Customer Reviews on Amazon.com

1. 17 of 20 people found this review helpful

   By M. Vega on Amazon.com 25 January, 2012

   Software needs significant improvement

   I purchased this reader in October 2011 and can now comment on its usage and performance. Overall the reader is attractive, has good battery life (I keep the wi-fi off) and Sony sells a sturdy protective cover (purchased separately). The dictionary function works well.
   
   But the Reader has problems. The software is as buggy as my Palm Pilot was 10 years ago. It is subject to frozen screens, slow page turning, pages that only turn when you use the button, inability to mark the last read page on a consistent basis, re-opening anywhere from one page back to the beginning (I need to write the page number on paper since I can't rely on an accurate bookmark).
   
   The PC software does not remove books that are downloaded from free sites like Google nor library books that are no longer accesible becuase they were "returned." Sony is aware of this last shortcoming and seemingly has no plan to correct this. Lastly, the wi-fi is clunky and slow.
   
   I waited years to buy a reader since the local libraries did not offer an adequate selection of e-readers to warrant this purchase. I researched over months to find the features that were most appealing and decided upon this model for it's price, weight, wi-fi capability and battery performance. Unfortunately, I selected a dud. When a simple e-reader with inherent limited functionality cannot consistently easily turn pages or keep a bookmark, it's not a viable product.
   
   Since October the software has been updated twice with no change. It would appear that Sony is working on the software problems since perfomance is a reason indicated for the updates, but there has been no improvement. I do not recommend this reader or brand.
2. 8 of 11 people found this review helpful

   By Topaz on Amazon.com 20 October, 2011

   Could be better . . .

   I was looking forward to the new reader. I have a 505 that I absolutely love but it is on its last legs. So, I was very anxious for the T1 to be released. There has not been one day since I received the reader that I have not had problems. I couldn't sign in from my home network - but Sony couldn't tell me why. I found out that the software updates took care of that problem - after I jumped through a million hoops. The pages start turning randomly and I have to shut down the reader - it takes about 1/2 hour for the thing to reset. I lose the internet connection randomly - even without moving room-to-room.
   
   I am very disappointed in the product. The customer service has been horrible - my questions take forever to get an answer to and I have even been lied to. The reader seems cheap and I am afraid it is going to snap in half if I put it in my bag - and don't get me started on the stylus . . . I am going to send it back and look for a 505 on ebay to hold me over until they work all the kinks out.
3. 13 of 22 people found this review helpful

   By serkan on Amazon.com 25 October, 2011

   overrated pdf reader

   I had very high hopes before buying this ereader. I was expecting to read books and research articles without eye strain. Being a researcher I need to read research articles everyday and reading them from computer screen is an eye tiring job yet printing them out is not most environmentally friendly option. Still having a mountain of research articles on the shelves and on my bench is not the most desirable thing to live with. since e-ink reads like a paper and uses very little energy it was very attractive to buy one. Competition between ebook readers is very high yet for me touch screen and pdf handling capabilities of new sony ereader was appealing.
   
   However, sony ereader could not live to my expectations. Most research articles feel sluggish to to turn pages, some cannot be seen because the processor cannot handle the figures, forget about word search in most pdfs, lanscape mode is totally useless; you cannot divide the page into columns as you can in portrait mode; so the highest magnification is smaller than what you get in portrait mode; given the expectation is the other way around it totally destroys the purpose of using in landscape mode. I also does not allow to make highlighting or doodling in any mode but original magnification so it is totally useless to make handwriting in such a small magnification where you cannot read anything at all. 800x600 magnification is like joke for detailed research articles almost no details of graphs, tables and figures can be seen without magnification with pinch zoom; even once you do this annoying flashes make it impossible to concentrate what you are reading and where where you a sec ago unless you are lucky that the pdf reader is not crashed. Last, I am waiting for this simultaneous crashes reported in other user forums which cannot be cured other than reseting the device.
   
   In summary ebook reading experience is okay and similar to what is told by other users (no complaint). But pdf experience is totally time wasting, ebook readers are not still there to fulfill academical research article reading; so do not buy one if you want to read research articles (webbrowser is equally useless) good old text paper is still much better.
4. 5 of 10 people found this review helpful

   By R. Richardson on Amazon.com 24 November, 2011

   Worst Sony Reader yet!

   I've been using Sony Readers for about 4 years -the PRS-T1 is my third. It's very unstable - I'll be reading and all of a sudden the pages start streaming rapidly. Sometimes it goes directly to the last page of the book. The touch also is too sensitive - often when I turn a page, the dictionary opens. NOT HAPPY!
5. 4 of 9 people found this review helpful

   By Joe Blow on Amazon.com 3 January, 2012

   Almost worthless for me...

   I was desperate to find an e-ink device with pinch-to-zoom, so I jumped on this as soon as I knew of it. Now I'm sorry I did. The device does work at the simplest level, but press it in any way and it falls to pieces. I took my standard set of ebooks (all PDFs) I use daily in my NookColor that is contained on a 32GB MicroSD and loaded it into the Sony. Almost immediately the (already slow) device went pretty much dead. Opening the list of books either takes 10-15 minutes (no, I'm not exaggerating) or completely locks up. Pressing reset does nothing. Pressing the on/off switch brings up a screen asking if I really want to shutdown and when I select "Yes", it freezes again. I frequently get a message saying "The ContentManager has stopped working". This message is displayed in response to my attempt to enter three different "modules". After a hour of trying, I gave up on trying to do anything with the reader with a large microSD installed, it just can't handle it. After giving up on the microSD I removed the card and rebooted (waiting another 5 minutes). I then opened the preinstalled Jules Verne novel and got to see page one, and the reader locked up again. Reboot again, wait some more, try a different preinstalled book, ok, this one opens without crashing, whoopee! I finally get to try the pinch to zoom, and yes it does work, but it's very clumsy and difficult to use. Partially this is unavoidable, since the screen is e-ink, there is no feedback to see the size change as you pinch. My biggest complaint here is that the resize is slow and repaints the screen twice when you finish your resize (once apparently is a simple pixel zoom and the second time actually re-renders the fonts). Why would they do something so stupid? Beats me. I could go on and on with my experiences, but I'll just skip to the conclusion.
   
   Conclusion: An acceptable reader that is similar to the Kindle graphite model but is far less polished. Crashes frequently, hangs mysteriously, overall the firmware is a fiasco. Although the pinch to zoom feature should make this device far nicer to use than a Kindle, poor execution leaves it as a device that should be avoided.
   
   Since I've now used most of the major ereaders, some people might like to know of ereaders that I would recommend. I use the NookColor most of the time, it is a very good reading system, but does crash occasionally, and battery life is typical of an LCD system, so power needs to be available regularly. The Kindle DX has an excellent screen and will last a very long time on a charge. The DX is awkward to navigate for large format PDFs, but the screen is large enough that this isn't too much of an issue. The standard Kindle graphite 6 inch is acceptable, but only for simple fiction, not formatted text books. The iPad is a good reading device, but is too large and heavy for my taste. The MacBook Air isn't really a reader, but is small enough and much more convenient to use than the iPad.
6. 0 of 4 people found this review helpful

   By fan on Amazon.com 6 June, 2012

   can't read Word file

   Bought it secondhand for $50, and unlike PRS 350 which uploads everything, it doesn't upload Microsoft 97 Word file. Doesn't show up on the menu of the device, although when I connect it to my netbook and open up the files there, the Word file icon does show up (F drive. There's also D drive, but it's protected, you can't send anything there)
   
   Can anybody help me with this? Thx.