Sony is rumoured to be planning two new ebook readers, one of which will have Wi-Fi, to take on Amazon's recent overhaul of the Kindle.
The Sony Insider blog quotes "trusted sources" as saying two new touchscreen devices will appear in the company's Reader range with lower price tags than before. Though Sony has not responded to the rumours, its pattern of releasing new Reader devices in September lends these whispers an air of plausibility.
The catchily named PRS-350 and PRS-650 will apparently measure an excruciatingly slight 10mm in width and will have, respectively, 5- and 6-inch eInk touchscreens. Both will, reportedly, have improved page turn speeds and greater contrast than the previous princely heap of Sony Reader devices. There is also the possibility that at least one of the new models will have its internal storage boosted up to 2GB instead of the paltry 512MB on older Readers.
Juicily, though the reclusive PRS-350 will have no Web connectivity whatsoever, the PRS-650 will come with Wi-Fi. Sources have not ruled out the possibility of it carrying a free 3G connection as well, as the Kindle does.
The new Readers will both continue to support the ePub format, will have a redesigned home screen, battery life of around two weeks and a choice of black or silver colours. It is also expected that the new Readers will be much cheaper to compete with the new Kindle's greatly reduced price-tag.
Given the new Kindle was announced less than a month ago, Sony hasn't spent that time sat on its hands -- assuming the rumours are true. If so, it appears to just be playing catch-up, but if these new Readers can somehow set themselves apart and drive the price down enough, Amazon may yet have to offer its kingdom for a horse.
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Comments 9
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billfred 18 August, 2010 16:05
compared to kindle: half the battery life? one without wifi and doubtful on a wireless carrier? half the storage?
no thanks
Anonymous 18 August, 2010 19:36
If the PRS-650 has no 3G functionality I won't buy it. Most new eBook readers have 3G and it would be a commercial blunder of Sony not to include this in their top model.
Anonymous 19 August, 2010 01:35
the PRS-900 has been out for 8 months and has 3G...
Anonymous 19 August, 2010 10:15
@anon Yeah but in the US not the UK, plus they don't know if these NEW ones will have 3G or not.
anonymous 23 August, 2010 12:11
If Touchscreen on an eBook reader is not done perfectly then it will increase display glare. And in the past Sony did not do well here.
And as for 3G: you would need a SIM card or an eBook shop to sponsor the connection fees.
We will see if there is any “real†improvement on the new devices.
Anonymous 16 September, 2010 11:03
Unfortunatelly, their sw is still their weak point. Lack of Unicode support is closing the market in Russia, East Asia and Central nad East Europe. Comparing this to Kindle 3 unicode support, this (and not the touch screen) may be bussness breaker for Sony. Really shame.
Anonymous 16 September, 2010 11:04
Unfortunatelly, their sw is still their weak point. Lack of Unicode support is closing the market in Russia, East Asia and Central nad East Europe. Comparing this to Kindle 3 unicode support, this (and not the touch screen) may be bussness breaker for Sony. Really shame, becouse I like their ereader design.
Anonymous 29 October, 2010 10:38
I've been reading books for the last 33 years. None of them have had Wi-fi or 3G and it's never bothered anybody until now.
What are people really looking for in an E-book? It should be book shaped, book sized, should allow you to read literature. That's what my PRS-350 does. By comparison the kindle is larger, heavier, and it doesn't even utilise that extra real estate to increase screen size. It adds a large keyboard that, 99% of the time, you aren't using.
Then there's format support of which the PRS handles several types and the Kindle handles ASW only. Sure, Amazon have a large selection of books and on the whole they are cheaper, but if you shop around for the right epub you'll save cash. Then again, you could always go to your local library and loan an e-book which will expire in 28 days time. Kindle doesn't support that and even if it did, the libraries are building up collections of epubs, not asw's.
And I can annotate and draw on my books if I feel the desire to which is really handy with some of the technical manuals I use mine to read. Kindle doesn't support that either, in fact using a Kindle to read any PDF is an excercise in frustration.
The last gen of Sony readers was awful. The touchscreen layer ( removed in the new versions ) made the text fuzzy and increased glare. That's no longer an issue with the new versions which is why I was so happy to upgrade.
So...
Format - Sony
Size - Sony
Weight - Sony
Ease of use - Sony
General all over book type features - Sony.
3G and Wi-fi - Kindle
Your choice
Anonymous 17 December, 2010 21:50
I've recently bought psr-350. I was happy until I tried UTF-8 encoded tex file --- this thing displays just empty squares!!! What century are we living? Even my cell phone is able to display Unicode text properly. I am very disappointed :(