Sony Digital Book Reader PRS-350

So I went and bought something I have wanted for a while now, an Ebook reader. I went for the Sony Digital Book Reader PRS-350.

The PRS-350 is a 5" reader that sports a touch-screen E Ink

 display.  The touch-screen aspect of the reader is a nice touch as you can double-tap any particular word you don't understand, then the inbuilt dictionary pops up with the meaning of said word.  The reader supports various file types such as EPUB, PDF, Text, RTF, Word and BBeB.  This reader comes with a 2gb memory, which is ample storage (up to 1200 books) but I would have liked the option to extend the memory with a memory card.

So here it is. The homescreen is nicely laid out, it shows the book currently being read, the last 3 books added to the reader and also your collections of books on the device.

Quite odd placement of the logo on the back

The reader has a power slider running along the top. It is quite difficult to turn off the device, you slide the switch over to the off position, hold it there for a second or two, then the reader asks if you really want to power off, then you have to press yes on the screen before it finally turns off. Bit long-winded if you ask me.

The reader has a small reset button on the bottom side along with the mini USB port

It has five physical buttons on the front that are pretty self-explanatory, these are: two for page turning, a home button, a button to change font sizes (ranging from from XS - XL) and a button to change various options for the device.

  

The reader features a stylus that pulls out from the top. this is handy for making notes on the pages, using the notes function.  The reader allows you to create drawings that can be saved, then retrieved later on.

It feels very cheap to hold and I wouldn't want to press too hard through fear of it snapping. C'mon Sony you can do better than this.

 The screen, ahhh the screen. It is quite simply beautiful.  E Ink really has to be seen to be believed, it is exactly like the pages from a book. The screen, as it is not back-lighted, has no glare, even in direct sunlight.  It truly is breathtaking how much like a book it is.  My one gripe with it however is that when turning pages there is a flicker on the screen where it turns all black for about half a second.  That is the limitation of the E Ink technology at the moment.

It can become quite awkward when holding for a lengthy period of time, So the device allows you to turn pages by swiping the screen.  I feel that Sony could have put page turning buttons on the side edges of the reader to allow you to have a more fluid and comfortable reading experience, rather than having to change the position of your hand/fingers every time you need to change pages.

The reader itself is very small indeed.  It is not much larger than my phone or my Ipod. It slips into my jacket pocket very nicely. 

Look at that, half the size of my phone and about the same thickness as my Ipod.

Overall I am really happy with my Sony reader, minus the few minor points I have with it and the E Ink technology. It looks and feels exactly like a book should, and the fact that it is a DIGITAL piece of technology is quite remarkable.