Sony PRS-950SC Daily Edition Reader (Silver)

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Product Feature

• Accessories - USB Cable, Quick Start(TM) Guide, WarrantyFeatures
• Elegant Aluminum Design
• Optical-Based Highly Responsive Touchscreen
• E-Ink Pearl for Faster Page Turning
• Simple Web Browser

Product Description

Wirelessly download digital books and periodicals with the Reader Daily Edition featuring built-in Wi-Fi and free 3G mobile broadband to the Reader Store. The new Sony PRS-950SC Reader Daily Edition is a full 7" clear touch screen makes it a breeze to turn pages, take notes, highlight text and adjust fonts - all with the swipe of your finger.

Sony PRS-950SC Daily Edition Reader (Silver) Review

I currently am the happy owner of a PRS-950, but I'll try to incorporate the new Sony line as well as the Kindle 3. I've been ereading since the launch of the PRS505, which IMO was the ereader to have for over 3 years. With the Pearl screens I switched to a Kindle 3. While I still preferred most aspects of the PRS505, the Kindle 3's excellent hardware won me over... Until recently when I switched to the PRS950.

Right off the bat, the only real advantage of the 950 over other ereaders is the 7" screen and its more PDF appropriate aspect ratio... If you read only text (ie: novels) you could likely skip to the RECOMMENDATIONS portion of this review. But for some users (like me), this is the #1 issue, and I am happier with the PRS950 than I have ever been with another ereader. If complex PDFs publications are your bread and butter, then you want the 950.

DISCLAIMER: PDFs are not optimal in their native form, you must clip the excess white area margin! I use an excellent program called Briss, the process is outlined in the footnotes. The PRS950 has a "Margin Cut" Page Mode, but it doesn't seem to do anything at all. This is a fairly easy pre-processing step that will yield excellent results... Text PDFs can reflow and zoom (page breaks will be off, best to convert to epub/mobi), but complex PDFs cannot be reflowed and maintain their structure. Period. No PDF software in the world could effectively do this on the fly, so please don't blame the ereader!

I have opened several hundred PDFs on the 950 without issue. Equations, links, tables, footers/headers, images, embedded fonts, special characters. Everything is there, as it should be! The fonts, format, page breaks-everything views just as if on my computer PDF viewer. Some are better than others depending on the originals aspect and how much white space was cut. Still, I find the results most acceptable, far better than any ereader I've encountered... And, importantly, no links are broken, all words are searchable and can be looked up in the dictionary. The 950 even keeps a log of words you've looked up by book, which really helps with retention. FINALLY, PDFs on a portable ereader without a huge number of caveats and limitations. Rejoice!

This is a first, I am excited! :) The Kindle 3 is a capable reader, and it can display converted PDFs very well. But that PDF will become severely crippled. You will lose dictionary, word search, table of contents and even jump to page navigation... This process that yields very readable Kinlde PDF results (if featureless) is outlined in the footnotes.

Sony readers also have a history of more open formats, and user development... Kindle? Not so much... Some truly amazing functionality was added to previous Sony readers by the user development community. A PRS+ firmware Alpha version is scheduled for end January or February 2011.
For me PRS950 has roundly defeated the Kindle 3. But perhaps not for you?

PRS950 Pros:
+28% larger screen than Kindle 3 (and all 6" ereaders). +Touchscreen +Hold to scroll pages +Fairly compact and light for size +Aluminum construction +PRS line has good user development (PRS+ firmware)
PRS950 cons:
-Default fonts less crisp than K3s -Fewer zooms than K3 -Margin cut PDF page mode doesn't do anything -2 column PDF page mode is crippled by breaking into quadrants -Slower than K3's page turn (not huge deal, still quite fast) -Price -No case (used to help justify the higher Sony price) -Huge stylus tip -Taking notes when zoomed resets zoom

Addressing PRS950 concerns from other reviewers:
*Glare: There is none. Equal to Kindle 3.
*PDF support: opened over 100 PDFs from academic papers, to technical reference books, to books loaded with equations, pictures and tables. Never had a single failure... Perhaps special characters from non-English languages are the issue?
*Flickering: none noticed. I have noticed some slight ghosting... Which is remedied with a shutdown/restart. Not frequent, but hopefully a firmware update will fix this.
*Cost: it's freaking expensive, this one is accurate.
*Notes: Notes are a little awkward, likely due to fat stylus, and can't be exported yet... However, I see notes being able to be exported soon. The Mobile Read community figured this out on the PRS600.
*web browsing/mp3 problems: such a minor issue to me, I can't be made to care enough to test... these will always have issues on ereaders.

