Sony was the first company to release a dedicated E Ink ebook reader, the Sony Librie, back in 2004. Since then Sony has continued to remain one of the top brands of ebook readers in the world.
Sony aims to recover lost ground to the Kindle and Nook by offering ebook readers with more advanced features. However, they've discontinued their much-liked earlier generation Readers with premium aluminum frames to focus entirely on less expensive ereaders.
The Sony PRS-T2 is the latest ebook reader from Sony, updating the PRS-T1 from last year.
It's almost an identical twin with the PRS-T1, bringing very little changes and upgrades, and continues to remain available in red, white, and black.
Sony added Evernote and Facebook support, along with partial page refresh to make turning pages smoother. They also removed audio support on this model and changed the style of the buttons.
Sony released the PRS-T1 in fall of 2011. It was dubbed the "Reader Wi-Fi", and came with a 6-inch E Ink screen with an infrared multi-touchscreen.
The PRS-T1 is a big change in direction for the Sony Reader brand, with the cheap plastic design instead of the classy premium design of old.
It has an entirely new user interface, not to mention a bunch of new features and an Android operating system. It comes in three colors, black, white, and red.
Sony PRS-T1 Reader Wi-Fi Review »
The PRS-650 is Sony's 6-inch reader, and while the name seems redundant at this point, it is called the Touch Edition.
It's a slimmed down version of the previous model, weighing about 25% less at just 7.5 ounces.
Aside from the new screen, other upgrades for the PRS-650 include 2GB of internal memory, improved battery life, faster page turns, and it comes with 12 dictionaries.
The PRS-350 was Sony's final attempt at selling a 5-inch reader.
Unlike the previous Pocket Edition, this model has a touchscreen for taking notes, dictionary lookup, adding highlights, and all around faster navigation.
Aside from the screen size, the main difference between the PRS-350 and the PRS-650 is the 350 does not have memory card slots and does not support audio files.
The PRS-950, also known as the Daily Edition, was the only Sony Reader to come with both Wi-Fi and 3G wireless for connecting to the Sony ebook store..
It is a larger ereader with a 7-inch screen opposed to the more common 6-inch screens.
The Sony PRS-950 was very popular among the people who bought one, but it was very expensive and Sony took it off the market before long and then switched their focus to lower-priced ebook readers with the release of the PRS-T1.
The PRS-900 Daily Edition was released back in December of 2009 and was replaced by the much-improved Sony PRS-950 a year later.
The PRS-900 was available for purchase in the United States only, and was Sony's first ebook reader with any kind of wireless capabilities..
The PRS-900 has free 3G wireless connectivity to Sony's Reader Store, a touchscreen, a 7.1-inch display, and can have digital newspapers automatically delivered to the Reader via wireless each morning, hence the name "Daily Edition".
The PRS-600 has a 6-inch touchscreen display for quick navigation and for taking freehand notes, highlighting text, using the built-in dictionary, and for zooming and panning while reading PDFs.
The one drawback is that the touch layer somewhat decreases the clarity of the text.
It also has a virtual keyboard for entering notes and searches. Notes can be referenced with bookmarks, and can be exported to a computer.
Dubbed the "Pocket Edition", the PRS-300 was a smaller non-touchscreen ebook reader with a minimum of features.
It measures 6.2" x 4.2" x 0.4" and weighs 7.76 ounces. The epaper screen measures 5-inches diagonally.
The Pocket Edition is small enough to fit in a purse or jacket pocket, and can hold about 350 ebooks.
This original Sony Pocket was replaced a year later by a newer model also called the Pocket Edition that comes with a touchscreen.
By embracing the open standard EPUB format, Sony's ereaders can read encrypted ebooks from a number of online ebook retailers. Check our dedicated Sony eBook Page for a comprehensive listing of current content providers.
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