Name: Sony PRS-505 Reader Digital Book, with Internal Memory for Storing up to 160 Books, Memory Slot for Memory Stick Media and SD Cards, Silver
Brand: Sony
SKU: SORDBSV
Price: 249.95 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.26 (27 reviews)

Sony PRS-505 Reader Digital Book, with Internal Memory for Storing up to 160 Books, Memory Slot for Memory Stick Media and SD Cards, Silver

Sony PRS-505 160 Book Memory Reader Digital Book, Slvr

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Top Rated Gear: Sony PRS-505 Reader Digital Book, with Internal Memory for Storing up to 160 Books, Memory Slot for Memory Stick Media and SD Cards, Silver

At first I loved my e-reader; I've had it for about 7 months. I bought and downloaded about 30 books and loved having the convenience of having my ebook. I even like the feel of the ereader in my hands. But about two weeks ago, the sony ereader program on the desktop stopped working. Kept getting several error messages and I tried getting help from Sony. I even did an echat with one of their techs. They provided no help whatsoever. I did some research online seeing if anyone else had similar problems, but none of their suggestions worked. I am now left with no way to buy anymore books or access the my books on my desktop. Complete waste of money.

Be Warned

I have had my reader for a couple of weeks now. Over all, I am very pleased with the purchase. Transferring files from my laptop is simple. The screen gives a very clean image in all but very dark conditions. I do wonder if a back-lit screen will give the same quality. My only gripe is how the screen refreshes when you turn pages. A faster processor would probably reduce the time it takes to refresh.

A good reader for the price

I own the PRS700 since Christmas. A very nice tool with touch screen and light, which I preferred to the PRS505.
I move every 2 to 3 years and that's a great way to carry your library around with limited weight !
The reading experience is great, whatever position you're having it. The screen doesn't make the eyes tired, even if a little gray, and the possibility to change the characters size is really comfortable.
On the cons side, the price on the ebookstore is a bit high, specially when you know you can't lend or resale your ebooks. Also, the number of available titles should be increase quickly, as it is a real frustration not to find your favorites contemporary authors latest (or oldest) releases available in ebook version! eBooks are the reason why eReaders exist, and not the other way around...
Last but not least, the sony ebook library software really needs to be improved, specially with the search / sort / categorization functions. Maybe inspire yourself on the itune software?

nice & usefull toy, available ebooks to increase

I purchased my SONY e reader in December 2007 and liked it so well, I bought one for my daughter, who also loves to read. My e reader stopped working with my PC after about 60 days and I contacted SONY, who replaced the unit in less than a week. I have used it ever since. It is great to use in a waiting room or at home, easy to transport and easy on the eyes. I have downloaded books from SONY's site and from several free ebook sites I have found on line with no problems. In the time I've had it, the e reader has frozen twice and had to be reset. In each case, the reader reset easilly and I was able to continue using it. Well worth the price!

A purchase I'm proud of!!

I have had my Sony eReader for about six months now and love it. I love to read books, and I will often reread my favorites two or three times. So having everything all in one place works out great since I live in a small house. However, I do love the idea of books on shelves so I guess you lose some of the classic charm of having "books".
I read in the bathtub and then often in my bed and it's so nice not having the bind affect the way you can see the page when you are laying on your side, and you don't have to fight to keep the book open if it's new. I often just use to cover that is included to make it stand up on it's own.
I have no problem reading the words and actually think that the letters are much more defined than some paper books.
Everyone thought I was nuts for spending three hundred dollars on it, but after they got a chance to check it out many of my friends/family who enjoy reading are seriously thinking about making purchases for themselves. I may even have to break down and give my dad this one so I can buy the newest version. Because my only real regret with buying it, is I didn't wait until the touch screen was out. I would love the added feature of being able to annotate and write notes in the text. So I may just have to buy another one, lol.
I also looked into the Kindle and other than being able to upload wirelessly there is nothing better than the Sony. Plus, if you know you are going to be gone for an extended period of time you could always buy a couple at a time when you are hooked up.
It has ALWAYS worked great, never froze up, and my blackberry charger works for it.
I also wish some of the sites for purchasing books that are available were more compatible with Sony. They kind of want you to be cornered in their market which makes sense so they should become a little bit more competitive with book prices, or offer better bundles.
It's a great product and I love, love, love it. My only suggestion would be to buy the touchscreen newer version.
Also, this version (not sure about the new one) only has six shades of grey so if you think the picture feature is going to be great, think again. Although, the audio player worked as good as my ipod and the storage with SD compatability is endless.

Great for people who LOVE to read!

