About My eReader

What the heck is an eReader I hear you cry!

Well simply put it’s an electronic book. eReaders utilise a fantastic display technology called eInk. Unlike normal LCD / TFT screens, there is no glare and very little reflection. It pretty much resembles a page of a book. Because there is no glare it is very easy to read and I can sit there for hours reading with no eye strain.  It works just as well (if not better) in direct sunlight unlike standard displays. Another benefit to an eInk display is that it only uses power to change the display and not to maintain it. This allows a fully charged battery to last weeks!

Being an electronic device it has several benefits over a book (i’m yet to convince the wife on this):

Downside?

I had decided on getting a Sony reader – good brand, good reputation, good support etc. Now their latest eReaders were the PRS 600 and PRS 300. The PRS 600 having a touch sensitive screen allowing you to swipe pages, add comments, look up words etc etc. However, on seeing the device in action I noticed that the screen reflected pretty severely. This I was told was down to the extra layer on the screen for the touch control. The PRS 300 was not touch sensitive and the screen was crystal clear with an excellent contrast. However the PRS 300 was a 5″ screen (PRS 600 is 6″). This was too small for me as I would be turning pages every ten seconds.

So I did some more research and found a previous model called the PRS 505 which had the 6″ screen and was not touch sensitive. This seemed the perfect device. It didn’t have the ability to write on the screen, nor did it have a dictionary but hey – I wanted to read on it. This was still on sale in some stores so I took a look and ended up buying it :)

Sangria_Red_Sony_PRS_505

Another small benefit to this model is that it came with a protective leather like case that you keep the device in (the new models come with a soft zipped case used to carry the device around in). Yet another benefit was that you could expand the memory using SD cards (not available on the PRS 300).

Now this is an absolute first for me. Normally when researching the next gadget to buy I will look at the latest and greatest models. I did do this and there are some excellent devices out there. But for me, I wanted to read the dam thing so the number one priority for me was readability.

Now to say it out loud, “I bought an outdated gadget” – Where’s my therapist!

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