• Apps
    • App Store
    • Audio Reader
    • Good e-Reader News
  • Contact
  • Media
    • Advertise
    • Podcast
    • Videos
  • News
    • Android
    • Audiobooks
    • Bookselling
    • Business
    • Digital Publishing
    • e-Books
    • e-Paper
    • e-Readers
    • Libraries
  • Reviews
  • Good e-Reader Store
    • My Account

Good e-Reader

Get the latest news on e-Books, Audiobooks, Digital Publishing, Manga, Anime and Tablets

Sony Digital Paper Review

August 7, 2014 By Michael Kozlowski 51 Comments

digital paper

Sony is getting out of the consumer e-reader sector and focusing their efforts on devices aimed at businesses. The first commercially viable product is the new Digital Paper (DPT-S1) which is a super advanced PDF Reader. How viable is this new product for the corporate audience or end users? Today, Good e-Reader is proud to bring you the first true hands on review.

Hardware

hardware

The Sony Digital Paper features a 13.3 inch e-Ink Mobius e-paper screen with a resolution of 1200 by 1600. It was designed to give you a true A4 experience, displaying PDF files as they were originally intended. The lightweight nature of Mobius gives you amazing clarity in the fonts and pictures. It also one of the most lightweight products in its class, clocking in at .08 pounds. To give you some comparison, The Kindle DX has a 9.7 inch screen and weighs 0.91 pounds and the iPad Air is 1.3 pounds.

The Digital Paper features a capacitive touchscreen display panel, which allows you to navigate menus, browse the internet or flip pages with your hands. The device really shines with the accompanied Stylus, which has advanced options for left and right handed people. The touchscreen panel is so amazing, that you can hold your wrist down on a document and it does not register as an interaction, provided the pen is actively touching the screen. This allows you to organically write on the Digital Paper, the same way you would write in your notebook. There is also a highlight button the stylus to allow you to quickly edit a document on the fly.

Underneath the hood is a ARM Cortex A8 1GHZ single core processor and 4GB of internal memory. There is support for a MicroSD card to enhance the memory up to an additional 32GB. Battery life is superb with a 1270 mAh lithium ion, which should garner you over a month of constant use.

The design of the Digital Paper is entirely unique and no e-reader has ever managed to pull off the practical sensibilities. It has a home, back and settings button that are not softkeys, but they have a bit of torque. By firmly pressing down, and hearing a small click, you know you interacted with a specific function. The settings menu does different things, depending on if you are reading a document or using the internet browser. There is a small power button on the right hand corner of the unit, on a small curved part of the bezel.

The Sony DPT-S1 is beguiling to behold. Its lightweight nature allows you to hold it in one hand for long reading sessions. The clarity of the screen makes image heavy PDF documents really shine. Sony has really refined the role a stylus plays in their consumer side of e-readers, since their first touchscreen PRS-700 back in 2007. If you are heavily invested in PDF documents at work or in the home, this is a must purchase.

Software

software

The Digital Paper reader was designed with the express purpose of reading PDF documents. It is the first e-reader ever to show a document as it was intended to be read in glorious A4. There is no need to employ pinching or zooming to find that sweet spot, like the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite or Kobo Aura does. That is not to say you can’t pinch and zoom, you can, its just mostly unnecessary.

There are times when you are browsing the web or want to show off how pretty an image looks by making it full screen. Due to its capacitive nature you can easily pinch and zoom using two fingers to make take up the entire screen. During this process the rendering engine kicks in, limiting the amount of e-ink refreshing that occurs. This is where the 1GHZ processor really shines because its all done with the ease of use of doing the same thing on a smartphone or tablet.

The home screen comprises of your Last Read, Recently Added or Saved Workspaces. On the navigation bar are entries for Home, Documents, Notes, Workspace, Browser and Settings.

Workspaces is the bread and butter of this device and bears a resemblance of the way browser tabs work on Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer. You can have many documents opened at once and jump between them by clicking on the tab. Lets say you are a lawyer working on a class action suit, likely you will have a pile of PDF documents that constantly need to be referenced. You can have 10 tabs opened at once for the interview phase and seamlessly jump between each one, taking notes and making highlights for key points. Workspaces can be saved and loaded, so you can jump between them with ease right from the menu.

