Portable Ebook Reader

The expanding popularity of portable e-book readers has e-gadget manufacturers climbing the walls to improve, innovate and expand operations, portability and user convenience. Amazon’s Kindle broke open the e-book reader market, although it wasn’t the first e-book reader on the scene. Barnes & Noble’s Nook is a terrific product as well, and its now-generation reader offers some tough choices for e-book fans that has Amazon concerned. Then bring in Sony products to further complicate matters. These top three e-book reader options can make an e-book reader’s head spin, so let’s compare them on size, capability and adaptability.

The information below reflects the common models within the same price range; it wouldn’t be fair to compare a “deluxe” model with a “basic” model. The approximate price range is roughly $115 to $160 and notes the Barnes and Noble Nook Touch Reader, Amazon’s Kindle 3 and Sony’s Reader Pocket Edition.

Size and Weight Comparison

BN’s Nook Touch Reader, hereafter called NTR for typing convenience, sports a 6-inch display and a 5 x 6.5-inch profile. Weighing in at 7.48 ounces, you barely know you’re holding or carrying it.

The Kindle 3 also offers a 6-inch display and a 4.8 x 7.5-inch profile; it’s a little longer than the Nook but not prohibitively so. The negligible weight difference with Nook, 8+ ounces versus 7.48 ounces, is noticed, but after the conscious notation, you barely notice it.

Sony’s Reader Pocket Edition boasts the smallest and lightest numbers of the three at 4.11 x 5.71 inches and 5.47 ounces. It also has the smallest display screen at 5 inches.

Capacity and Accessibility

The NTR can hold up to . Its battery can last up to two months on charge under minimum use capacity. In other words, you can’t get two months of use under full WiFi use or downloads—just reading. (Those general conditions restrict all battery use comparisons, however.)

The Kindle 3 can hold up to 3,500 e-books in its 4GB memory. The built-in, permanent battery can last up to a month on a single charge if WiFi is turned off. However, its WiFi capability draws a definite plus to this device.

Sony’s device can hold up to 1,200 e-books with a 2GB memory. It can also support word documents, Adobe PDFs, EPUB/ACS4 formats. The Pocket Edition is compatible with both Macs and PCs. Coming in a distant third in battery capacity, it provides only two weeks maximum average use prior to recharging. Sony’s product has no direct Internet access capability, so you must download from a PC or Mac into the device.

Distinct Advantages and Disadvantages

Sony’s device is great for short-term use and storage swaps, but its lack of direct connectivity is a drawback for many. It’s slimmer, lighter, more compact design is a plus over the others, however.

Nook’s longer battery life and expandable memory slot allows slight advantages over both the Kindle 3 and the Pocket Edition. Its multiple platform readability matches Kindle 3′s, and both Nook and Kindle stand above the Pocket Edition in direct Internet access.

Kindle 3′s biggest advantage is that the $114 price tag for the Kindle-With Special Offers edition. Completely identical to Kindle 3 in other ways, the Special Offers version provides a $25 discount for non-intrusive ads in the screen saver mode and on the main menu. Because there are no ads while reading, the ad-supported version is highly recommended.

However, the touch screen and button resign puts Barnes & Nobles’ Nook a half a notch above Kindle 3. Its longer battery life secures it in the number 1 slot—for now.

The author of this post is Holly Miller, who writes for Coupon Croc. In the market for the hottest gadgets? Save big when you shop online and use an Argos discount voucher.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The newest premium eBook reader, the Sony PRS-950

Get the lowest price on the Sony PRS-950 here!  And check out our review below!

The Sony PRS-950 is the company’s leading eBook reader as the second generation of the Sony Daily Edition. It has several more advanced features than its siblings the PRS-350 and PRS-650, the most important among them being wireless connectivity i.e. it offers both Wi-Fi and 3G connections. Its Wi-Fi connectivity enables you to browse the internet using the new web browser while its free 3G services allow you to browse Sony’s eBook store to get the news, new releases or any other eBook title wirelessly.

The Sony PRS-950 also features an improved glare-free 7” touchscreen with a new Pearl display that makes reading easier under any lighting conditions.  This is due to the latest incarnation of the Sony Reader Daily Edition having the extra protective coating layer on the screen removed to greatly decrease reflectivity issues.  Also, NeoNode’s zForce infrared technology has made its touchscreen very responsive, something previously unavailable with e-ink screen technology.  Lastly, for its size the Sony Daily Edition is very compact and light, weighing in at 9.5 ounces.

Let’s have a look on the specifications of the Sony Daily Edition PRS-950:

• 7” e-ink Pearl display touchscreen with 16 levels of gray scale and 1024X600 pixels.
• Built-in 2GB storage. Also gives you a SD card slot & Pro Duo card slot.
• Stores around 1200 e-books.
• Regular newspaper delivery.
• Built-in WiFi as well as 3G connectivity.
• WiFi works for web browsing.
• Supports the Adobe ePub and PDF, BBeB, TXT, RTF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, MP3, AAC formats.
• Features 2 English dictionaries with 10 translations.

