Sony PRS-650 vs Kindle 3 e-readers

Sony, not wanting to be left behind in the eReader race, has revamped its range of eReaders to compete against the popular Kindle and Nook. While the updated Sony family doesn't compete head to head on price with its sub-$150 competitors, it does have some interesting functionality which may make you take a close look. The new Sony PRS-650 vs Kindle 3 e-readers Sony eReader family consists of the Sony Pocket Reader (PRS-350), the Sony Touch (PRS-650) and the Sony Daily (PRS-950). The most interesting enhancement to this family of readers is that the Pocket Reader and the Daily Reader have joined the Sony Touch with a touch sensitive display. These touch sensitive screens are improvements over Sony's previous attempts to add touch sensitivity to their displays. Not only does the screen have the latest Pearl eInk displays with 16 levels of contrast, but the new touch layer does not dull the contrast, as was the case with previous versions of the Sony Touch. With the touch display functionality, this changes the way that the reader interacts with the device. Instead of pushing a next page button you can stroke the screen to turn a page. This brings it closer to the typically way that someone would use a paper book. Interacting with the Sony eReaders can either be done with a finger or a built-in stylus. When interacting with the eReader you can use single and double tapping actions to lookup words, bookmark pages, and search through your eBooks. There is also a handy slider at the bottom of the display that you can move to change the page. With the stylus pen, you can write notes or draw images on the page that can be saved and transferred to your PC. Another strong point with the Sony eReaders is that they support a multitude of formats. They can read ePub eBooks which is a non-propriety file format. This means that you won't be locked into a eReader supplier if you decide that you want to change the type of eReader at a later date. The Sony eReaders also supports pdf, txt, rtf, and graphics formats, jpeg, bmp, png, and gif. The pdf format is particularly well, displayed with the eReaders zooming capacity. The first thing to note is that although this is technically a First Look of the Touch edition, much of what is written here applies to the Pocket edition too. It's important to realise that the difference between the two units mostly comes down to size: both are now touch enabled, both have the same interface and this is a fundamental change from the button-based controls of the Reader Pocket edition in the past. It's quite a brave step for Sony, as their last edition of the Sony PRS-650 vs Kindle 3 e-readers touch edition was greeted with criticism because of the level of reflection from the screen in bright conditions. We certainly felt that the reading experience wasn't as good as basic non-touch E Ink devices. That has now changed, with Sony telling us that they'd managed to reengineer the touch surface to remove the reflective film from the front. We examined the new surface with what lighting we could find at the launch event and it certainly looked better, but we'll reserve judgement until we've had a review unit to read in the garden, in bed, on the train, and, ahem, on the kahzi. Other neat features include a dictionary so you can double tap a word and the OED will give you a definition and there are now translation options too, so if you are struggling your way through Moyen de parvenir, it might just help you out. As well as accepting straight finger taps, you'll also be able to use the stylus, which is better suited to doodling notes. But functionality is only half the story of an ebook reader, because they are all about content. We're not talking movies and games like those fancy tablets offer, we're talking about reading, good old-fashioned reading. The Sony Readers are designed to be as much like reading on paper as possible, so shouldn't be compared directly to the wider functions you'll find on the latest range of tablets or smartphones: they can't complete because they aren't designed to. Focusing on content, the Sony Readers accept a range of open formats, most notable is the EPUB format which you'll find is the format of choice for almost all online ebook stores - except of course from Amazon, which locks its content to its own devices in the Kindle family. That's fine, but a reader of the type that Sony is presenting offers you a wier range of shopping choices, even if the buying and transferring process is a little more convoluted than buying direct from the device.