Editing a PDF document allows you to write with the stylus anywhere you want. You can make notes, highlights or annotations and quickly go back to reference any changes you made on the fly. Once you made a bunch of changes you can save the PDF, preserving all of your augments, so you can export it to your e-Reader, smartphone, tablet or work PC.

sylus

When editing a PDF file, there are four different pen styles to select, from the very fine line to one that bears a resemblance to a marker. If you elect to take a note there are two main processes. One allows you to use the touchscreen keyboard to type in changes and the other incorporates the stylus to hand draw.

I really dig the dedicated note taking app. It gives you a lined sheet of paper, similar to the ones we all used in grade school, complete with margin edges. You can doodle, draw or just write in text with the stylus and save these are independent files.

The internet browser is your gateway to access PDF files via the internet or just kill some time on Twitter. It has options to disable pictures, Javascript and to disallow the saving of cookies. Most websites that have gifs or animations tend to load slow, due to the refresh issues that permeate all e-readers.

e-Reading Experience

reading

The Digital Paper was designed to be a true PDF Reader with most of the RND efforts focusing on minimizing screen refreshing and advanced editing options. It does not have support for EPUB, MOBI, TEXT or DOC files, so it is quite limiting to read eBooks.

Still, the advanced user will be able to easily download comics, manga, eBooks, magazines or newspapers in PDF form. If you have a collection of DRM-Free eBooks, from Project Gutenberg Pottermore or TOR you can easily use Calibre to convert your standard digital book from one format to another. We tested this during the review and comic books tend to look a bit dark, but eBooks actually worked amazing. Sony is clearly not hyping the fact this is an e-reader, but the functionality does exist to convert your existing collection and port it over.

reading2

When you are reading an EPUB book converted to a PDF the large screen is a pure joy. There isn’t any options to make the text bigger or adjust the line spaces or margins like there are on the Nook, Kindle or Kobo, but there is no real need. By default, the text is readable by the naked eye, and you can employ zooming to make the fonts appear better. You can also highlight, take notes, or look words up on Google.

The internet browser is your gateway to access your preexisting eBook collection on Dropbox, Evernote or Pocket. Most of the Read it Later services all allow you to even save your favorite blog in a PDF file, allowing you to reference it later. In addition, corporate clients are a big focus for Sony and there are advanced networking options to configure direct access to dedicated server or VPN. Once connected, new options appear when editing a document to automatically push your revised document to the central server. If many people have access to the same PDF File, it perseveres versioning, to make sure the newest document is always accessible.

Wrap Up

wrap

The Sony Digital Paper is simply the best e-reader made for editing PDF files. We did a head to head comparison against the iPad, Kindle DX, Icarus Excel and most other large screen e-readers and tablets on the market. This model blew them all away with response time and ease of use. No app for iOS or Android can really compare with the entire file editing process.

I spoke with the team leads of the DPT-S1 earlier last week and they told me thousands of hours of development were made to make this reader a reality. They literally had full days of internal meetings where they would figure out how to shave off a millisecond of load time.

The price on this model is quite high when compared to other consumer e-readers out there. The DPT-S1 is not positioned in a race to the bottom, to be the cheapest device out there and appeal to the largest demographic. Instead its solely aimed at entertainment, law firms, medical, transportation and other verticals. I was told “it is meant to be a replacement of paper and your second screen to your PC.”

If you are heavily invested in PDF documents, this e-reader is the best one ever made. It is worthy the price of being both a large screen eBook reader and excels at its sole task, replacing paper.

PROS

Light as a feather
Most Advanced PDF Reader ever made
Long Battery Life
Note taking has no latency
Virtual Keyboard is responsive

CONS

No support for EPUB, MOBI, DOC or TXT
$1100
Sony does not sell these to everyone, you need to be interviewed

Rating: 10/10


Michael Kozlowski (7733 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to michael@goodereader.com

