Sony PRS-600 eBook Reader

I fell in love with the idea of an E-Book reader when I saw a friend using her Kindle to read a newspaper. I've wanted one ever since, but the price always made it prohibitive. Still, I've been looking at both the Kindle and Sony eBook reader for awhile. This past Valentine's day, I came across a sale on the Sony Reader Touch Edition (in red). It was bundled with a leather cover (in red) and booklight. It also had a coupon for a free download of a book I had no interest in. The deal was good enough and I was flush enough that I decided to take the plunge.

One of the reasons for finally settling on the Sony was that it supports a number of formats. I have several books on CD that include PDF. The supported formats listed are: PDF, EPUB, plain text files, RTF, Word, and BBeB Book. This also works for audio files in MP3 and AAC. It can also store pictures in BMP, JPEG, GIF and PNG. As the screen shows things in grey-scale, color pictures are not in their ideal format, but at least one can store them.

Because my Sony Reader came bundled with a cover, I spent very little time holding it just as a tablet. As a tablet, it has nice heft. It's heavier than a paperback book, but mostly just feels very solid. There is enough metal around the screen to allow one to hold the tablet with getting fingerprints on the screen. The back is slightly rubberized which makes it feel more secure in the hand. Did I mention that mine is red? Actually it's more burgundy with silver trim and a grey screen. It's a very attractive package. Actually, a friend pointed out that it is the same color red as my Toyota Prius... I feel so coordinated.

Along the bottom edge of the reader are places to plug in the cord that connects it to a computer. There is a place for charging from battery. There is also a place to plug in headsets and a volume control. You will need to plug something into the headset jack in order to hear music. There is also on this bottom section a reset button in case the system freezes it.

The screen is about 6" x 4" - about the size of a trade paperback. At the bottom of the book are a series of five silver buttons. The furtherest left allow one to go forward or back a page. The middle button is a home-key and will immediately take you back to the Sony Reader's main menu. The fourth button allows one to zoom in. Finally, the fifth button is labelled "options." This allows variations in page set up, contrast, etc.

Along the top of the unit is a spring/slide power switch. Next to that is an LED to indicate that the unit is charging. There are two slots for memory cards. I'm told that one is for Memory Stick Duo/PRO Duo and one is for SD/SDHC. I don't have the technical understanding to differentiate. I just know there's a lot of memory expansion capability here. I couldn't figure out what the last button that seemed to wrap around to the side was. Eventually I figured out it's not a button, but a stylus for working on the touch screen. The screen happily accepts input from finger touches, but the stylus is better. It doesn't leave fingerprints.

The screen utilizes something called "electronic ink" technology. This is meant to imitate the feel of reading printed material rather than computer screen. It also consumes very small amounts of electricity which means a longer battery life. Happily, when you turn the E Book back on, it returns you to the page you left previously. While I would never mistake it for "real ink," I do find it much easier to read for extended periods than I expect. Even my luddite Aunt is impressed with the readability of this device.

The one downside here is glare. This is especially an issue when using the booklight supplied as part of the red leather cover I have mine in. On the other hand, the cover can be used to cut down on glare. I just change the orientation of the Reader from portrait to landscape and then use the cover to block the lightsource creating glare.

The main menu/home page of the reader has 4 main buttons. The first is "Continue Reading." This allows one to pop back to the last place one was last reading. It's basically an automatic bookmark. If you're inclined to plow through a single book like some friends of mine, this is a great timesaver. I tend to pop between various resource books I've got loaded including a couple of cookbooks, a Bible, a book of quotations, linguistics texts and magic books. I also love the occasional classic of literature or trashy novel. I will use the bookmark function on each of these to pick up where I left off. Still, the continue reading is a nice function.

The next button on the homepage is "Books." This takes me to a listing of all the books I have loaded in. Down the right side of the page is an alphabet with first letters from titles highlighted. This makes it much easier to find the book one wants. A click with a finger or the stylus and you're right back to wherever you left off in that particular book.

The next button is "All Notes." The Reader allows me to input notes using an in-screen keyboard, or by writing with the stylus. You can save the notes you make separately, or can put them into a book you're reading for future reference. This is the marginalia of 21st century...so cool!

The final button is "Collections." This allows me to sort the things I've downloaded into collections. I can keep all my cookbooks in one collection, all my magic books in another, all my linguistics in a third. At the moment, I don't have an overwhelming number of books downloaded, but over time this will be critical.

Below those main buttons are three smaller buttons - text memo (via an in-screen keyboard), drawing, handwriting input, and "more". The more takes me to a page with links for managing audio, pictures and for settings. Input via the text memo keyboard is easy with the stylus - just type and go. I found the drawing/writing by hand more difficult. It takes a moment for the inc to show up on the page. The delay throws me. I also wish there was an option to have guidelines behind what I was writing or drawing.

When it comes to reading, I really like the feel of the Sony Touch. Outside of the leather case, it feels like holding a heavy pad of paper. When in the case, it feels like I'm holding a book. It's very comfortable and natural. To get to the next page of text when reading, you have two choices. The first is to hit the second silver button on the bottom of the screen to move forward, or the first button to go back. You can also run your finger or the stylus horizontally across the page to turn the page. The default for this dragging your finger over the page is left to right to move forward. The Reader gives you the option to change that to Right to Left. Right to left is far more natural for me to for turning a page, so I have mine changed to that. Actually, I tend to move my finger diagonally across the page to make the change and that works just fine.

Since I have a number of reference books in my Reader, I like its ability to take notes. While in any page of text, hit the options button at the bottom of the screen. A menu will come up which will allow you to to highlight text (put a grey scale box around it), or type or handwrite a note that you want to stick into the book at that point. It is also possible to add a bookmark to help you find the particular place you're interested in going back to.

I didn't get the Sony reader with the idea of using it as an audio player. It supports MP3 and unsecured AAC files only. There are options to run through a play list normally, to shuffle the songs or repeat a particular song. The sound quality is adequate, but I'd be more inclined to play an audio book than a piece of music here. The audio is designed to be played through headsets and is not audible without somesort of output device.

I haven't had any problem finding reading material to load into my reader. Aside from the Sony Ebook Store, there are materials available through many public libraries, Barnes and Noble, and Google. There are others. Many of the materials are free. Prices go up from there. Unlike the Kindle, I haven't found a way to download through the air. I have to load materials onto my computer and then Sync my on-line library with my Reader.

As with most electronic devices today, there isn't much of a printed user manual. You're expected to read some document that should appear on downloading software. I did not find the materials as accessible as I would have liked, though I did find them. I also didn't find the machine as intuitive to use as I would have expected. I'm beginning to work that out, though.

I love my Ebook reader. I could see this being an essential for travellers, students, and those who are on active duty without access to lots of reading materials. The reader comes in silver, black and (of course) red. That's just a matter of cosmetics, though. If bought directly through the Sony Store on line, you can also have a couple of lines of text engraved on the front cover of the reader.

I've had the reader only a short time, but I can't help recommending it. I can hardly wait for lunch to begin reading the article I downloaded last night. I'm also looking forward to finding out what else it can do as I continue using it. Did I mention that mine's red?