helps you find the perfect gadget. ver. 1.2

"This model comes in blue, silver, and rose, and retains the look, feel, and interface of earlier Readers.... This model does have a nice, clean look with only a handful of buttons that keeps things simple and makes navigating the device pretty straightforward.... The unit comes with an inexpensive yet functional neoprene black slip cover. Fancier covers are also available."

"Small, light and very good looking are three ways to accurately describe Sony's gorgeous device. It's just one centimetre thick and the screen is a pleasure to behold."

"The skinny-jean crowd will also be happy to hear that it’s a good-looking device, with thoughtful design touches evident in every raised edge and tapered corner."

"The front and the spine of the PRS-300 are metal, the back and edges are plastic. The back has a slight tactile feel to it, so it is a pleasure to hold in the hand. The plastic edge perhaps looks a little cheaper than the rest of the device, but it doesn’t matter. Overall, it looks good, and feels good in the hand."

"Despite its size, it's the sleek and sturdy metal construction—a hallmark of Sony's products—that gives it a rock-solid feel in your hand. Operating the Pocket Edition with one hand, right or left is very simple."

"Despite being designed to fit in even the snuggest pair of skinny jeans, the silver case is reassuringly solid and braves the interior of a bag with impressive steadfastness."

"The front and the spine of the PRS-300 are metal, the back and edges are plastic. The back has a slight tactile feel to it, so it is a pleasure to hold in the hand. The plastic edge perhaps looks a little cheaper than the rest of the device, but it doesn’t matter. Overall, it looks good, and feels good in the hand."

"The PRS-300 just fits more comfortably in your hand, and since it's lighter than 6-inch readers, you can hold it for longer without having your hand/arm get tired."

"While this doesn't quite have the minimalist styling of the touch-screen PRS-600 and PRS-700, this model does have a nice, clean look with only a handful of buttons that keeps things simple and makes navigating the device pretty straightforward."

"Ten buttons line the side of the screen, letting you select menu options or skip around within books. Below the screen are four more controls: Home, Back, Text Size, and four-way directional buttons used for flipping pages. Operating the Pocket Edition with one hand, right or left is very simple.... [although the menu system seems] somewhat-dated."

"The real drawback comes when you try to flick back a few pages to check something – it's utterly impractical. You can flip to specific pages by typing in the page number with the menu buttons, but that assumes you know exactly which page you're after. Overall, navigating a book is tricky. You can't search your texts either."

"Unfortunately, its looks are marred by the profusion of buttons which brings a sense of fussiness that carries through to the overly dense menus – just getting to page one is more tiresome than it needs to be."

"The menu system is easy to navigate. The bookmark button will let you mark a page so you can dive straight back into that point and keep reading. It encourages you to explore multiple texts at the same time."

"The Pocket is far more capable [than the Sony Reader Touch] of delivering hours of peaceful reading.... It's not just relatively glare free, it has better contrast for even easier reading. The Pocket's problem is that it is barebones to an almost insulting degree: No search, no dictionary, no card reader, no nothin'."

"The screen is just five inches diagonal, which, admittedly, may be a bit too small for some people. In my time testing e-book readers, I've found that it is easy enough to get accustomed to smaller displays; you just wind up turning pages more often."

"It measures 5 inches diagonally, and despite the low sounding resolution of 800x600, text displays much more crisply than it does on the finest LCD…. Although the E Ink screen is initially spectacular, after a while it becomes clear that it doesn't have the high contrast of a normal paper page, and you need more ambient light to read it."

"While the lag isn't irksome, we did get the impression that the step-up PRS-600 was zippier and turned pages a fraction of a second more quickly. (Note: When dealing with PDF files, especially larger size ones, the unit definitely slows down and appears downright sluggish at times.) "

"Page turns can be an infuriating experience. As with all E Ink-based readers, pressing the page turn button causes the screen to fade to black, before the words materialise like invisible ink out of the page.... This delay shoots up to around six seconds with image-heavy PDFs."

"Inherently E Ink pages do take some time to change the content, down to the mechanics of how it works. So when changing page there is something of a pause, as there is when navigating the menus but we’ve never found this to be intrusive."

