Portable eBook Readers

Although the Sony PRS 500 and PRS 505 readers have actually been discontinued by Sony, there are a couple of options for either upgrading them or a trade-in to the newer Sony readers.

The Sony PRS 500 was the first in the Sony Reader family of eBook readers. It came out in 2006 and was soon replaced by the Sony PRS 505 in 2007. Both of these were also superseded by the improved Sony 700 Reader in 2008, but with the rapid pace of development within the eBook reader market, even the PRS 700 has been discontinued.

Sony PRS 500 Specifications

The Sony PRS 500 utilized a 6 inch display with e-ink technology from E Ink Corporation. At 13mm thick, it was a lot thicker than today’s eBook readers and only had a 4-level grey scale resolution. The internal memory was 64 MB with SD card expansion up to 2 GB or 4 GB with a memory stick. The lithium-ion battery allows for up to 7500 page turns on a single charge.

Although you can still buy both the PRS 500 and PRS 505, I don’t know why anyone would bother. There are many newer eBook readers available that are light years beyond these two. For owners of the PRS 500 that are not ready to buy a new Sony Reader or any other brand, there are a couple of options to either upgrade or trade-in.

If you visit www.sonystyle.com and then click on the advert for upgrading your Sony PRS 500, you will see the two options available to you. Basically, you can upgrade the firmware so that your reader will be compatible with the Sony eBook store format of ePub. You will have to mail the reader back to Sony for them to perform the firmware update; Sony will provide you with a pre-paid UPS label for shipping and they say you will have your PRS 500 back in 14 days.

The other option is if you would rather trade-in your PRS 500 for one of their current models. At the moment you can receive a $50 credit when you buy the Sony PRS 300 Pocket Edition or $75 credit when you buy the PRS 600 Reader Touch Edition. Again, you have to go through the official Sony site to get your claim form so that you get your credit once they receive your PRS 500 in their warehouse.

Sony PRS 505 Specifications

The Sony PRS 505 kept the 6 inch e-ink display but improved it with Vizplex imaging film that had a faster refresh time, a 8 grey scale resolution, and a brighter white slate. Other improvements included more internal memory (256 MB) and a thinner case (8mm.)

There was also a feature to organize and group titles by adding your books to “Collections.” Charging of the PRS 505 battery was also improved by full USB charging capability; with the PRS 500, you could charge the battery with a USB only if the battery was drained and if the host computer had the Sony Connect Reader software installed on it.

Upgrade options were also easier with the PRS 505. Now, you can get a free firmware download instead of having to ship your reader back to Sony. The upgrade enables you to take advantage of the ePub format as well as enhancements to the use of PDF files. Finally, there is support for use of higher capacity SDHC memory cards (up to 32 GB.)

Limitations and Problems

Like all early e-ink displays, they suffer from a slow page update rate (1 – 1.5 seconds) that prevents the use of technology like interactive menus and page scrolling on zoomed pages. Many users have reported that the case is too flimsy and the screen is fragile. Other users complain of the choice and the high price of the eBooks at the Sony store, although you can also download free public domain books. With the use of Calibre software you can download RSS feeds into your reader and format PDF’s to fit the screen size.

Related posts:

1. Sony PRS 700

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