Finally bought an e-reader from Sony. Sony Reader PRS-650, 6″ screen with e-ink Pearl technology and memory card slot.
The first question from my friends is “you already have an iPad, why would you still need an e-reader?”
Well, maybe my friends were right, most people who doesn’t have an iPad will probably think that iPad is an e-reader. In fact, while it does have the capability to open e-documents, I won’t categorize iPad as an e-reader.
1. iPad is too heavy to hold with one hand
After few minutes, we can no longer hold an iPad with one hand comfortably. This results in a bad reading experience. iPad2, being slightly lighter, is still too heavy for long period reading.
2. iPad screen glare
While its display is rich and crisp, we can see our face’s reflection on the screen and sometimes this could be an issue for serious reading.
3. Too much distraction
Holding an iPad with the initial plan to read a book can sometimes be very tricky. Lots of games inside, Safari browsing, watching movies, there are LOTSSSS of other things you can do in iPad, resulting that reading that book soon becomes my last priority. After trying for several months, I ended up not finishing even ONE book.
The new Sony Reader PRS-650 is a beautiful device with features I need to read. Period.
First, the screen is a solid e-ink Pearl that display just like a paper. No reflection.
Second, I love the memory card slot, this allows me to add as many book as I want. And since most of my books are Japanese manga, it does come in handy as one book can be reasonably big in file size.
There is another model, PRS-950 which offers WiFi connectivity. I purposely choose a model without WiFi to minimize my “distraction” in reading so that my e-reader would not end up causing the same problem as my iPad.
Loading books into the reader is relatively easy. Any manga files in zip or rar format can be converted into EPUB format using a free tool named Calibre. This EPUB file can be directly transferred into the memory card, or into the Sony Reader internal memory.
So, now that I have an e-reader, does it make my iPad useless? Absolutely not. iPad might not be an ideal e-reader device, but I find it more than useful for work purposes. It certainly lighter than any laptop I ever owned; bringing it to work meetings is easy and fun. I successfully replaced all the paper-form reports I used to give to my boss, now only need to bring my iPad and show him the numbers/charts. If he likes a report, just email him the file, and it’s done. No more long session to shred unused reports (I can’t just throw them as most of them contain confidential data).
No more reading gadget for the next few years I guess =)
Update 1 : after few months, I realized that I rarely touched this nice gadget. I still like it, but somehow didn’t end up spending much time reading using it.
Update 2 : the release of iPad mini changed everything. Now that there’s a less-heavy version of iPad, this reader is officially retired.
Leave A Comment