Kindle 3 Pros:
+Crisp fonts +Easy font change (not in PDF) +Fastest page turn +Fantastic battery life +Price
Kindle 3 Cons:
-Top and bottom status bars... Even if the top one hides, its space cannot be utilized by the book
-Huge side margins (can be corrected by editing a text file on K3)
-Not much user development community
-Cannot effectively navigate pictures via jump to page (this is crippling for PDF converts and comics)
-Large keyboard
-Amazon not likely to help development for rendering outside material

RECOMMENDATIONS
Get a Sony if you:
*want access to library books
*like to doodle and write notes in your books
*value pocket space and want a more compact ereader
*value higher quality form factor and construction
*want to have a choice in ebook stores
*like to customize your firmware (hopefully there will be a functionality expanding version of PRS+ firmware soon)
*don't mind paying a little to significantly more
*have a local collection of reading material in a variety of formats (Calibre helps the Kindle close this gap, but not there yet)

WHICH SONY IS RIGHT FOR YOU
PRS950: If you read PDFs, periodicals, journals, articles, (possibly comics?), reference books then THIS is the only reader you want.
PRS650: You prefer a larger reader, or perhaps if your eyes are not great. Otherwise, I think you're better off with the PRS350. Which is smaller (and cheaper), but has the same resolution.
PRS350: Value portability. Lowest cost, for same resolution.

Get a Kindle if you:
*mostly buy your ebooks, and buy them from Amazon
*are on a very tight budget (PRS350 is only $15 more than Kindle 3 WIFI)
*would use the text to speech function (might be nice for driving. although I prefer real audiobooks)
*want low quality 3g internet browsing (requires $189 3g)... I can't stand internet browsing on an ereader, but if you have no other option it might be useful.
*browse and buy books from your ereader (PRS950 has this functionality also)... I must admit I do not enjoy shopping on an ereader, it will never compete with a true browser.

Suggestions for all ereaders
*Use Calibre for ebook management and general conversions (Mobile Read is an excellent resource for converting)
*Get a cover that folds back and locks in some way. Holding the front and back cover can be tiresome. The Sony cover PRS950B, which is significantly lower quality than Sony's old generation covers... Most corner strap style Nook covers should fit the PRS950. I am using a CaseCrown Nook cover, which is heavy but I am pleased.

FOOTNOTES AND REFERENCES
***PDF prep for PRS950 = Use Briss (check Mobile Read forums) to crop excess white margin. Fin... I usually append the original PDF in the Calibre library with "_source" so Calibre will send the clipped PDF to the ereader.
***PDF prep for K3 = 1.) PRS2LRF; be sure to save as '.zip' instead of '.lrf' 2.) Extract .zip to folder and run through Mangle program... These will be images, but this is the way to create the most readable PDF for Kindle. As mentioned above you will lose almost all functionality (dict, search, notes, txt to speech, ToContents, page navigation).

I have no experience with the KindleDX, which might be a competent ereader... However, I find it awkwardly large. Too large for me to be interested as I carry my PRS950 in my jacket pocket daily... If you have good vision you will have no trouble reading most PDFs on the 950, thus making the DX overkill.

Tablets (ipad, NookColor [excellent value], so on) were not mentioned in this review because they are IMHO inferior ereaders. I also didn't put much emphasis on features like internet browsing and music playing because those are activities I don't think ereaders are well designed for. I've tried them, but found them so awkward compared to other devices (like PCs. tablets, mp3 players and smart phones) that I never returned... Like buttering bread with a cleaver, it is possible but far from ideal... Although there are exceptions, like RSS feeds and ereader device formatted webpages (Kinstant)... If you spend more time browsing, playing videos/music/games and are only a casual reader a tablet might be a better fit.... As a fairly heavy reader tablets can really irritate my eyes, even in the few hours before it needs a recharge.

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