"In a less positive note, the included lithium ion battery isn't user replaceable--you have to send the unit back to Sony if the battery dies--but it does offer good battery life (Sony says you should get up to 7,000 page turns, or about two weeks of usage, from a single charge.... We were also a bit disappointed that the unit doesn't ship with an AC adapter (it's an optional accessory that costs $29.99)."

"The company estimates you can get achieve about 7,500 continuous page turns on a single charge, and my tests indicate similar results. Just keep in mind that the Lithium ion battery isn't user-replaceable, and there's no power adapter in the box, you need to charge the device via USB."

"Better yet, because the Pocket Edition uses E Ink, it only draws power from the battery when it's asked to refresh the screen. That means you can leave it on the same page almost indefinitely and the battery won't die – Sony claims the battery lasts up to "nearly" 6,800 page turns."

"As a bonus, E Ink screens only use power when changing the page, and Sony reckons the Pocket Edition is good for around 6,800 page turns – more than enough to see you comfortably through the entire wretched Dan Brown canon."

"It takes 2 hours to charge using the charger, 4 hours via USB."

"Despite being designed to fit in even the snuggest pair of skinny jeans, the silver case is reassuringly solid and braves the interior of a bag with impressive steadfastness."

"In terms of size and weight, the PRS-300 is comfortable to read in the hand. It is lighter than most paperbacks…. It will fit into an average suit inside pocket."

"The device itself will fit nicely in a purse, a jacket pocket, or even a back pocket (although that last one might be a little rough on the screen if you plan on sitting)."

"Measuring 6.25 inches by 4.25 inches by 0.41 inch and weighing just less than half a pound, the PRS-300 looks to be about 20 percent smaller than the PRS-600. It's hard to call it a true pocket device as the iPhone is."

"One thing you won't find on the Pocket Edition: A memory-card slot. All you get is 512MB of internal memory. Sony claims that it's enough for about 350 books, and most people have no need to carry more than that. If you do, you should look to a Kindle or the larger, touch-screen-based Touch Edition. "

"Assuming 400kb per book, you could easily fit a few years' worth of reading on, and its compatibility with non-DRM formats means it could serve a few other practical purposes, such as being a highly portable reference device."

"The Pocket Edition is limited to 512MB, enough for around 350 novels. Sony pulled the same trick with the more expensive Reader Touch, but in that case storage was upgradable to 4GB through an SD card. No such option is offered on the Pocket Edition, and while it may not immediately appear much of a limitation it could hamper those loading up audio books."

"On the content side, Sony has made a great effort to catch up with Amazon in terms of the number of books it has available, as well as pricing (like Amazon, Sony charges $9.99 for best sellers). With the addition of thousands of free public domain titles from Google (which includes many pre-WWI classics), Sony boasts more than 1 million titles in the Sony eBook Library, and that number continues to grow."

"Another big plus is that the PRS-300 and other Sony Readers are compatible with digital books from local libraries, which have just begun lending out e-books using an EPUB file format with a 21-day expiration. The selection is currently very limited, but anything that's available is free to download."

"The bigger problem is the relative dearth of digital content in the Sony eBook library. In terms of books, Amazon and Sony are well-matched, but Amazon also lets you subscribe to blogs and magazines like Gearlog, AppScout, and the PC Magazine Digital Edition. Amazon does offer magazines, newspapers, and blogs in a proprietary format, but at least you can get them. "

"And there are plenty of public domain titles around, many of them available at http://books.google.com."

"Actually buying a book from Waterstones proved fairly easy in itself, although it's disappointing that the 304kb download cost only around £1 less than buying the physical book. You can't take it to a charity shop when you're done, either."

"Its use of the Epub file format opens the door to a variety of free content, including public domain Google Books downloads and titles that can be electronically checked out from many local libraries."

"Many people are surprised to find that Sony's e-book readers support such a wide variety of file-types, including DRM-free formats. DRM-protected file types include: ePub (Adobe DRM protected), PDF (Adobe DRM protected), BBeB Book (PRS DRM protected). If you want DRM- free formats, you can chose among ePub, BBeB Book, PDF, TXT, RTF, and Microsoft Word."