I read about every review on the internet on just about every web site that I could find that reviewed the ereaders and decided on the Sony.
1. Versatility over the Kindle 2-can save to a card unlike the Kindle 2 or DMX
2. Size---did not want the larger Kindle DMX
3. Appearance and feel of the Sony was far superior to all the Kindle's.
4. Battery on the Sony longer life and the replacement on the Kindle 2 was for only one time and then they send you back another kindle with none of your books loaded in it.
5. I did not need a website like Amazon to save my book purchases, would rather save them myself and then only I could blame me for their loss.
6. Did not need to have a wireless item to add to the every growing collection of them in my house. I use my ipod everyday and it is not that hard at all to use the Sony to add a book once a week.
7. The Sony has a better advantage of buying books from multiple websites and translating the versison to the Sony vs. the kindle.
8. Most library's appear to be going to the Sony format vs. the Kindle.
9. Calibre program is absolutely wonderful and works great with the Sony.
10. Have had none of the problems listed in any review.
11. Never thought i would go to an ereader having been an avid book fan and collector, but the Sony won me over.
12. Do not get blinded by the glammor of the Kindle, go for the Sony its the work horse of the ereaders.

After Extensive Reseach

This is the greatest!!! What a space saver. Works like a charm. Everyone that sees it wants it. So easy to read, no glare. Grayscale is great. I read in the car, even bright sun does not bother it.

Forget Ali....

I made several attempts to read books downloaded from the French National Library in PDF Files on the PRS- 505/SC, but it did not work. The characters on this e-reader are much too small in spite of putting them on "Large. The Sony Digital E-book did not help in the proper formatting.As a result, I returned the reader to the seller.
Otherwise, this machine was good for reading excerpts of novel .

PRS-505/SC

I now have 309 books, 166 song, 469 pictures and still have some room with my 2GB SD card. If I change songs or add books when I'm charging with my PC it will take a little time to reload but after loading it the first time, it is on instantaneously until you add more. I love the versatility and it stores some of your pages so if you want to go back and read something over you can find it easily by the few sentences it gives. I'm still learning all the features as I go, but you can almost figure things out without reading a single direction. The zoom features for ease of reading is great. I did have one book that I couldn't read at maximum because it would cut words apart, but going back to the zoom level just before it allowed me to read without those cut words. Recommend you read how to use the audio portion before you use it or you may panic because you can't turn it off and don't know how to control volume, although the starting volume is set low so you won't shatter your eardrums by just turning it on (earphones required for this).

worth every penny

Unfortunately it didn't take long before my excitement ended. I got the PRS505 for Christmas of 08, it is now March of 09 and it has started acting up. My biggest fault with this product is the length of time that it takes to load books onto it. I tried loading a 2 gig SD card that was full of books in the reader. The reader froze and would not let the card load. I watched it for about 13 minutes and got frustrated and took the card out and tried removing books. I got a total of 34 books on the SD card that would load in a reasonable manner without freezing up, and by reasonable manner I mean 4 minutes!! That is a ridiculous time to wait for books to load. My second problem is that the reader has a habit of freezing up. In the three months that I have owned it, it has frozen seven times, yes 7 times!! That is a little silly and a little frustrating when you want to finish a book and cant because the thing is froze. I am charging it now hoping that it will unfreeze within a day or two, i have tried resetting it with the button but that didn't work this time. Hopefully charging it fully will work. Right now I am not liking my reader, it is a frustrating expensive toy that I feel may cost us more money than that "other" one in the end because of repairs that are more than likely going to happen in the near future. Please think about this before you buy it compare all readers and look a the problems with all before making final decision...I wish I would have. Hind site is 20/20

I WAS so excited to get this for christmas

I own both the 505 and 700 models and it is the 505 that I use for the majority of my reading and all of my recreational reading of novels, etc. While the 505 struggles with large files particularly PDFs, which can lock it up forcing you to reset it, with standard files everything works fine.

The screen is the most important feature on an ebook and the 505 is far superior to the 700, the second set of page turn buttons can be handy at times too.

If you want to read in poor lighting conditions the book cover with light that Sony sells is also superior to the side lighting of the 700 and it is no problem to pop the reader in and out of the different cases. It is a shame that the case the 505 comes with is a little cheapo, I suggest buying the leather cover for a nicer feel.

I haven't found much use for the pictures and MP3 playing features myself, but they are a nice addition and I have made a point of loading a few audio books to try out.

All in all, if you don't need to access large PDF files this is the reader to go with, still a better deal even if they have reduced the price of the 700.

