Sony PRS-700 Review Bringing Sony Readers to the Cutting Edge
The Sony PRS-700, when first introduced, garnered a great deal of attention from the world of digital book reading. This product, however, is no longer available from Sony’s store, although it may still be available from some private sellers.
Upon its release, it was met by quite a warm welcome particularly due to the addition of the touch screen technology to its range of features. The touch screen technology was then new to the world of digital book reading, thus making it a pioneer.
The Sony PRS-700 was made available in late 2008 and was sold for $399, but it was later reduced to a price of $349. Now, however, it was replaced by the Sony PRS-600, which is currently the main attraction in the Sony Reader Touch Edition, pertaining to its touch screen collection.
Nonetheless, the PRS-700 is still worth mentioning since it became one of the industry’s bestselling models.
Why There Was a Need for The PRS-700
The primary reason behind the release of the Sony PRS 700 is to add an annotating feature to the earlier PRS-500 and PRS-505, since these two models did not come with a keyboard or a touch screen. What the PRS-700 did was to add a touch screen that also doubled as a virtual keyboard.
The new touch screen also allowed page turning even though the page turn buttons are still around. The ten buttons on the side, however, were already removed. As for all the other features and specifications, most were retained including the 6-inch E-ink screen with the same resolution.
The Innovation Continues
The PRS-700 was, in itself, an innovation. It had several pioneering features that were seen first on the device. This is why it became quite popular and still retains some of its popularity up until now.
Aside from the touch screen technology, the PRS-700 also added LED lighting so that the unit offers excellent visibility even in areas with low light. This greatly expanded the possible uses of the device since users were able to enjoy reading without the unnecessary concerns and hindrances.
The Full Specs
The screen boasted of a 170 dpi resolution and 8 levels of gray scale. The memory was also upgraded to 512 MB compared to the 256 MB found in its predecessors. This translates to an average of about 350 ebooks. However, you can expand this to 8 GB using Sony’s own Memory Stick Pro Duo or to a whopping and practically unlimited 32 GB using an SDHC card.
To live up to the expectations set by this unbelievable memory capacity, the Sony PRS-700 also comes with a lithium-ion battery that can last for up to 7500 page turns for every full charging cycle.
The Full Package
These innovations were not the only reasons behind the success of the Sony PRS-700. The unit boasted of excellent specifications that added up to one great package that weighed only 10 ounce, a bit lighter than the Amazon Kindle 2, but a bit better since it has the advantage of the touch screen.
was made available in late 2008 and was sold for $399, but it was later reduced to a price of $349. Now, however, it was replaced by the Sony PRS-600, which is currently the main attraction in the Sony Reader Touch Edition, pertaining to its touch screen collection.
