PRS-300 Which color is best for eink clarity?

[Mel_Putra]

Hi Guys!

I plan to buy the PRS-300. Read somewhere that the screen's eink quality is better with one color over others but I can't recall which one is better - the pink, navy blue or silver? It seems it's got something to do with the contrast between the eink screen versus the frame's color... Would anyone be able to clarify this for me, please? The clarity of the screen really matters to me since I would like to have the screen as close to physical book as possible. This will be my very 1st eBook reader... I had seen the Hanlin V5 and iRiver Story and found their screens to be still too grey for my liking.

Thanks!
Mel

[Paul58]

My wife has the Silver and I have the Navy. We got two different colors so we could tell them apart and she wanted the Silver, so I took the Navy. I can not tell any difference in the contrast of the e-ink screen between one or the other, even with them sitting side by side! They are both very clear and easy to read. My suggestion would be to go with the color you prefer and not worry about it, they all use the same screen!

[stargazertony]

IMHO a dark border is better but I suggest that you look at all the color options yourself prior to purchase to see what one you like best.

[Mel_Putra]

Hi!
Thanks for responding so quickly! I live in Malaysia where Sony Ebook reader is not available in store. But either I will be visiting NYC in August or else I can get my friend to buy one for me. So I may not be able to check out the model before buying. Even if I can, it is difficult already locating stores that sell it since I don't know NYC. And even if I find one, they may not sell all the colors. So it helps if I can get some feedback here... I just read somewhere that due to the contrast between the screen color and the border color it somehow appears that the screen/writing looks clearer with one border vs others...
BTW, if I go I will be staying at the corner of W39th Street and 6th Avenue (near Bryant Park). So if anyone knows any store nearby?


Mel

[HarryT]

Any particular reason you're going for the Sony PRS-300? If you want a 5" reader, both the CyBook Opus and the Pocketbook 360 are, to my mind, much more capable devices. The main issue with the Sony is that it uses a very old version of Adobe's "ADE" software (used to display ePub and PDF books) with the result that, for example, all books are displayed left justified (which personally I dislike). It also lacks folder support, searching, etc, which most other devices support.

[Mel_Putra]

I like PRS-300 basically for the size. But actually if PRS-505 is still available, I'd prefer that since it has the SD card slot so easier for transferring ebooks from the PC to the reader. But I doubt I will be able to find that in store now in NYC...
Do you have further recommendations aside from the CyBook Opus and the Pocketbook 360? I only intend to use the ebook reader to read mainstream novels. I don't like touch screen and so far have rejected all the touch screen models, iPad, Nook, Kindle & iRiver Story. I may still consider Hanlin V5 but I don't like the grey e-ink screen very much. Hopefully the PRS-300's e-ink screen is whiter..
Mel

[GraceKrispy]

I would go for the navy ... from what I hear, it does "seem" to offer better contrast. I own the silver, however, and have no issues with reading the screen. I think the clarity is consistent between colors, but the darker casing gives you the illusion of better contrast.

[Mel_Putra]

That's what I mean - illusion of better contrast. I like the silver (from seeing the internet). But now will have to see the said illusion of contrast between the two.
Another thing, any comments regarding the quality of the paintwork? What I mean is does it scratch easily? If yes, the scratches on the silver won't be so obvious in comparison to colors like navy and pink...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Mel_Putra

Do you have further recommendations aside from the CyBook Opus and the Pocketbook 360? I only intend to use the ebook reader to read mainstream novels. I don't like touch screen and so far have rejected all the touch screen models, iPad, Nook, Kindle & iRiver Story. I may still consider Hanlin V5 but I don't like the grey e-ink screen very much. Hopefully the PRS-300's e-ink screen is whiter..
Mel

All the 5" devices use the same screen; there is only one manufacturer of it - PVI in Taiwan. The apparent background colour of an eInk screen varies with the lighting conditions, so different pictures can appear different, but in reality they are all the same.

[PG4003]

A lot of people think a darker background color gives a better contrast. I have a silver PRS300 but I put a pink skin on it. I actually prefer the lighter colors, the dark colors are distracting to me.

[sandeepp]

Originally Posted by stargazertony

IMHO a dark border is better but I suggest that you look at all the color options yourself prior to purchase to see what one you like best.

Well said. I tried both the silver and navy blue and went with the navy blue one. Silver color sometimes reflects light from bulb/lamp.