Best Sony Reader

As a child I read voraciously and would usually win summer reading contests at the county library. Following school and embarking on a career I found myself reading much less. I would start a book, lose my place, find the book too large to carry with me, misplace it and so forth. I was reading only a couple of books per year when I decided to try the Sony PRS-505 just over a year ago. In the intervening months I have read at least 25 books. I should receive a referral fee from Sony. Many times I have been interrupted while reading (usually on vacation on the ship or in a hotel lobby) by people wanting to know "Is that a Kindle?" I then give them my e-book pitch for the Sony. It would help if Sony advertised as much as Amazon does for their product! Anyway, I love my Sony and love being able to read again.

Has greatly increased my reading

Design: Buttons are well placed for me. Performance: The E Book Store is slow; someone described it perfectly as "clunky", Sony's classic library is huge, but most of the books have quite a few typographical errors. Reliability: Freezes up EVERY time I re-charge it. What a nuisance. I want to re-charge, disconnect and GO! I suppose Apple's Ipod has set the bar on that.
Value: Reasonable price-but I'm looking into the Kindle; I love the idea of a built in dictionary; and their book prices are better than Sony's. Despite all that, it's still cool being able to carry around 180 books in your purse!

Freeze Happy

I got this for my anniversary and I regret I did not wait a little longer for the new version of the book but I love it. It is so convenient and I use it every day. I use it during lunch at work and breaks and then I read before going to bed so that I can relax from the stress of the day. I looked at Kindle but liked the solid and more sturdy than the kindle. The last thing I wanted to experience was my reader falling off the counter and plastic pieces flying everywhere.

I also like the flexibility offered with so many formats supported allowing me to shop around for the best pdf prices. If I ever have to replace this model, I will definately be looking at the 700 model because I like the touchscreen, light feature and is still the best for me. It would be nice if it had Wireless but not if it takes away from the quality.

Love It

Others have already written about how great it is to carry around a small library in such a light, sleek, high-quality, and frankly very sexy package, so I'll focus on another aspect of the Sony Reader: ubiquitous book availability.

I'm a voracious reader, so ever since I moved abroad, I've had trouble finding enough books to sustain me. On the rare occasions I traveled to an English-speaking country, I used to load up my suitcase with loot. But it was never enough - I'd have gone through them after 1 or 2 weeks. Worse, sometimes I wouldn't like any of the books I'd gotten, and then I'd feel like I'd wasted an opportunity.

You can imagine how much this Reader has changed my life. Yes, there's the Sony eBook store, which is merely OK (I find it slow and clunky, not really optimized for browsing, though you can get some really good values there). More importantly, you can get books from other sources. The Reader handles most document and DRM formats that I've come across, with the obvious exception of Kindle. I can even create PDFs of websites and take them with me to read. I've used the reader at the beach, by the pool, and even in the bathtub (just be careful, obviously...)

I like this model because the feature list includes everything I want (I don't particularly need / care for a built-in light, and I certainly don't need my reader to connect to the internet), the screen size is just about right, and the price is reasonable. As a bonus, the Reader even handles certain audio files! (Only MP3 and AAC, though)

The downsides: flipping through pages is not optimal. There's a delay in page turning, along with a flicker as the e-Ink redraws. It's a little irritating at first, though I now barely notice it.

Suffice it to say, this Reader has really improved my quality of life. No, you can't (yet) get everything in eBook format, and the experience isn't quite the same as reading a real book. But it's good enough that even once I move back to the US, I will still use this as my primary reading format.

Great little device!

I received my Sony PRS505 for Christmas and I can honestly say it is the best present I ever received.

Since I was old enough to hold a book, I have loved to read. I read everything - novels, fiction, nonfiction, romance, horror, paranormal, newspapers - anything I can get my hands on.

When we go on vacation or away for the weekend I have to take at least 3 books with me. Since I got the Sony, I can take so many more and use a lot less suitcase space!

I've read some of the negative things people have said about it and I can' t argue that it has no backlight and the pages blank between turns.

If you need a back light, pay the extra $100 and get the PRS700. I have a booklight, which works fine. The delay between pages doesn't bother me, I just press the button a few words early and keep reading.

I love the bookmark feature, if I fall asleep reading, it has an automatic shutoff timer. I haven't tried the audio or picture part of it (I got it to read books. I have an IPOD for music)

It is extremely user friendly and charges quickly on my laptop. I highly recommend this product.

Sony PRS505

I travel weekly for my job. It is so great to have this for portabilitly, for extended selections, for privacy of what is being read, for being able to read even in a dark plane or environment thanks to the cover with the reading light. I can't say enough good things. It is definitly a conversation starter and I always praise it very highly.

Love the Reader

I love this product. I wanted this when I saw it at the store and then I saw the Amazon Kindle on Oprah. I debated between the two and checked them both out. I would have been happy with either one. My problem with the Kindle was I couldn't go to the store and check it out in person. The Sony is a better bargain and I love it. I didn't think anyone would get this for me for Christmas. I had planned on buying it after the first of the year. Needless to say, I was SHOCKED when I received this from my boss and his wife. I must be an AWESOME employee. :) I am "LOVING" this product more and more each and every day.

