font was really small so I have to bump up to a medium font. The font at medium is the same size as reading a paperback. It’s not perfect (more page turns) but is is quite good. Hopefully my library will have Epub files in the future. I refuse to pay money for books if I can get them for free.
All said in previous reviews are correct. I was disappointed to find Google Books no longer has free books. There was a lawsuit and apparently Google was the Napster of books. So no more free downloads. There now is no place to get free books as all the websites are shut down. Hopefully the Sony bookstore will offer free books of classics as Kindle does. Wish Sony would stop advertising you can get free books. Kudos to them for the promoting local libraries tho.
All in all this is a great little reader, no frills and easy on the budget. It won’t totally be my reading source but it gives me another option fro reading. I plan on using it for a long time.
Update 28 Oct: I’ve had some software issues. Contacted Sony and Customer Service was really good. Fixed the Sony issue quickly. The problem is the Adobe issue. Sony can’t help me because it’s an Adobe product. Adobe is horrible the won’t support via phone because it’s a free software. Took me 2 days to find out how to open a case file. Still waiting for them to contact me about the software. Basically I can’t open books I get from the library. So at the momemt I can’t use the reader for what I bought it for. You would think if your device depends on another company’s software the companies would talk to each other. They don’t. Basically right now I have a $250 paperweight. I have faith I will get it fixed but very very frustrating….