PRS-900 Sony 300 vs. Sony 505 vs. Sony 600 vs. Sony 700 vs. Sony 900

[mgmueller]

Hi,

I've just received my Sony 900 (aka "Daily Edition").
Sony 600 and 300 I've got 4 months ago, Sony 700 1 year ago and Sony 505 in summer 2008.
I've made a comparison without Sony 900 a few months ago: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...50&postcount=1

Since then, some of my first impressions did change drastically.
And of course, Sony 900 is changing the picture as well.

I'll post more later on.

For the moment, 2 lines per unit.

Ranking #1: Sony 900
Maybe it's because it's my newest addition. But first impression really is, this time Sony has done it right (edit: Not just right, simply perfect!). WOW!!!
So far, it seems to combine the strengths of Sony 600 (touchscreen) and Sony 505 (contrast, over all display quality) thus eliminating Sony 600's weaknesses (glare).

Ranking #2: Sony 505
Still one of my all-time-favorites (out of 12 readers I own for the moment).
Great design, phantastic display, perfect usability.

Ranking #3: Sony 600
I really have difficulties, deciding between Sony 505 and 600.
Sony 600 has been a positive surprise. But quite frankly, I don't use the touchscreen intensively enough, to benefit from it.
And I've loved my Sony 505 from the very first minute until now.

Ranking #4: Sony 700
I didn't use it for almost one year (meaning: Never used it with the exception of the first day and a few experiments). But I've played around with it a bit when installing eBook library 3.x. And I had been surprised: A very well thought out unit, really did like the lights (prefer it over clip-ons).

EDIT: I totally forgot Sony 300. And that's for a good reason. I simply don't use it. Don't like turning pages with the 5-way-button, which is the only option. And I absolutely dislike (didn't want to say "hate") the plastic frame.

In a few hours I'll compare design, contrast, features, ... in more depths.
Questions and hints, as always, quite welcome of course...

[mgmueller]

Housings:

Sony 300:
The sides are plastic: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=176
I don't like it at all. 2 different materials with slightly different colors. Simply looks cheap and I still haven't figured out what's its purpose. Protection against scratches? But why doesn't have it Sony 600 then? Cost savings? Hope not, wouldn't be "Sony style".

Sony 505:
Very elegant. One of the "coolest" readers out there.
Very ergonomic, too.

Sony 600 and Sony 700:
As elegant as Sony 505. Maybe even a bit more appealing, given its (for Sony 600) choice of colors.
Touchscreen very well thought out.

Sony 900:
New design, very efficient.
The cover (included) doesn't cover front and back, only the front. The back is plastic, "roughened up" for the same "touch and feel" as the front. The back is part of the frame and can be taken down to change the battery.
The front cover is attached to the back and has got the same magnets we already know from Sony 505 or 600.
The expansion cards (both, MS and SD) are inserted on the left side. Both slots are covered by a plastic frontshield.
Sony 900 is way smaller (that's a positive to me) than I'd expected. If you don't focus on it, you won't even recognize the difference to Sony 600.

[mgmueller]

Sony 300: None, no touchscreen.

Sony 505: None, no touchscreen.

Sony 600: My favorite, heaviest stylus of all Sony readers.

Sony 700: Weighs less than Sony 600's. Too light in my opinion.

Sony 900: Nearly identical to Sony 700 (slightly different colors). A bit too light as well.
Stylus is inserted on the left side. Not very ergonomic, but probably safer (it's "protected" by the cover, whereas on Sony 600 or 700 you accidentally may slip it from it's slot and loose it when transporting it.

[dontriston]

Many thanks.

I wait you continue with the analisys.

Bye.

[antistar]

Great info, thanks a million. And you've successfully converted me. I've almost persuaded myself that I can't use the 3g anyway and I don't need a 7" inch screen or two column view. But is it true that the screen quality on 900 is so much better than 600? I am not asking much, as long as it's something close to the 500 that I am currently using...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by antistar

Great info, thanks a million. And you've successfully converted me. I've almost persuaded myself that I can't use the 3g anyway and I don't need a 7" inch screen or two column view. But is it true that the screen quality on 900 is so much better than 600? I am not asking much, as long as it's something close to the 500 that I am currently using...

I'll compare in a few hours in more depth.
But Sony 900's contrast definitely is way better than Sony 600's.
Whether it can stick up to Sony 505 I have to check in direct comparison.
I'm very surprised, given the more or less identical release dates of Sony 600 and 900. But that's an extremely positive surprise of course.

2 column view: Seemed very interesting from the reviews. Didn't try with newspapers yet. But with the books I've tried, it simply didn't make any sense at all. Not enough information, but still hard to read (and I'm not short sighted).

3g: I'd love to use the shop directly, without juggling with USB. But I can't use it with my Kindles as well, so it's okay. But can't tell anything about the experience...

