The e-book reader wars are getting more intense for sure and now, Sony has (again!) thrown its hat in the ring. Its not as if this is the first time Sony is dabbling with e-book readers, but the last time you saw a Sony e-reader was last year and in tech terms – that’s a long while back!
Sony has planned its comeback into the now thriving market for e-readers with two devices, code named PRS-350 and PRS-650. These devices will reportedly have the same E Ink display which has made the Amazon Kindle a household name.
The two Sony eReaders, which are being called the Pocket Edition and the Touch Edition for now, will also have 5 and 6 inch screens respectively. If you remember correctly, earlier Sony e-readers had a pretty ordinary directional pad, and full-touch controls are certainly an improvement over those devices.
Features of Sony E-book Readers: PRS-350 and PRS-650
There will also be no additional layers over the E Ink display which will give the same effect as the Kindle, which makes you feel that you are actually reading a paperback.
Memory has also been increased from 512MB to an impressive 2GB which is enough to house more than 1200 e-books of standard size. An intelligent zoom feature allows you to zoom in on specific areas of documents you are reading, such as PDF files and newspapers. The cache memory has also been improved, thus giving you a faster page refresh rate.
But one of the more remarkable improvements in these devices will be the enhanced battery life. You can expect at 10,000 page turns on a single charge, which is quite amazing to say the least. There will also be both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, at least on the higher-end Touch Edition.
Note taking programs, in-built multi-language dictionary, slim build and an improved UI reader are some other features you can expect to see when these devices hit stores. No word on the pricing though, but something is sure to be leaked out soon.
Sony has promised to ‘compete on quality’ with the likes of the Kindle and Nook and thus it will be interesting to see whether it fulfils that pledge with these two devices.