Author Info

News Items of Interest

  • Sony Digital Paper Now on Display at Two US Store LocationsSony Digital Paper Now on Display at Two US Store Locations
  • Here is what you need to know about the Sony DPT-RP1Here is what you need to know about the Sony DPT-RP1
  • Good e-Reader 13.3 and 6.8 Comparison VideoGood e-Reader 13.3 and 6.8 Comparison Video
  • Pocketbook Announces the Aqua 2 e-ReaderPocketbook Announces the Aqua 2 e-Reader
  • Good e-Reader 6.8 is Now Available on IndiegogoGood e-Reader 6.8 is Now Available on Indiegogo
  • Kobo Aura One vs Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2Kobo Aura One vs Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2

Filed Under: e-Reader News, e-Reader Reviews, Kindle News

  • esc_sequencer

    Holy shit

  • Davester

    Thanks Michael.
    Please provide more insight on the browser experience for the DPT-S1 !!! Many of us are willing to pay >$1,000 for an e-ink monitor where we can surf the web without thrashing our eyes on the typical LCD monitor. Would you kindly do a follow-up article which addresses the viability of using this device as a stand-alone monitor for browsing popular websites (i.e. the pros and cons). Thanks!

  • Michael Kozlowski

    Well i have the DPS-S1 right in front of me. Take our website for example, there is lots of graphics, it takes awhile to load. If you disable load images in the browsers settings, it loads up really quickly.

    Same with other news websites like huffington post or Reuters. The problem is, without images the sites look kind of crappy, but with images it loads, just be prepared to wait a bit for all assets to load.

  • Jmirko

    I have been following stylus-enabled e-paper tablets for several years, and this is definitely a breakthrough device. The combination of large size, glass-less screen, capacitive touch and stylus support is unique. I hope Sony decides to produce it in various sizes and reduce the price to appeal to a wider market. 13.3 may be too large for a notebook replacement, and the price will put a lot of people/companies off.

  • esc_sequencer

    I also hope what you are saying will be real too. But as Sony latest strategy, they abandon consumer market completely and only focus on who (really) wants to have this devices and money to pay. That’s make sense for Sony to sell expensive because it’s a new technology and cost of devices, R&D are not yet to pay off. The dream may not come true soon.

    They made money from hardware only, not from ecosystem such as Amazon or Apple, so I don’t expect this to be cheap anyway. I just wish Sony can profit from their excellent product.

  • Michael Kozlowski

    My hope is that they will sell enough of these and establish a ravenous demand that they might take this tech and adopt it for consumers.

  • André

    But is there a way to connect DPT-S1 to a PC and to make it work like an e-ink monitor?

  • Javi

    Amazing. Coloured and less than half price and we could throw the books in schools but… 2020 perhaps.

  • bleejean

    Well I am convinced! Except I can’t buy one! I live in Canada and I don’t have a business. I just want to buy one for personal use. Hopefully they expand sales or some enterprising individual starts reselling them to consumers!

  • otnte

    If the device is still in your possession could you please test it with usb keyboard. Not sure why “thousands of hours of development” forgot to include Bluetooth technology. This is a major flaw for musicians to turn pages hands free.
    The weight and size is life saver though.

  • sdf

    it’s 0.8 pounds, not 0.08

  • bleejean

    Just watched the video and I think I have changed my mind. I wanted it for reading sheet music but it seems like the screen refreshes too slowly for that purpose. Hopefully this is a hit though so a future generation will be faster (and hopefully support more formats!).
    I might buy a surface pro 3 for now and suffer the glossy screen and low battery life since I know it will do page turns instantly, support Bluetooth input, open all file types, as well as double as a computer.

  • Jens

    This really is a quantum leap in e-reader-technology.

    I still don’t really get why they market it the way they do though. They obviously invest a lot of resources into developing this but won’t establish a customer support in order to properly distrubute it. By the way: with that hefty pricetag of 1100 $ they wouldn’t need to worry about stupid customers that don’t know what they’re buying anyway.

    And I also don’t understand why they now exclusively sell it on the US market. I mean there are lots of companies and law firms in Europe (and in other continents and countries) that might be very interested in the device as well. For example the whole EU legislation (which covers so many aspects of life by now) is available in form of PDF or HTML documents. So if you deal with these you either print out hundreds of pages with the relevant EU regulations and directives to work with them properly or you just use this device which would in the long run save a lot of resources.

    Even I (as customer) would be tempted to buy this if I lived in the US.