And now some of the feature highlights of the Sony Reader Daily Edition PRS-950:

• Impressive Touchscreen – This is the latest feature of the Sony Daily Edition e-readers. Its high contrast and much darker blacks make it as easy to read as an actual book. Coupled with the infrared touch sense technology and reduced glare, this really makes the Sony eBook readers stand out. A stylus is also provided for using the touchscreen.
• Web Browser – The Sony PRS-950 makes its move into the “premium” category with the inclusion of a web browser (only accessable through WiFi, not 3G, same as the Kindle and Nook). Sites can be loaded in either web or mobile versions and the results show that regular sites are easily readable. You can even bookmark your favorite URLs with the help of an onscreen keyboard. Activating hyperlinks is also very easy with the touchscreen.
• Smart Text Handling – Adding memos, notes or scribbles is a breeze with an interface that straddles the line between an ereader and a 7″ tablet.  Bookmarks, built-in dictionary, manual controls for adjusting the contrasts, hyperlinks activation, creating, managing and deleting collections , etc. all give the Sony Daily Edition the feel of more than just an eBook reader.
• Exclusive Size – The Sony PRS-950 is the only available e-ink eBook reader with a 7-inch display, perfectly balanced between a portable pocket model like the PRS-350 and the unwieldy 9.7” Kindle DX or iPad.

Here’s our quick pros & cons list for the Sony PRS-950:

Pros

• Very compact given the large screen size
• Glare free touchscreen
• Wireless connections with WiFi & 3G connectivity
• Supports EPUB

Cons

• Minor limitations with the web browser
• Stylus is unnecessarily large

Verdict

The Sony Daily Edition PRS-950 is an advanced touchscreen eBook reader featuring wireless connectivity. Its metallic looks are very appealing and it’s light and easy to handle. Possessing a unique feature set, it’s a great, full-featured ereader for just about anyone.

Buy the Sony PRS-950 here!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Carry your library with you anywhere with the Sony PRS-350

Get the lowest price on the Sony PRS-350 here!  And check out our review below!

The Sony PRS-350 is a great small sized e-reader that is highlighted by an exclusive and easy-to-use touch interface. It is a second edition reader also known as a Sony Pocket Reader as it can easily fit in your pocket. This 5-inch e-reader is the smallest & lightest ereader available on the market. Being 5.75”x 4.13”x 0.34” and 5 ½ ounces in weight it is surprisingly small, hence the name Sony Reader Pocket Edition. The Pearl display of the PRS-350 also gives amazing resolution.

Its aluminum front and back panel make it very visually impressive. Unlike Sony’s previous ereaders, the touchscreen of Sony PRS-350 does not present any glare problems so gives an exceptionally clear and dark text. You can even borrow eBooks from libraries with Adobe EPUB which also supports a large number of eBooks from various eBook stores. Wherever you go Sony Reader Pocket Edition brings your library with you. Its e-ink high contrast display makes it very easy to see in bright sunlight and does not affect your eyes. It also provides you with six font size choices for ease of use. The PRS-350 also includes a built-in dictionary for finding the definitions of any word.

Let’s have a look on the specifications of the Sony Pocket Reader PRS-350:

• Dimensions: 5.75”x 4.13”x 0.34”
• Built-in 2GB memory
• 5” monochrome e-ink display screen
• 4-bit image with 800×600 pixel display resolution
• Supports JPEG, PNG, BMP & GIF image file formats

And now some of the feature highlights of the Sony Reader Pocket Edition PRS-350:

• Impressive Touchscreen – Unlike previous Sony models, the Sony PRS-350 has a new touchscreen with no additional layer over the top of the screen. NeoNode’s zForce infrared technology has made its touchscreen very responsive both with your finger and with the stylus.  Fingerprints are easily wiped off and are so much less noticeable.
• Hardware & Software – The Sony Pocket Reader has a 2GB built-in memory out of which 1.4GB is available for use. You can store around 1200 eBooks & documents. Its battery life is about 15 days or 10,000 pages per charge. Here are few on-screen features of the PRS-350:
• Favorite pages can be bookmarked.
• On-screen keyboard to add notes.
• Change font sizes within 6 given choices.
• View full page or split into 2 or 3 columns.
• Lock the page with a custom zoom dial.

• Added Text Styling – Out of the box The PRS-350 supports only one font, but you can add as many more as you want. Margin cut settings are also available in the case of some eBooks with white space.
• Formats & Languages – The Sony PRS-350 supports a wide variety of formats like Adobe DRM for EPUB & PDF. Thus you can even read eBooks from local libraries. RTF, TXT & Word files are also supported. Languages support includes English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

Here’s our quick pros & cons list for the Sony PRS-350.