Great Product!

I got this for Christmas from my husband because I do read a lot and travel. Great portability. My only problem I have is with the screen flashing/blinking between pages. I called Sony and they said this is noraml for this model. I can't stand it! Does anybody else notice this. It goes from a negative look, black screen with white letters, to normal white screen with black letters really fast when you turn pages. I wonder if the -700 does this.

Is this normal?

I bought this almost a year ago because I was beginning to travel more and I can go through a book or two while on a plane. I am a diehard book lover, library smell really does it for me but schlepping multiple books on a trip is a pain in the neck...this little beauty solved my problem. I have 134 books and 20 family photos loaded on it with a 2GB SD card and I still have plenty of space on it for much much more. It will not replace my books but is a wonderful addition for traveling or just being on the go in general. Many people have asked me about it and I highly recommend getting one. Perfect thing for voracious readers like me.

Love, love, love it!

First about me. I am 43, a mom and used to love reading but due to family and just life have not read in years. Recently I have told myself to get to the library. So I happened to be flipping channels trying to find the weather and I saw something about the Amazon Kindle. I never knew readers existed. I decided I would buy it after the holidays and after our family vacation. Well my teen daughter heard me say I liked it and told my husband I wanted a reader and he got me the Sony Reader and I love it. I know the Sony Reader and Kindle are totally different and function different but I really dont care. It is so easy to use, exactly like itunes. Just install the program and library, download them onto the software, and send them to your reader with a usb quickly. It came with 100 free classic and the publishers offer free books and there are many free books, sale books for a buck or two and bundles. I read the reviews on other sites and the things they critized about it were things that did not matter, like when you change a page for a split second the page turns black. It is a split second if that. Also the pictures are in black and white if you put them on, well it is a reader and if I wanted a color digital photobook I would have got that. It is also an mP3 player so it is great for the gym to read and hear music. We are very true to Sony and that is why my husband went there. The only complaint I have is I wish it had a light. I am going to order the one on here and there is free shipping, just for those few times you may be in a darker place, like in a car. I just love it!

Best Gift Ever-Love It.

I love reading books on my digital reader. I also upload documents I need for work for quick access. Design wise, the button to turn pages should be on the bottom left, where you hold a book when reading.

eBook Reader

The clarity of the text on this screen is awesome and the overall product is a true winner. I would highly recommend this to book lovers as you can have many many books in one nice compact product.

The menu structure is easy to understand and comprehend quickly. My only minor complaint is that the screens refresh a bit slowly and sometimes flashes a couple of times when turning pages or navigating the menu. It isn't that significant of a delay and more of an annoyance than a flaw.

Otherwise, this is a great product and I think beats the Kindle on design and sleekness. All my friends have been impressed. You don't get the wifi/wireless, but that isn't a deal breaker.

This is a product purchase you won't regret. Sony has a winner with this one.

Awesome product for book fans!

My husband bought this for me last year for Christmas and I love it. If you love to read this is the new revolution. You will never be without a book again. I won't by printed books again. The new version the PRS-700 takes care of the one complaint I have. PRS-700 has a built in light, but you can buy the cover with the light for the 505 so I am still happy. This is why I give the 505 a 4 on design. You can't go wrong with either version you buy.

Amazing Technology

I was sold on the PDF feature - but be warned - there is no way to keep your original file names for PDF's that you import. This is a big prob if you have hundreds of PDF's - which I do because I am a doctoral student. Also, sony ebooks are more expensive than kindle books. Finally, I cannot believe that sony does not include a charger. How cheap! Every other ebook device on the market includes a wall adapter. My advice - buy something else. Sony designers - feel free to contact me, I have some important suggestions for you. Know that I returned this product 3 days after I purchased it.

Not ready yet

My husband finally got it right. For my Birthday this year he bought me the Sony PRS-505/SC Ebook Reader. And I love it. I have bought over 20 Books. Received over 50 Free books with registration. And I have already read almost a Book a week. It is very lite weight. Very Easy to Download Books - I call it my IPOD for Books. I have referred it to over 5 people and all 5 people have bought it and LOVE IT TOO. Thank you Sony!! This is one of the best peices of Technology that has come out in awhile!!! I suggest this for anyone that loves to read. GREAT Christmas Gift!!

WOW !!! Best Gift Ever!

Very happy with this eBook. Be careful though, this does not work with new 64 bit computerss. Only works with 32 bit computers. Once you get it working though, its terrific. Suggest getting book light for dark reading. Reading better than normal book.