  • Kharas

    Can you cut/copy/paste parts of your handwritten notes in the same page or another one in the same notebook?

  • Inflex

    Anxiously hoping that an external keyboard can be used with the DTP-S1. I’d prefer to use it as an external display to a PC, but will be content if one could generate text content via typing on an external keyboard (say on a web page) as a compromise.

  • David Spitzer

    do you have a link to a video as discussed on how to connect it to a network or cloud service for PDF sharing – do you know if it is compatible with Google drive and or onedrive

  • Michael Kozlowski

    i know its compatible with Dropbox. I will test it in the studio tommorow if google drive will work.

  • Michael Kozlowski

    ill test this right away.

  • Michael Kozlowski

    our sister site sells them outside the US. http://www.shopereaders.com

  • Michael Kozlowski

    Awesome, we just got a Surface 3 in the labs and will be comparing the digitizer of the new surface vs the sony.

  • Ernst Lo

    Form filling, Handwriting recognition and large PDF Reference files reading would do it for my particular workflow. Also could the DPT-S1 work with the likes of onenote or evernote?
    How is it for filling forms? Does it has OCR or indexing? if yes, Does it recognize cursive handwriting? How well does it manage large PDF files such as textbooks, catalogs, maps, >100mb.?? Hopefully We don’t have to wait for the next iteration.

  • Damien Fabre

    I’d also like to have an answer or more details about :
    – OCR / handwriting recognition capabilities
    – Dropbox support
    – handling of large pdf files
    – indexing, search within a document or a group of documents
    – possibility to set an azerty keyboard for french users
    – possibility to install third party android apps
    – about the price you say 1100 $ and you sell it on http://www.shopereaders.com 1499$! I would understand a slight difference but this is a huge margin considering an initial very high price tag.

  • Michael Kozlowski

    Sony US told me that you can configure the network syncing system to Dropbox, which we will show you how to do in a future video. There is only one keyboard, English, and no dictionaries.

    There are two generations of firmware, one for English and one for Japanese and both are not compatible with each other, which is why if you buy a Japanese one from Amazon, you are screwed.

    The Monsters Manual we tested was 180 MB, i am not sure about HOW big of a PDF you really need tested.

    Shop e-readers sells them at this price because of duty and double shipping they have to pay, plus they need to make a little profit. All other Sony resellers only sell to registered corporations.

  • Michael Kozlowski

    Keyboards don’t work, as there is no bluetooth.

  • Michael Kozlowski

    Sadly no

  • Damien Fabre

    Ok, thanks for your reply.

  • joe

    Hi Michael, how is the battery of your testing unit, i found mine having strange problem that battery can go down to zero after just one night, but sometimes can last for weeks

  • andy

    I get the feeling all of this is because it is a beta-product. They say they don’t offer support in the US, and they appear to be testing the market to see if professionals are interested in the device. IF enough people buy it, I’m sure we’ll all see a wonderful second generation device (or minor update) in Europe soon, backed by the compulsory 2-year hardware guarantee (the US is much more flexible on this… all those EU laws available in PDF do make it harder to test a beta-product by selling it).

    All that said, I really want one but I am also in Europe so we’ll wait and see.

  • Sam

    Pretty good device for E-Ink lovers (like me :)) but the price is way too high…
    Although Sony reduced $101 but still $999 is high. If the price comes down to $500 then definitely i would be the first one to buy it. Also, I think for general public who deals with lot of pdf’s this could be a mass hit if the price is around $500.
    Otherwise to pay $999 i would like to see some additional features-
    > Color display (Like in Jetbook2)
    > Faster and more robust web browser.

  • Stefan

    Hi Michael,

    on shopereaders.com are they selling the DPT-S1 with the japanese or with the english firmware?

    Ths in advance,
    Stefan

  • Tadeas

    Hi Michael, I know it’s a stupid question, but would it be possible to connect WIRED USB keyboard to the device for turning pages? As I can see, it would be the only possibility for page turns while playing piano (some kind of pedal solution). Thanks!

  • Michael Kozlowski

    It doesn’t have bluetooth. sorry!