Pros

• Lightest ebook reader on the market
• Easily fits into a pocket, highly portable
• Clear, high contrast touchscreen
• Supports EPUB

Cons

• Lacks WiFi & 3G
• No audio player

Verdict

The Sony Reader Pocket Edition PRS-350 slips easily in your shirt or coat pocket, is as light as it gets and has a brand new glare-free incredibly responsive touchscreen. It’s perfect for anyone looking for a portable eBook reader with all the basic ereader functionality they need at a very competitive price.

Buy the Sony PRS-350 here!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Samsung E6 and E101 are the first e-book readers from the manufacturer which were recently revealed at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Both e-book devices are touchscreens: the Samsung E6 comes with 6-inch E-ink display, while the E101 features 10-inch one. Unlike other portable devices, Samsung E6 and E101 were introduced with handwriting capabilities directly onto the display. The tool allowing users to annotate their reading selections, calendars and to-do lists is an electromagnetic resonance (EMR) stylus pen which utilizes EMR technology. The Korean giant was also serious about low power consumption of e-books’ displays delivering natural reflect light similar to that of printed paper.

The Samsung e-readers support a wide range of file formats include e-pub, PDF/a, TXT, BMP and JPG. The E6 and E101 are equipped with Samsung’s text-to-speech (TTS) built-in technology. Both models come with Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) capability allowing customers download books and newspapers wirelessly as well as transfer them from other devices thanks to built in Bluetooth 2.0. The readers are powered with 2GB internal memory and microSD memory card with maximum 18GB storage. The company’s partnership with Google means there is a lot of content available for E6 and E101 users. When speaking about battery it may deliver up to two weeks of use only with 4 hours of charging.

Samsung E6 should be available in March for $399 with black and white colors. The 10-inch version of E6 will cost $599.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Sony Daily Reader PRS900 is the company’s first model with wireless broadband connection that has been released in December of 2009. The Daily Reader comes with brilliant 7-inch touch display which can be used by fingers or stylus. Much like the Amazon Kindle, the Daily Edition uses 600 x 1024 Vizplex e-ink screen   providing users flawless navigation and comfortable layout of content. In portrait mode, the eRader features about 30-35 lines of text visible making the experience very similar to that of a printed paperback book. When the reader is in landscape mode, you have the option of switching to a 2 page at a time view. The eReader is also optimized for newspapers and provides crisp text and images that are very natural and easy to read.

Most notable for PRS900’s customers, will, however be the capabilities for wireless access via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network. With Sony’s latest generation Daily Edition on your hands you will access to over one million free public domain titles from Google Books and sharing sites to Raeder Store and personal publishers. Unlike the Amazon Kindle which limits the ebook formats to their own amazon.com and pdf ebook formats,the Sony PRS900 supports a wide range of file formats including EPUB, Text, RTF and Word, in addition to Sony’s own BBeB (LRF) formats.

Measuring just 0.6-inch thin and weighting only 12.75 ounces the Rader Daily Edition is also really compact and easy-to-hold device. Sony was also serious about PRS900’s long battery life allowing it to display around 12000 continuous page turns from a single charge or to deliver 7 days with wireless switch on.  The PRS900’s package comes with 3.5mm stereo jack and up to 1.6 GB Dual Memory Card Expansion Slots for Memory Stick Duo and SD Card up to 32 GB. Additinal accessories will include AC adaptor, leather cover, travel case, USB cable, pre-installed SIM card and stylus. Joining two other new Sony models the Reader Pocket and the Reader Touch editions the Sony PRS900 will be available at a price of $399.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Recently announced at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the 11.5-inch Skiff e-reader is thought to be the largest device in CES. Perfect for magazines and newspapers, this big display on the Skiff is almost two inches larger than our favorite Kindle DX. The next-generation flexible screen at an impressive 1,600 x 1,200 resolution eliminates the fragility of glass at the same time making the Skiff the first e-reader optimized for newspaper and magazine content. What makes this e-reader to be unique it is not only its size and  highest-resolution display. The Skiff e-reader is the first device to integrate the upcoming Skiff Service. As a digital content providing company, Skiff offers a wide selection of newspapers, magazines, books and blogs from different publishers available for delivery via the Web. The device is also designed  to work on a variety of platforms such as the Palm Pre and a Viliv MID.

The Skiff e-reader is connected via Sprint’s 3G network and has a Wi-Fi option. You can also load your content via USB port. Newspapers, magazines and e-books- all are available for Skiff users. While reading a content users can annotate, make notes and share the content with others.  The interface of the Skiff is set to be easy used and turn pages with the swipe of a finger. The touchscreen display allows also to swip vertically changing the text sizes. The e-reader features three buttons and clickwheel along the right side of the frame.  Weighing in just over one pound the Skiff e-reader is lightweight and easy to hold.

The Skiff comes equipped with 4GB of internal memory with  support of a SDHC memory card. The battery is efficient; it  can be charged once a week if the device is used on average.Other features included in the package are  built-in speaker and 3.5 mm standard audio jack. Unfortunately there is no information about  pricing and  release date yet.

Popularity: 34% [?]