[Tim G]

My wife has the navy and I have the silver. We haven't noticed any issues with contrast between the two. Nor have we had any issues with scratching. We have a 1 year old who gets a hold of my wife's once in a while and we have to wrestle it away from him. Haha. But no scratches yet.
And as for your NYC visit - There is a Borders on 33rd and 7th ave. They sell the PRS-300 for $149

[Elton Noway]

Originally Posted by PG4003

I have a silver PRS300 but I put a pink skin on it. I actually prefer the lighter colors, the dark colors are distracting to me.

I was just going to suggest this... a "SKIN" is the way to go.

Since a friend will be buying your reader for you and you won't be able to see the readers in person... and since you may or may not get the color you were hoping for... I would suggest telling your friend to just buy whatever color is available... and not worry about the color of the frame because you can always change it with a skin, and make it any color that you want. Here's a link to one of many skin suppliers for the 300:

http://www.decalgirl.com/category.vi...cket-300-Skins

BTW... I've read many forums on the subject of the page contrast to frame color correlation. Actually.... the responses are all over the place and it comes down to personal preference. Some people say they prefer the darker frame (black/blue) because it makes the white page background appear whiter (brighter). Some say they find the black/blue frame distracting ... that they can't stop seeing the frame around the page window when they trying to read, whereas the silver frame has a tendency to blend in with the white page and you don't notice it as much after you start reading. Then again others say they tried the silver frame and didn't like it because it was too bright, that it reflected light and they found the glare distracting.

NET: Its all personal preference. Take what you can get and skin it the way you want.

Just FYI: I have a silver 300. I don't notice the frame while reading and I have never had a glare problem (indoors or out). Paint is paint... all of them will scratch eventually if you are not careful with it. Skin it or get a cover if you are worried about scratching the paint.

Word of warning. Make sure when you friend is in NYC they buy your reader from a retail seller (like Barnes and Noble). NYC has a lot of "gray market" alley stores . While you can get great prices on some electronics they may not be covered by Sonys warranty.

[Mel_Putra]

Thanks so much for all your advices. Invaluable! Today I just received my US visa so I will be going.. Yay!!!!!!!!!! I will definitely buy from the legit retailers. Not so much because of the warranty but for the assurance that the product is of good quality. Since the warranty may be useless since I will be bringing it back to Malaysia. I am not sure that the warranty is worldwide...

[Sylver]

Originally Posted by HarryT

All the 5" devices use the same screen; there is only one manufacturer of it - PVI in Taiwan. ... in reality they are all the same.

That is not true. The Hanlin (or Astak) screen is manufactured by PVI while the Sony screen is manufactured by LGPhillips; and having owned both, I can attest the Sony does offer significantly better screen contrast (the background whiter and the font color darker) under exact same lighting conditions.
Back to the original post: darker case does give very marginal and most probably purely illusionary "better" reading experience, but it also distract some people while reading. Many people suggested choosing certain case color or playing font settings to "improve" screen contrast, having tried myself, I can honestly say, the improvement (if any) is very very marginal and illusionary. The fact is: 1. the current generation e-ink technology as demonstrated in mainstream ereaders available on market is not matured enough and the so-called "paper-like" screen contrast is more of a marketing effort than truth (you've heard newspaper has 4 to 1 contrast ratio while most ereaders today claim to have at least 6 to 1 contrast ratio - some sellers deceivingly confuse consumers between contrast ratio and gray scale levels); 2. different readers/manufactures do have slightly different screen contrast implementation for basically the same e-ink technology, I compared in different stores and with different products side by side, my impression is Nook has the best contrast, closely followed by Sony PRS 300 (not the touch versions), and my Astak reader (aka Hanlin) has the worst.
To summarize, you need to pick the color your really like for your case, not some perceived or most probably illusionary improvement on contrast. And Sony 300 is a good one if you - like me - care more about the screen contrast than things like folder structure file system, external SD card, mp3 playback, text-to-speech, flexible font settings, replacement battery, or etc (don't take me wrong, I'd love to have these additional features, especially replaceable battery, but just don't want to sacrifice the screen contrast for these). I have quite some novels in PDF format embedded in Chinese fonts, each one has about 4mb in size, and carrying 100 or so such novels at anytime should be sufficient for me so I don't immediately have a need for SD card. My Astak/Hanlin has about 7 or 8 areas that I liked better than my Sony, but fails on only one area - the screen contrast, and if it can be quantified in some way, it is only about 10% worse than Sony in the area of contrast, seemingly very subtle at the beginning, but if you read more than several hours, that 10% subtle difference eventually augments by itself to the point I cannot bear with that I finally gave my Hanlin to a friend and kept my Sony.