It’s true, I admit it, I’m a geek.
I’m always on the lookout for new (practical) technology and am willing to be one of the first to try it. I was one of the first to buy the bulky 1st generation “portable” one pound MiniDisc-walkman from Sony. I paid big bucks for the first MP3-players.
Now I’ve once again put on my Early Adaptor-costume and bought the Sony Reader PRS500 which incorporates the new electronic paper EINK technology.

Introducing, the sony reader:

The Sony Reader is a handheld device, roughly with the dimensions of a paperback, about the same weight (9oz or 250g), but much thinner; measuring at 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.5 in (17.5 x 12.4 x 1.3 cm). But with 90MB internal memory and an memorystick/SD-cardslot, it can hold up to 4GB and 2GB of ebooks respectively.
Since a textual ebook is roughly 1MB big, this means that you can take an entire library worth of literature with you.

Let’s first make something clear. E-paper or E-ink is a new technology where text and graphics are built up on a screen and do not need power after that.
Unlike traditional LCD/TFT-screens which need a constant source of current to operate; once a page is builtup with E-Ink, it stays that way, no matter how long you leave it. Only if you’re “turning” the page, the screen will be refreshed.
This is comparable to the magna doodle.

Because of this, the internal battery lifetime is not measured in time, instead, it’s measured in page-turns (so it really depends on how long it takes you to read a page).
According to Sony, the reader can read 7500 pageturns. In the week that I had my reader, I recharged it twice though, each time when the battery meter showed that there is only 50% juice left. That is after 3000-4000 page turns.
This means, that the biggest quirk of all electronical devices, the battery usage is really not a problem here!

The resolution is measured at 166 dpi, four-level gray scale at about 800×600.
( portrait: 4.54 x 3.47 in (115.4 x 88.2 mm), 754 x 584 pixels)
( landscape: 6.09 x 4.41 in (154.8 x 112 mm), 1012 x 784 pixels )
For comparison: a dot matrix printer prints at 60-90dpi, while an inkjet printer starts at 360dpi.
However, in practice, the display of the reader is very readable. I’d compare it with the printout on a newspaper (in fact, the greyish colour of the display feels like a newspaper too)

Because of the E-ink technology, the display does not need backlight. In fact, it can not even use backlight, because the display is not translucent. The display is actually built up of tiny capsules. According to the current put into them, they can take a place further away from the surface, or come closer to the surface, resulting to the shade of gray.
If you put a backlight, the screen will probably just be all black, as if you’re holding a small book in front of a lightsource.

This is in fact a double edged sword. Because of the technology, it requires very litle batterypower and is very clear and natural to the eyes to read. But it makes the screen depend on environmental lighting, which means you need a reading light if you want to use the reader in bed. Just like a real book.

The controls are usable. A round joypad-like button in the bottom left-hand corner and two small dotsized buttons on the left side are used for page turning.
A joystick control with a ringed button is used for navigation. The two dot-sized buttons are really small though and are hard to operate if you have large hands. I think it’s designed to be operated with your nail.
Because the “pageturn”-pad is located on the bottom left-hand, it’s not so easy to switch hands for pageturning. At least, it’s not really comfortable.
There are 10 numeric buttons to quickly chose an option of a menu though. And in “reading mode”, you can browse to a percentage of the book. (1=10%, 2=20%, etc).

It is possible to “bookmark” a page with the small button next to the silvery one. A cool blue light will surround the buttons as a form of acknowledgement.

Because of the Eink-technology, the screen refresh is slow. When you press the pageturn, the screen will first turn all black and then white to clear the content. Then finally the new screen will be shown. This means a pagerefresh of about 1 page per 1-2 seconds.
This is also probably the reason for the numeric buttons. Because if you need to use the joystick to navigate through a list, it can take awhile, because each time the “cursor” jumps to another item, the screen needs to be rebuilt.
However, I don’t even notice that this slow page refreshes anymore after awhile. If it’s a real book, you need to flip the pages anyway.

The reader supports Sony’s propieraty-standard BBeB Book (LRF) but also PDF, TXT and RTF for reading.
DOC will be automatic converted in case you use their software.
The DRMed version of BBeB (LRX) is also supported and is in fact the format you can buy at their ebooksstore
Besides textual formats, the Reader also support MP3 and AAC-music files and imageformats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP (Loading an animated GIF will freeze the Reader)

The exact specs:
* Size: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.5 in (17.5 x 12.4 x 1.3 cm)
* Weight: 9 oz (250 g)
* Display:
o size: 6 in (15.5 cm) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page)
o resolution: 166 dpi, four-level gray scale
o portrait: 4.54 x 3.47 in (115.4 x 88.2 mm), 754 x 584 pixels
o landscape: 6.09 x 4.41 in (154.8 x 112 mm), 1012 x 784 pixels
o minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended
* Memory: 64 MB standard, Memory stick (Pro Duo High Speed not supported) or SD card expansion
* Rechargeable lithium-ion battery, up to 7500 “page turns” per charge
* PC interface: USB port

This beauty is available in america for 299 dollar. The introduction price was 350, but it dropped recently (a few days after I bought mine). For those who aren’t living in the US (like me), you can get the reader through ebay or at the renowned online store http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

So… after these two weeks, am I still happy with the reader? In conclusion, the reader is a magnificent machine with a great sharp screen and YES, I am very happy with it. But that’s just because I like to read but lack the time to do so. With the reader, I can have a large part of my collection with me all the time (the reader fits in my inside pocket) and because it’s “instant on”, I can read it in the rare moments in between tasks (IE waiting)

However, it is clear that the Reader is a 1st generation E-ink device, so it does what it needs to do, but there are still quirks (gray screen, speed, resolution, user friendlyness and supported formats) that needs to be fixed before it’s suitable for the public.

However, if you like to read non-coloured books, you should be very happy with the Reader. (however, you might want to go for the 2nd generation ebook device like the Cybook)