Sony revamped its entire Reader lineup today. The five-inch Pocket Edition, six-inch Touch Edition and seven-inch Daily Edition all now use touchscreens and fix a common problem of glare with e-paper touchscreens: the new models have a single touch and display layer that should be easier to read without glare. They also use E Ink Pearl panels that update faster, produce a higher contrast and help extend the battery life.
The entire line has significantly more capacity and now more clearly differs based on feature set. The Pocket Edition has 2GB of storage, four times more than before, and handles ePub, PDF, Word and plain text. Moving to the Touch Edition adds both Memory Stick Duo and SD card slots as well as a headphone jack for playing AAC and MP3 audio. Neither of the smaller models has Internet access.
The Daily Edition, the flagship model, now has Wi-Fi in addition to its free 3G and should last up to 27 days without any wireless on charge. It has 4GB of memory and is intended for downloading periodical as well as traditional books.
Both the Pocket and Touch Editions should be available now for $180 and $230. Sony doesn’t ship the Daily Edition until the fall, when it will sell for $300. Sony has also promised to follow in the footsteps of competitors and produce both Android as well as iOS apps to continue reading on non-Sony hardware.
- Sony Reader Pocket Edition
- Sony Reader Touch Edition
- Sony Reader Daily Edition