  • Tadeas

    I don’t mean bluetooth keyboard, I mean wired USB keyboard connected with some adapter like this one: http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_162930_2.jpg As far as I know this device runs some kind of Android-based operating system and Android natively supports input from USB keyboards…

  • Tadeas

    Oops, sorry for the big picture!

  • Michael Kozlowski

    I pinged the development/executive team at Sony and will let you know. This keyboard is a fairly popular question we get, will be nice to get some closure.

  • Tadeas

    Any news?

  • Roy

    is the video on how to sync to dropbox will be available soon?

  • Mitch Gusat

    this would be great app for any eInk above 10″… 2nd screen, one that works outdoors and saves on the battery life by 10x vs. its coloured brethren

  • Mitch Gusat

    Any plans for a 2nd generation?
    Its size is perfect, basically a letter/A4 format with active digitizer (growing trend also at Apple, Samsung, MS after they’ve bough N_trig). However, its rezolution is still 10x lower than paper, even if the lack of color could be tolerated (barely).

    Speed for video no issue, if the dpi gets closer to 5-600dpi, for real fine print and pro apps.
    Key feature also still lacking: WiDi for use as autonomic display with any device, tablet, phone or PC.

    Else a 1K$ low-res PDF engine remains a sub-niche product.

  • Anto Joseph

    Thats sad, if they allowed an App to make this device work as a secondary monitor on PC. it would have been a great value proposition for many customers.
    I work almost 12 hrs in front of my laptop, this could have really helped my eyes.

  • stefano

    So? Google drive compatible?

  • marshmallowhail

    dpt-s1 makes me wonder why Sony never made it in retail with catchy names like that. Progress finally. But compatibility, connectabilitym speed of use (as fast as paper) and handwriting rec the barriers.

    I think I’m still away from using this as a clip board replacement for my client files.

  • marshmallowhail

    …and how do I buy eink shares – anyone know? Seems like this is about to take off now they have workout out teens and bookworms aren’t the target audience. Would be nice if you guys could do some investor vids for what the competition is as this looks like a classic 1000% bagger. Dormant for years then the planets get into alignment.

  • Mark

    Hi Michael, Any way you can verify the DPT-S1 uses capacitive touch. The Neonode website (search for “DPT-S1 neonode” on google) claims it uses Neonode’s infrared technology. Thanks.

  • geess2

    There really would be a market for these as a second screen for legal document review. It is potentially a huge market. The ability to review, say, batches of documents in programs like Relativity, by being able to sit back in a chair and tap away with a stylus on an e-ink screen WITHOUT having to be hunched over a regular PC screen looking at a glowing monitor all day would be MASSIVE.

  • A Guy Named Harish

    hello Michael, Thank you for such a beautiful review of the product. I would like to know if it is good for a mathematician? for saving rough work and books ?

    I hear that there is issue of being unable to catch up fast writing. What is your opinion about it?

    Is it possible to just connect to Mac laptop and drag-drop files? or does it need a special software for doing so?

    Regards,
    Harish

  • cliffclof

    No you can not. I made a request to Sony to develop this with this digital ink paperless system and reader. I suggest more people call and ask too. It seems like it would make the device 5 times better if you could select the handwriting and move it. right now when you write something it becomes stuck where it is or you can erase it. Also, you might be able to edit a PDF in Adobe software, but this is useless on the device itself. Cool device. Better if you could cut copy and paste the handwriting. Million times better if the handwriting could be imported into OneNote.

  • Anon Wibble

    Sony doesn’t sell these to anyone? Why bother reviewing it then!

  • Leslie Parraguez

    Can I export annotations and Highlights easily?

  • Han Leushuis

    13.3 inch is not A4 (14.3 inch), it is not even letter (13.9 inch). Updated the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers page.

  • A l e x a n d e r

    That will only be the case if ink and paper remains expensive and cumbersome as it currently is. What will actually happen is you will get competition from paper, printer, ink companies. Of course this should eventually bring down the ridiculous costs of both electronic and hard copy mechanisms of document reading/writing/printing/copying. Actual paper and ink is the ideal format for reading/writing which is why electronic devices like this one are trying to recapitulate the experience of paper/ink.

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on RSS



Good E-Reader
Tweets about goodereader

Copyright © 2018 Good e-Reader - Privacy Policy - Terms of Use - Shipping and Return Policy