Overview

The Sony PRS-300 is among the new e-book readers that feature a 5-inch screen and is compact enough to fit not only into your pocket easily, but to be an easy fit on your budget as well, what it being among the lowest priced e-readers in the market. Just as thin as a CD case, the PRS-300 also weighs a very comfortable 7.76 ounces.

Reading Experience

PRS-300 may not be a feature rich product though it does its basic job of e-book reading very well. Perfectly fitting between your forefinger and thumb, the latter automatically positions itself on the navigation wheel, making for easy page turning. It does not have a touch-screen, audio/image inputs, memory card slots, in-built dictionary or an on-screen keyboard. Yet it is there to help you read a book, with no frills.

As you read, the Sony PRS-300 makes you feel that you are reading a real book. The buttons have the right firmness and just tighten the thumb to turn a page, which won’t strike you as slow or lagging.

Features

The e-ink screen allows for easy readability of ultra-rich text and the words stand out highly defined, perfectly contrasting against the background. The words appear darker and crisper than PRS-600. The 5-inch screen supports 8 levels of grayscale, with a 600×800 pixel resolution.

It has three font sizes and allows viewing of both portrait and landscape models. Books are sorted by title, author, date or customized collections. You can view the table of contents for quick navigation or bookmark pages and access them from the options menu.

At the most, it can store up to 350 e-books and the battery can last up to 2 weeks or 6,800 page-flips.

For text files, it supports e-PUB, PDF, TXT, RTF, DOC and DOCX. This increases its range of options, including your local libraries.

The small screen will require you to turn pages more often. However, its something that you soon get used to what with the device being light and handy, whether you are reading in bed or lounging on your recliner. A 576 pages paperback novel equals to 628 pages on a 6 inch screen or 933 pages on a 5 inch screen.

The accessories supplied are USB 2.0 cable, a soft protective sleeve, a quick-start guide and a one year warranty. If you go for a bundle package, you get a cover too.

Cons:

Trying to move the cursor with the side buttons is a slow process. It is during navigation that the PRS-300 looks more like an electronic design than a book.

Not having a touch-screen makes maneuvering the menu a complicated process. To switch from one book to another, you need to hit a sequence of four buttons and go through three menus.

There is no built-in dictionary.

It has no audio or image format.

No memory card slots for extension of memory.

Large PDF files can take longer to read. The Sony PRS-300 should be used primarily as an e-book reader and not a full-fledged PDF file viewer. PDF files can be converted to Caliber to increase readability, but then again it’s another step.

The Sony desktop software is replete with glitches; Caliber is a better option.

Sony’s online e-book store is available only in the US and Canada.

Will the Sony PRS-300 Display PDF files?

The Pocket Edition works perfectly well for PDF files, preferably text-based sans complicated graphs and images. The Sony PRS-300 is basically an e-book reader, so PDF files which are basically e-books are perfectly readable on medium Zoom. Graphic novels are occasionally successful; some are displayed perfectly while others make you squint and that way reading is uncomfortable. The readability and formatting of all e-books and PDF files depends on where you download them from and its original format, so results vary from e-book to e-book.

Overall, its not a bad e-reader. Sure it has got its shortcomings but then, one has to keep in mind that it has been built on a budget.