Sony PRS-600 eBook Reader

(Not sure why the Epinions link says "No longer available"...this just came out!)

I've wanted an E-Ink based eBook reader for some time and with recent growth in availability of titles (but still not where I wish it was) and a looming price war between Sony and the Amazon Kindle I finally decided to take the plunge with the Sony Reader Touch Edition (or PRS-600).

Supported Formats
Books: PDF, EPUB, plain text files, RTF, Word (automatically converted during transfer to RTF, but only if you have Microsoft Word installed on your host machine), and BBeB Book.  Some PDF's may require that you install Adobe's Digital Editions software and that you have a (free) Adobe ID (get both from adobe.com).

Audio: MP3 and AAC (unsecured).  See section on audio playback below.

Images: BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG.  Color images are dithered (looks like error diffusion technique) and are decently rendered.

Build
The 600 is a very slick device and compact device compared to the Kindle (and the earlier PRS-505).  The bezel is kept quite minimal with just enough margin to give a good grip.  The front has a nice slick metallic finish that gives it a very solid feel and the back is lightly rubberized to give it a sure, confident hold.  It's available currently in Silver, Black, and Red.

Screen
The screen is the same basic 6" 800x600 E-Ink Vizplex as the earlier PRS-505.  However, the support the touch interface, Sony had to mount a resistive touch membrane over the E-Ink display.

This has two detrimental effects.  First, and most obvious and important, is that it significantly reduces the contrast and increases glare. It's quite improved over the earlier touch-interface reader, the PRS-700, but not as good as the PRS-505, the lower-end Reader Pocket (PRS-300), and (significantly) the Kindle2.  The background is more "grey" than the non-touch eReaders and the text not as crisp.  Secondly, the ink is perceptibly buried underneath the surface.  In the non-touch displays, the e-ink seems almost on top of the screen and more like a real printed page (although real paper still has superior contrast).  With the touch displays, you can just tell that there is something on top of the ink.

On the plus side, screen refreshes are much better on the 600 than the 505 or 300 models.  All E-Ink devices "flash" to black to clear the screen before refreshing.  The 600 is notably faster.

Overall, I'd say that the screen is quite good under good lighting (about the amount of light that you optometrist recommends, but so few people actually use) and if held to avoid glare. I just compared it to a friends Kindle DX in full sunshine we could not see a difference in contrast under those conditions. If you ordinarily will use this in poor/dim lighting conditions, you may be better off with a non-touch reader like the PRS-505, PRS-300 (if you're OK with the smaller screen), or a Kindle2/DX.

Controls/Ports
There are 5 slim buttons on the front below the screen: page back, page forward, home, zoom, and options.  The screen has a resistive touch interface (not capacitive like an iPod/iPhone) and supports a variety of gestures for selecting menu options, entering data, and interacting with books (more on that later). Along the top you have a spring-slide power switch and red/orange LED that indicates charging and writing to flash memory cards.  Moving to the right you have two memory slots: one for Memory Stick Duo/PRO Duo and one for SD/SDHC (and miniSD if you have an adapter).  In a nice touch (and I'm sure intentional), the MS slot is centered exactly over the Sony logo.

At the right corner is a stylus tucked away vertically. I'm not sure if the stylus is held magnetically or mechanically, but it does secure with a slight click that feels magnetic. On the other hand, there is a groove running in a ring just below the tip which suggests a spring clip of some sort. If it is a clip, it feels solid and I'm hopeful that it won't loosen too much over time (unlike the Sony Clie PALM-based PDA I used to have where after just a few weeks the stylus used to just fall out with a slight shake).

Along the bottom, starting from the left, there is an attachment point for a lanyard/strap.  To the right of that is the reset button accessible through a pinhole (stylus tip unscrews and can be used for reset).  Next are the AC adapter and USB ports. The 600 does not come with an AC adapter (you use the USB port by default for charging). The official Sony charger is a $30 option, but if you have a PSP folks have been reporting that it can be used to charge the Readers (may void your warrantee and I have not dared try it myself...although as the official charger is 5.1v and the PSP charger is 5.0v and both have the same polarity (tip is positive, sleeve is negative) it's probably OK).  Finally there is a 3.5mm stereo audio jack and volume switch.

Interface
While Sony has taken a hit on the text quality because of the need to obscure the E-Ink display with a resistive surface, it has taken advantage of the touch screen to enhance other functionality in the reader. I'd group this into three main categories: 1) text input (for notes, etc.) via an onscreen keyboard, 2) drawing/handwriting input (handwriting recognition is *not* supported), and 3) gesture support.

The main or home screen (always accessible from the middle "home" button) consists of 4 main icons arranged in a 2x2 grid: Continue Reading, Books, All Notes, and Collections.  Collections is worthy of extra comment.  It is an organizational aid that allows creating groups of shortcuts to content which Sony calls "Collections".  As rudimentary as this sounds, it is more than the Kindle offers.

There is also a row of 3 smaller icons along the bottom.  The left and middle icons are configurable to any of: Audio, Pictures, Handwriting (drawings), Text Memo, and Settings.  The 3rd icon is called "More" and allows access to the remaining items that are not configured to the left/middle icon positions.

For gestures input during reading, you can flick left or right to turn pages (by default flicking right advances, but you can reverse this if you think flicking to the left is more like the physical action of turning a page in a real book).  You can also double-tap a word to look up it's definition in the built-in dictionary, double-tap and drag to select multiple words, and double-tap the corner to set a bookmark.  You can also highlight words/passages and add notes (either text input via virtual keyboard or handwriting/drawing using your finger or the stylus).

There is noticable lag when drawing or typing with the virtual keyboard.  This is mainly due to the lag in updating the E-Ink display and is inherent in the current state of the technology.  Nonetheless, this may be frustrating for some and a potential killer.  Personally, I'm OK with it.

Audio
The reader comes with an audio player that supports MP3 and unsecured AAC. The player is quite rudimentary and supports only a simple list of all audio files and basic shuffle/repeat options. Play starts immediately when you select a file and other features are accessed with the Options button. You can play audio files while reading.  Sound is decent, but I would not use this as my only audio player...maybe just for audio-books.

Sony eBook Library Software
The library management software from Sony is available for Windows (XP 32-bit and Vista 32/64-bit, Windows 7 "soon") and Macintosh (OSX 10.4.11 or later, OS X 10.5.6. or later). One thing that I was concerned about is how future proof is the Sony library...what happens if I upgrade my PC/laptop or my reader? I did a lot of research on thsi before buying the Reader and this is what I found: Sony's concept is that any given account (which maps to a set of books that is owned) can have up to 6 devices (either computers or readers) associated with it. You register or "associate" the device with the account via the "store" and you can disassociate a device at any time. The only caution is that normally you must have access to the actual computer to disassociate it. If you lack access (such as the machine is non-functional or stolen), you can still disassociate the machine by calling Sony.

Update: tried reading for several hours in bed last night...contrast is more of a killer for me than I thought and I'm giving up on this.  I'll probably try to get a PRS-505 from somewhere or give into the Kindle cult.  Changing final recommendation to "No", but some folks may still want to consider this.