The was a line of e-book readers manufactured by Sony. The first model was the PRS-500 released in September 2006 and was related to the earlier Sony Librie, the first commercial E Ink e-reader in 2004 using an electronic paper display developed by E Ink Corporation. The last model was the PRS-T3, after which Sony announced it would no longer release a new consumer e-reader.
Sony sold e-books for the Reader from the Sony eBook Library in the US, UK, Japan, Germany, Austria, Canada, France, Italy, and Spain. The Reader also could display Adobe PDFs, ePub format, RSS newsfeeds, JPEGs, and Sony's proprietary BBeB ("BroadBand eBook") format. Some Readers could play MP3 and unencrypted AAC audio files. Compatibility with Adobe digital rights management (DRM) protected PDF and ePub files allowed Sony Reader owners to borrow ebooks from lending libraries in many countries.. The DRM rules of the Reader allowed any purchased e-book to be read on up to six devices, at least one of which must be a personal computer running Windows or Mac OS X. Although the owner could not share purchased eBooks on others' devices and accounts, the ability to register five Readers to a single account and share books accordingly was a possible workaround.
Models and availability Ten models were produced. The PRS-500 (PRS standing for Portable Reader System) was made available in the United States in September 2006. On 1 November 2006, Readers went on display and for sale at Borders bookstores throughout the US. Borders had an exclusive contract for the Reader until the end of 2006. From April 2007, Sony Reader has been sold in the US by multiple merchants, including Fry's Electronics, Costco, Borders and Best Buy. The eBook Store from Sony is only available to US or Canadian residents or to customers who purchased a US-model reader with bundled eBook Store credit.
On July 24, 2007, Sony announced that the PRS-505 Reader would be available in the UK with a launch date of September 3, 2008. Waterstone's is the official retail partner and the Reader is available at selected stores such as Argos, Sony Centres and Dixons; while a red edition is available exclusively from John Lewis.
On October 2, 2008, the PRS-700, with touch screen and built-in lighting was announced.
On August 5, 2009, Sony announced two new readers, the budget PRS-300 Pocket Edition and the more advanced PRS-600 Touch Edition.
On August 25, 2009, Sony announced the Reader PRS-900 "Daily Edition." This features a 7" diagonal screen to compete with the Amazon Kindle DX. It was also the first to feature free 3G wireless through AT&T to access the Sony eBookstore without the need of a computer, and to increase the grayscale level, from 8 to 16.
On September 1, 2010, Sony introduced the PRS-350 Pocket Edition, PRS-650 Touch Edition, PRS-950 "Daily Edition" as replacements for the PRS-300, PRS-600 and PRS-900, with both new models featuring 16-level grey scale touch screens. The launch of the new models also represented the introduction of the Sony Reader into the Australian and New Zealand markets for the first time.
On August 31, 2011, Sony announced a new reader replacing all of their previous models, the PRS-T1, featuring a 6" screen.
On August 16, 2012, Sony announced the PRS-T1 successor, the PRS-T2.
On September 4, 2013, Sony announced the PRS-T2 successor, the PRS-T3. Unlike previous Sony reader models, the T3 is not sold in the US, and Sony has abandoned the North American market due to competition from Amazon, B&N and Kobo..
On February 6, 2014, Sony announced that it was closing its North American, Europe, and Australia Reader Stores in late March, migrating all its customers to the Kobo Reader Store..
On August 1, 2014, Sony announced that it would not release another e-reader but would keep selling its remaining stock. In late 2014, Sony released the Sony Digital Paper DPTS1 - which only views PDFs and has a stylus for making notes - aimed at professional business users.
2004 Model
Sony Librie EBR-1000EP Launched in April 2004, it has a six-inch E Ink display and a QWERTY keyboard that was released in Japan.
Specifications Display: 6-inch screen with a resolution of 600x800 dots at 170dpi 10 MB, Memory Stick support Size 126mm x 190mm x 13mm Weight: 300 g
2006 Model (Discontinued late 2007)
PRS-500 Launched in September 2006, it has a six-inch E Ink display from and is 13 mm thick. There is an internal memory of 64 MiB. This model was superseded by the PRS-505 in 2007.
On November 16, 2009, Sony announced that a firmware update is available to owners of the original PRS-500. This update "will allow your PRS-500 to support the ePub and Adobe DRM format and add the ability to re-flow PDF documents". Owners must send the ereader in to the Sony Service Centers for the updated firmware..
Specifications Size: 175.6 × 123.6 × 13.8 mm (6.9" × 4.9" × 0.5") Weight: 250 g (9 oz) Display: size: 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page) resolution: 170 dpi, 4-level gray scale portrait: 90.6 × 122.4 mm (3.57" × 4.82"), 600 × 800 px | effective 115.4 × 88.2 mm (4.54 × 3.47 in), 754 × 584 px minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended Memory: 64 MiB standard, Memory Stick (Pro Duo High Speed not supported. Normal memory sticks are only supported up to 4 GiB, despite Sony compatibility claims) or SD card expansion up to 2 GiB (some non-SDHC 4 GiB cards may work) Lithium-ion battery, up to 7500 "page turns" per charge PC interface: USB port
2007 Model (Discontinued late 2009)
PRS-505
The PRS-505 was launched on 2 October 2007, a software and hardware updated version of the PRS-500 Reader, which it replaced. The 505 keeps the 6" E Ink display of the original Reader, but uses an improved version of E Ink Vizplex imaging film with faster refresh time, brighter white state, and 8-level grayscale.
The PRS-505 is thinner than its predecessor (8 mm vs. 13 mm) and comes with more internal memory (256 MiB vs. 64 MiB).