"You don't have to buy books, though. The Pocket Edition is compatible with PDF, RTF, TXT and Microsoft Word files, and has 512MB of internal memory."

"File support on the PRS-300 is good, letting you read EPUB (the mainstay of purchased content), PDF, TXT, RTF, DOC and BBeB formats. We found it had some difficulty with Word documents, but it copes with PDFs rather well, allowing you to resize text in multiple page documents, although don't then trust the page count you are given. For the most part, however, you'll be using the EPUB format."

"Getting books on your Pocket Edition requires going to Sony's Web site, downloading the eBook Library Software (v 3.0.01), connecting the device via the included USB cable, and dragging and dropping your books. Suffice to say, the wireless discovery and delivery on the Kindle or, the Barnes & Noble Nook (if it ever ships) is much easier. Even so, it isn't a big deal to sideload books. "

"Connect the PRS-300 to your PC and you'll find that the software – Sony's eBook Library for both PC and Mac – is onboard. It is basic and but allows you to organise your collection of eBooks, provides links to online stores (Waterstones, WHSmith and Borders) so you can buy titles, and move content over to your device or set folders to sync."

"Sony has also upgraded its eBook Library PC software (it's up to version 3.0), and--hallelujah--it's now available for both Windows and Mac machines. While the process of transferring content to the device isn't as convenient as downloading books wirelessly to the unit, as you can with the Kindle (so long as you can get a signal), Sony's definitely improved..."

Sony rated in the top 25% of a Zogby/MSN 2008 survey of customer satisfaction. 70% of survey respondents rated Sony's customer service excellent or good, while 30% rated it fair or poor.

"Based on BBB files, this business has a BBB Rating of A+ on a scale from A+ to F."

Sony received an 8 out of 10 in a 2009 survey of PC Magazine readers, which measured companies across 23 criteria to determine customer satisfaction with their portable media players. Sony ranked 3rd out of the 6 companies in the survey.

On its website, Sony's return policy states: "Sony's return policy allows for Products purchased directly from Sony and shipped to locations in the United States to be returned by you after obtaining a Sony return authorization number (RMA) during the 30 day period following date of shipment by Sony for a refund of purchase price actually paid.... The RMA number may be obtained by going online at www.sonystyle.com/returns or by calling Sony's Customer Support at 1-888-900-9872.... Products must be returned in the original packaging. Shipping and handling charges are not refundable. Damage and missing part restocking fees may apply. RMAs are valid for only 14 days from issuance.... If you return Product to Sony (i) without a RMA from Sony or (ii) beyond the 14 day issuance period, or (iii) without proper packaging, Sony retains the right to either refuse delivery of such return or charge you a restocking fee."

On their website, Sony's warranty policy states: "In the event of a defect, these are your exclusive remedies. LABOR: For a period of 90 days from the original date of purchase of the product (“Limited Warranty”), Sony will, at its option, repair or replace with new or refurbished product, determined to be defective. If Sony elects to replace the product after this Labor Warranty has expired but while the Parts Warranty below is still in effect, it will do so for the applicable labor charge. PARTS: For a period of 1 year from the original date of purchase of the product (“Parts Warranty”), Sony will supply new or refurbished replacement parts in exchange for parts determined to be defective."

Sony scored a 5.1 out of 10 on Greenpeace's January 2010 Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks the top electronics manufacturers on their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. Sony was tied with four other companies for 5th out of the 18 electronics companies in the guide.

Sony received a B- on the Electronics Takeback Coalition's 2009 review of TV manufacturer recycling programs. Sony was tied for 1st out of the 18 TV manufacturers scored for the review. The ETC says that “Sony was the first TV company to launch a national takeback program."

Sony scored a 62 out of 100 on the November 2009 Climate Counts survey, which measures companies across 22 criteria to determine their commitment to global warming. Higher scores are better, and Sony was 8th of the 12 electronics companies measured in the survey.