Sony Reader Pocket Edition Digital Book PRS300S Colour SILVER

I bought a Sony PRS-300 to research the feasibility of using it for holding technical documentation for service engineers 'in the field'.A couple of things become apparent immediately; whilst the e-paper screen itself is very readable, it is too small and the Reader is very slow.Most .pdf manuals are rendered with a minute size of typeface, and are therefore unreadable. The 'zoom' function often does not work, and when it does it is slow - so slow that I often gave up trying.So for using it to read technical documentation it is a fail.However, text only material I created (as A5 .pdf files with 12pt text) worked well, so it was usable for simple text lists and tables.Using it for its intended purpose (as an eBook reader) was much more successful; the free eBooks downloaded from the Sony Reader site were perfect.Others in various (.lit .lrf) formats were from excellent to average, again mostly due to font/page size issues.Verdict?As a reader of eBooks formatted specifically for the PRS-300 it is excellent.As a reader of other eBook formats it is excellent to OK depending on page and font sizes.As a general purpose .pdf document reader it is mostly unusable due to font/page size problems.For my intended use it's no good, but my girlfriend loves it for reading novels on long airplane flights.I also highly recommend Calibre, the eBook management software available FREE from the interweb. This is far better Sony's rather flaky offering.

Best item I've bought in ages! Used mainly when on holiday so I don't have to pack lots of books, it's lightweight, easy to use and easy to carry in hand luggage. Screen protectors and case also bought on Amazon are great accessories for this item.

Bought the Reader for my wife for Xmas. Originally the software was not available for download due to too many people trying to do it at the same time. But when it became available it would not launch on my desktop, despite the desktop running what was meant to be a compatible version of Windows. Sony Support for the product is poor - you struggle to find a number to phone and when you do they suggest you uninstall and reinstall it - which I have done 8 times. Then they say they will get a specialist to ring you but they don't.All in all, a disaster.

It was not my money,it was a gift. It's a dog. It weighs a ton, the control buttons are in the wrong place. The software change instructions are slow. The type magnification is limited and only on some formats. The Pc software has the most curious philosophy where you load books to the PC software and it decides to synchronise to the reader. When it feels like. You can so easily end up with many copies of the same book and alternatively no copies. If it decides that a book is illegal that can then damage the software irretrievably. You can't categorised your books in directories by type and transfer them. Everything in the reader and pc reader software is bundled into the one principle directory and then copied as links onwardly both on PC reader software and reader itself. I have struggled many hours trying to work with this rubbish machine talking with and emailing Sony help and in the end literally lost patience with it and Sony and threw it away. Don't go near this hopeless product. I am now unconvinced of the value of all my other Sony products.

A tale of two extremes, so to start on the good bit - namely the hardware. Excellent build quality, extremely tactile, a first class screen which is clear and easy to read. The e-ink system is superb and very well realised here, the product is a joy, and worthy of five stars.And yet, you may have noticed I only voted three stars.... some time ago sony walkmans came packaged with a their own software, it was unstable and horrible, painful to install, and so astonishingly off the pace compared to itunes, well it was quickly dispensed with. I'm afraid it's spirit seems to have risen from the ashes, because the software is again dreadful. Difficult to install and despite trying to mimic an itunes style, it falls way short.If the software was solid and worked well - this would be a five star product, and if it works for you, good luck and enjoy. For me I have managed to get it working and storing many books in such a convenient way is excellent. One minor thing tho, a waterproof version, so i can read in the bath would be great!!

I think I may have finally mastered to download a book bought through Sony as well as borrowing a library e-book from our local library. Not sure about the page as it reloads to the next page, but I've been assured by the optician it should not hurt my eyes. I am definitely a bad workwoman who blames her tools!

Item never arrived, and got a full refund without any problems. But I did get another one a short while later not from Amazon and it was a great buy. Loved it.

I bought one of these for my wife at Christmas and thanks to Sony not having the foresight to realise that they'd have a lot of demand on their servers with new owners atempting to download the drivers, it's currently nothing more than landfill. Waterstones acknowledged the problem but there's nothing anyone can do until Sony pull their finger out and sort out some more bandwidth. Why wouldn't they bundle in a disk with the software on it?