Stylus: It already deeply annoys me. In parallel, I've used my Samsung Q1 UMPC, which has a way heavier and more convenient stylus. Sony 900's stylus in my opinion simply is too light. Okay, I won't use it that much. I turn pages via the buttons, so I'll mainly use it for "point and click", selecting the books I'd like to read or marking the words I'd like to lookup in the dictionary. But it just doesn't feel "right". It almost feels like being entirely out of polycarbonat instead of metal.
Sony 600's stylus feels better. It can be inserted in the Sony 900, but it doesn't fit perfectly, so it's a risk of loosing it. Maybe I'll go with a 3rd party stylus...

[Latinandgreek]

Oh, if I only I could somehow justify buying a 900... if only my husband showed some sort of interest in my 505, I could pass that onto him and get myself a 900 (he's one of those "I like reading pbooks I don't see how you can read off of that" people)... I'll have to try harder to "convert" him!

Thanks for posting your thoughts and comparisons!

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Oh, if I only I could somehow justify buying a 900... if only my husband showed some sort of interest in my 505, I could pass that onto him and get myself a 900 (he's one of those "I like reading pbooks I don't see how you can read off of that" people)... I'll have to try harder to "convert" him!

Thanks for posting your thoughts and comparisons!

I totally understand, going for the new gadget.
But with Sony 505 you certainly have one of the best units out there. Still absolutely up to date and still clearly in my top 3.

Your situation seems similar to me and my wife.
Quote: "Stupid inverting screen....annoying to wait an entire second for turning pages..."
I gave her a Sony 505 as a present in summer 2008. It took some months to convert her, but now she loves her toy.
The main argument: She'll never be into "experimenting" or hacking or comparing. BUT: I could convince her with the content.
When traveling, now she takes hundreds of books with her. And she even can read them in the bathtub. And it's still smaller than a single paperback.
So I was able to convince her from eBook readers.

[mgmueller]

That's really a close one:

Rank #1: Sony 505 + Sony 300
Rank #3: Sony 900
Rank #4: Sony 600
Rank #5: Sony 700

I absolutely can confirm the rumors: Sony 900 is ahead of Sony 600.
It's not a huge difference, Sony 600 was fine to me already.
In my opinion, it doesn't make too much sense to compare the readers. Main question should be, whether each reader is acceptable (or even great) on its own. From that perspective, even Sony 700 always was okay to me and Sony 600 is more than okay.

BTW: For glare (respectively "no or little glare") it's the same ranking as above.

[mgmueller]

Sony 900 to me is a mixed package.

2-page-view did seem interesting from the pictures I've seen. So far, it's a huge disappointment for me. Maybe it's usable for newspapers. But for the books I've tried, it was neither efficient (wasting too much space) nor convenient and hard to read (too little information vs. too tiny font).

The bigger display is way less obvious than I'd expected. To me, it's neither a milestone nor a problem. I very much like the new cover and different housing, though.

The UI to me is some improvement over Sony 600. For example, having a thumbnail of the last read book directly on the cover page (library view).

Momentary summary:
I can't use the mobile webshop here in Germany and the bigger display is of no real benefit to me.
In comparison to Sony 600, contrast slightly has improved. If you already own a Sony 600, replacement certainly isn't necessary.
If you own an older reader or think about a touchscreen unit, Sony 900 definitely is very appealing.

Sony 900, in my opinion, is perfect proof of the "japanese concept":
Not aiming for the quantum leap, but permanent slight improvement.
Sony perfectly demonstrates this with every single reader.

[Lilly]

Thanks mgmueller. I love touchscreen (ts). I find the convenience of it to be awesome. I've been wanting a ts reader for a long time. I 1st considered the PRS-700 and the bad reviews were a complete turn off. I thought about the PRS-600 but really wanted a bigger screen reader since I already have two 6 inch readers (7.1 to 8.1 is ideal for me, only do pleasure reading). The only 2 that were in consideration that met my criteria were the PRS-900 and IREX DR800SG. I gave up waiting for the DR800SG and ordered the PRS-900 from Best Buy this past Saturday. It's not set to arrive before January 15th since they are on back-order. Every time I learn a little bit more about the PRS-900, I feel more confident I made the right choice not waiting on the DR800SG before deciding.

[rwe]

Hi mgmueller
i tried this question on a different thread but it wasn't picked up.
I would assume the 900 also comes to europe soon,
from the pictures in the manual it seems the simcard is replaceable, can you confirm this?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by rwe

Hi mgmueller
i tried this question on a different thread but it wasn't picked up.
I would assume the 900 also comes to europe soon,
from the pictures in the manual it seems the simcard is replaceable, can you confirm this?

YES, the SIM card can be replaced. Or at least I can take the existing one out of the socket. Haven't tried yet another card, will be an interesting experiment for this afternoon. I'll post the results in about 5 hours. Personally, I don't expect another card to work, but we'll see.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

YES, the SIM card can be replaced. Or at least I can take the existing one out of the socket. Haven't tried yet another card, will be an interesting experiment for this afternoon. I'll post the results in about 5 hours. Personally, I don't expect another card to work, but we'll see.

Another person has tried to put the Sim card in another device and it's blocked; I believe they got an error message about inserting correct card.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Lilly

Another person has tried to put the Sim card in another device and it's blocked; I believe they got an error message about inserting correct card.

I wonder if it can be unlocked, like a cell phone.