Other new product features included auto-synchronization to a folder on a host PC, support for the USB Mass Storage Device profile, and full USB charging capability (the PRS-500 could only be recharged via USB if the battery was not fully drained, and if the Sony Connect Reader software was installed on the host PC). Also, adding books to "Collections" (a feature to organize and group book titles) is now possible on the storage card, unlike the PRS-500 model.
Version 1.1 firmware, available as a free download since July 24, 2008 adds support for the EPUB format, Adobe Digital Editions 1.5 and Adobe DRM protected PDF files, automatic reflow of PDF files formatted for larger pages enlarges the text to improve readability, and support for high capacity SDHC memory cards.
Specifications Size: 175 × 122 × 8 mm (6.9" × 4.8" × 0.3") Weight: 250 g (9 oz) Display: size: 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page) resolution: 170 dpi, 8-level gray scale portrait: 90.6 × 122.4 mm (3.57" × 4.82"), 600 × 800 pixels | effective 88.2 × 115.4 mm (3.47 × 4.54 in), 584 × 754 pixels | for the Pictures application effective resolution is 600 × 766 pixels minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended Memory: 256 MiB standard (200 MiB accessible), Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 8 GiB, SD card up to 2 GiB (some non-SDHC 4 GiB cards may work), or up to 32 GiB with SDHC cards and version 1.1 firmware Lithium-ion battery, up to 6800 "page turns" per charge PC interface: USB port 2.0 Available case colors: PRS505/LC: Dark Blue PRS505/SC: Silver PRS505SC/JP: Custom Skin (James Patterson Special Edition) PRS505/RC: Sangria Red (introduced in August 2008)
2008 Model (Discontinued late 2009)
PRS-700
The PRS-700 was launched in October 2008, it has a touchscreen that can be used as a virtual keyboard. It became available in the U.S. in November 2008 at a MSRP of $399; in April 2009 it was selling for $349.99. Unlike Sony's LIBRIé, a close cousin of the Sony Reader, the PRS-500 and PRS-505 offered no way for the user to annotate a digital book since those lack a keyboard. This was addressed by the release of the PRS-700. Improvements of PRS-700 vs. the PRS-505 include the following: The 6-inch E Ink display (same resolution as before) is now a touch screen, removing the need for the 10 side buttons. Note taking and virtual keyboard, made possible by the touch screen. Page turning buttons remain but can also be accomplished by touch screen gestures. LED lighting for use in poor lighting conditions. Internal storage is doubled to 512 MB.
PRS-700 specifications Size: Approx. 174.3 × 127.6 × 9.7 mm (6" × 5" × 0.4") Weight: 283.5 g (10 oz) Display: size: 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page) resolution: 170 dpi, 8-level gray scale integrated touchscreen Memory: 512 MB standard (350 eBooks at 1.2 MB each average, 420 MB available), Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 8 GB, SDHC card expansion up to 32 GB Lithium-ion battery, up to 7500 "page turns" per charge PC Interface: USB port 2.0 Built-in LED reading light
2009 Models (Discontinued late 2010)
Pocket Edition PRS-300 The PRS-300 was launched in August 2009 and it is also known as the "Pocket Edition". The PRS-300 was announced at the same time as the touch-screen PRS-600. It is Sony's smallest ever ereader as well as its entry-level device, priced at US$199. It has a smaller screen than the PRS-600, no touch interface, no MP3 audio or expandable memory. It has a similar interface to the PRS-500 and PRS-505.
Specifications Display: 5 inch. Resolution: 600 × 800 pixels Dimensions LxWxD (approx.): 6 × 4 × 13/32 inches (approx. 159×108×10 mm) Weight (approx.): 220 g (7.76 oz) Gray scale: 8-levels gray scale Internal Memory: 512MiB, 440MiB accessible Font Size: 3 adjustable font sizes Battery: Sealed internal, up to two weeks of reading on a single charge MSRP: US$150 Available case colors: PRS-300BC: Navy Blue PRS-300RC: Rose Pink PRS-300SC: Silver PRS-300JPPI.YG: Midnight Blue (James Patterson Limited Edition, with Alex Cross embossed flip case, preloaded with the novel Cross Country, and a limited time voucher to download Worst Case)
Touch Edition PRS-600
The PRS-600 was launched in August 2009 and it is also known as the "Touch Edition". The PRS-600 was announced at the same time as the non-touch-screen PRS-300. It is Sony's middle-Range device and it priced at US$299. It is the replacement for the PRS-700 model (although it is missing the front-light feature). It is Sony's higher-scale, touch-screen edition of the ereader. It has a similar interface to the PRS-700. Unlike the PRS-700 which was only available in black, the PRS-600 is available in three colors. Note if the device is locked, using the optional 4 digit pin it will not mount via USB, the lock option needs to be disabled in order to mount the device.
This edition has been criticized for having a very reflective screen, making it hard to read unless it is angled just right in relation to the light sources.
This edition offers the possibility to highlight, quote or underline the text you are reading. Moreover, it comes with features such as Music player via a jack.
Specifications Size: 175.3 × 121.9 × 10.2mm (6.9" × 4.8" × 0.4") Weight: 286 g (10.1 oz) Display: 6 inch. touch-screen Resolution: 600 × 800 pixels Document Search Capability Built-in Dictionary: American Oxford and English Oxford eBook support extension DRM Text : ePub (Adobe DRM protected), PDF (Adobe DRM protected), BBeB Book (PRS DRM protected) Unsecured Text : ePub, BBeB Book, PDF5, TXT, RTF, Microsoft Word (Conversion to the Reader requires Word installed on your PC) Gray scale: 8-levels gray scale Internal Memory: 512MB, 380MB accessible Expanded Memory: Support for Sony Memory Stick Pro DUO and SDHC up to @16 Gb Font Size: 5 adjustable font sizes Battery: Sealed internal, up to two weeks of reading on a single charge