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SONY Digital Book PRS-700 Reader

Sony PRS-700 is an advanced eBook reader with touch screen interface, LED lit screen and many other attractive features. Sony PRS-700 has an attractive design and looks more or less similar to the previous models.

Design and Features
Sony PRS-700 weighs about 9 ounces and its dimensions are 4.8 in x 0.3 in x 6.9 inches. As in many Sony eBook readers we have a traditional 6 inch LCD screen. We do not have many supporting buttons around the screen or at the sides, as the screen uses advanced touch screen interface. The side buttons and the multidirectional control pads are completely absent.

Instead we have six buttons chiseled properly to the border of the LCD screen. These buttons assist us in moving forward and backward, zooming the contents and browsing and searching through the titles. We also have a home button in the middle and an options button bringing up various menus. Apart from these few buttons we do not have any other controls on the body of the eBook reader.

On the rear side of the device we have a memory card slot, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB slot and a power adaptor. We also have the volume rocker and the power switch there. All the important controls are placed at rear end, in a proper order enabling easy usage of the device. Even if we fit the eBook reader into a case, we need not turn it around to access various controls. We can just use them from the rear side, which is generally left open in most of the protective cases.

Screen
Sony PRS-700 has a 6-inch display screen, with 8 grey scale levels. Usual e-ink technology is used to display crisp texts on a monochrome monitor. Sony PRS-700 claims to have electrophoretic display with great contrast. This provides mild LED lighting to the screen when we read it in dim conditions.

The background is a bit darker and the text slightly brighter giving very rich display. The E-ink technology consumes very little power and reduces the page flip speed. The original print like display provides a very enjoyable reading experience, which could be found earlier only in Kindle.

Storage
Sony PRS-700 has 256 MB internal memory. We can store more than 300 books with this memory. We also have SD memory card slot and a Memory Stick Pro slot to expand the memory further. Numerous data can be stored in the device using these memory facilities.

Support
All major modern day file formats like PDF , RTF , TXT , Word , BBeB , EPUB , BBeB DRM are supported. GIF, PNG, JPEG image file formats work fine with this eBook reader. We can use audio files in ACC and MP3 format. Support to advanced EPub file formats and PDF file formats is a good feature, which is missing in many eBook readers. However Sony eBook readers have generally possessed them and are appreciated for this facility.

We can access books from Sony's online book store. We have more than 20,000 titles there. Word is around, that the library will be updated soon to hold around 60,000 titles. As of now we can use the Library 2.5 PC software and purchase the books.

Image and Music
Normal music and image file formats are supported by Sony PRS-505. Hearing audio books in this eBook reader is a good experience. The sound quality is better than many other Sony readers itself. Images from the books and the other devices like camera could be viewed in monochrome mode. Pictures are rendered well, with many scales of grey shades and look clear and nice.

Transferring Data
Transferring data in Sony PRS-700 is a two step process. First we should keep the software installed in the computer. Then we should connect the USB cable and the computer and do the purchase. We can drag and drop the items into the eBook reader after this.

Performance
Sony PRS-700's processor works fine making it a fairly fast eBook reader. The touch screen interface tends to lag back most of the time. We have to wait patiently for it to respond. We do not get an AC adaptor with the set. The special screen with backlight facility does fairly well in displaying proper, crisp text even in dim light conditions.

Basic annotation, note adding and bookmarking facility work fine. Text resizing and font selection is also a fairly easy process. We can zoom the PDF documents also. We have very few buttons which work properly and immense storage capacity. Battery life lasts for nearly 7000 page turns, which is quite common with most of the eBooks.

Special Features
So far we were not able to use the eBook readers in dim light conditions because of the monochrome display and E-ink Technology. This technology reduced strain to eyes, but did not allow us to use the Kindle in the dark. Sony PRS-700 has a LED backlit screen which could be read in very dark conditions also. This feature works surprisingly well and is a worthy addition.

Verdict
Sony PRS-700 has improved a lot compared to its previous versions of eBook readers. But it has its flaws too like average speed and unresponsive touch screen interface. This is a product worth considering twice before purchasing.

Cost: $257.99

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