Sony takes on Kindle with next-gen e-readers




The $179.99 Sony PRS-350 has a new 5-inch touch-screen E-Ink display and comes in pink and silver.

(Credit: Sony)
Maybe the third time's the charm for Sony. After two tries at touch-screen e-readers, the company has officially unveiled its

latest generation of Readers, and this go-round Sony's engineers have finally gotten it right--at least the touch-screen

part.

As the rumors suggested, Sony is basically upgrading all three of its Readers with new technology, leading with the new

higher-contrast E-Ink Pearl display, which is used in the latest Amazon Kindle and Kindle DX. In the upgrade, the smaller 5-

inch Pocket Edition goes from cheap wow power levelingPRS-300

to PRS-350 and the Touch Edition goes from PRS-600 to PRS-650. Those models will retail

for $179.99 and $229.99 respectively and are available now.

Meanwhile, the larger Daily Edition PRS-950, which features an 7-inch screen along with built-in Wi-Fi and 3G wireless from

AT&T, will list for "about" $299.99 and hit stores in November.

Yes, you heard right, only the top-end model has built-in wireless, which seems a bit odd when both the Kindle and the Barnes

& Noble Nook cost less than the Sony Touch Edition and have built-in Wi-Fi and 3G. And both the Kindle and Nook now come in

Wi-Fi-only versions for less than $150.

On a more positive note, we had a chance to play around with the new Reader models, and the touch-screen interface--and the

screen itself--has been improved to the wow powerleveling servicepoint where we can say

it's finally hit its stride. Sony has managed to remove a

layer of screen protection that previously hurt the contrast (the letters weren't as dark as on the Kindle or Nook) and

caused glare issues due to increased reflectivity. Those matters appear to be resolved, though we'll wait till we get our

hands on a review sample before making a final verdict.

While the touch screen may not be quite as responsive as the iPhone's, it's more responsive than it was, and, as we've said

before, this type of interface is ideal for e-readers because it allows the designers to cut down on buttons and whittle the

device down to just slightly biggercheap power leveling than the screen itself. You can

also mark up text with the included stylus and turn pages

with a swipe of a finger.

The 5-inch Reader Pocket Edition PRS-350 is small and lightweight, weighs 5.64 ounces, and is only .33 inch thick. Sony has

also increased the built-in memory to 2GB.

Here are the PRS-350's key specs:


Price: $179.99
5-inch "clear touch" screen (16-level grayscale E-Ink Pearl screen)
Weighs 5.64 ounces
Measures 5.71 x 4.11 x 0.33 inches (HWD)
2 GB built-in memory (stores around 1,200 e-books)
Text and handwritten note-taking capabilities
Two weeks of reading on a single battery charge
Embedded multilingual dictionaries (2 English language and 10 translation dictionaries)
Six adjustable font sizes to customize
USB 2.0 data and power connection (micro US
Supports PDF, Microsoft Word, and other text file formats, as well as EPUB/ACS4 and connection with Adobe Digital Editions
Reads JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP image files
Reader Library software for PC and Mac
Available in silver and pink
Shipping September 1