Best Ereaders

Sony was the first major player to release a dedicated ebook reader that featured the now-ubiquitous Digital E-Ink technology. They are currently on the third generation of their ebook reader (called the Sony Ereader PRS 650).

The PRS 650 offers quite a few novel features in an ebook reader. The main feature being the ability to navigate through the device by touching the screen. The touchscreen is actually quite usable and makes reading ebooks and selecting between the different applications increadibly easy. In fact, we are quit disspointed that other ebook reader brands like the Amazon Kindle have not followed suit with a touch screen of their own. The Nook does feature a touch screen, but only on the lower part of the screen. The Sony’s screen is a true touch screen.

The Sony Ereader also offers you the ability to read open-format ebooks such as ebooks from .txt and EPUB ebooks. This is very good news for advocates of open format reading. The Nook and the Kindle don’t allow this (especially the Kindle) because they have a vested interest in locking the reader into reading their own format, of which you must purchase for their corresponding online bookstore. The sony reader doesn’t suffer from this draconian effort  to force the consumer to follow a corporate strategy.

Now where the Sony Ereader PRS 650 really fails is the price. You can expect to pay around $300 dollars for the reader — a huge chunk of change for most people to pay. You can opt for the cheaper model which has a smaller screen if you want to save on the price, however. But compared to the cheaper Kindle reader which costs about $130 dollars and the $200 Nook, the Sony Ereader 650 is a mite too expensive. Still, to be fair, the device is constructed from metal and the touch screen offers the best navigation possible.

More Review Resources?

Here are two reviews I’ve found online that do pretty a good job looking at this model. Both reviews give good ratings to this device:

EbookReader.org’s Sony Ereader 650 Review

ebookreaders Why Sony Ereader PRS 650 Is the Best Ereader article.