Developer: Sony Inc.

Release Date: August 2009

Introduction

Sony has rebranded their latest digital readers to give us proper monikers rather than using those ugly model numbers. We now have the Daily Edition, Pocket Editionand the Touch Edition, the latter is what I'll be reviewing in this article.

As the name suggests, the Touch Edition eBook reader comes with a touch screen. To enable better navigation there is also a completely revamped User Interface, which is similar to what was introduced on the PRS-700. The touch screen and new menu system are a couple of fantastic new features that complement each other perfectly, though they do come at a cost, which in my eyes affects the one thing that a dedicated reader has over other forms of digital reading; the reading experience.

External Design Aesthetics

Sony has really gone to town on the Touch Edition, designing a very pretty, sleek reader, with a reduced number of external buttons.

The sturdy meta casing will provide ample protection and the non-slip, almost rubbery surface, to the backside of the reader certainly helps to give a more secure grip while reading.

Navigation is now done via the aforementioned touch screen, which has allowed the number of external controls to be reduced to just five slim line buttons that are used for core functions such as page turning, zooming, accessing the options and a master home button.

Due to the E-Ink technology used in the screen - that which gives the paper-like reading experience and fantastic battery life - this reader is able to have backlighting. Sony did try to add side-lighting to their PRS-700 but this created more problems than it solved; giving off way too much screen glare and producing very fuzzy text.

There have been plenty of complaints that the Touch Edition only comes with a soft slipcase instead of a a hard cover, though personally I prefer this option. Except for a little extra protection, hard covers actually add a substantial weight, so when reading for extended periods the reader becomes quite tiring on the hands.

I've not changed my habits when carrying around the reader compared to the PRS-505 (which did have a hard cover) and have had no anxieties about damaging the reader any more than before. The only cause for concern is that the slipcase does not have a closing flap, so there's still the possibility of the screen being scratched from hard objects like a set of keys slipping into the case.

For those interested, the PRS-505 cover will [just] fit on to the Touch Edition.

Core Features

All-in-all, there's nothing really ground breaking with the hardware of the Touch Edition. It uses an E-Ink reading screen (8 levels of grey), has 512MB internal memory, includes an MP3 player and boasts the same fantastic battery life; one to two weeks between charges. These are the core features of pretty much every E-Ink reader on the market. So what makes the Touch Edition different than the rest?

Touch Screen

The most noticeable feature is the addition of a touch screen. From this you do all your navigating, including page turning (optional). To provide this feature the E-Ink readingscreen is now set quite far behind the front surface - with several consequences;

• Fuzzy text, albeit only very mild.
• Slightly darker screen background compared to a regular E-Ink device.
• Extra touch surface gives off mildly more glare than a normal E-Ink screen.
• Now feels like you're reading your book through a window.

Interaction is made with either your finger or the included stylus, although with the exception of drawing, where you definitely need the stylus, your finger will usually suffice.

One cool feature that's been heavily promoted is that "you turn pages with the swipe of a finger". In the first week or so of use I certainly did find this very cool but once the newness had worn off, I found myself using the physical page-turning buttons over 95% of the time - you can't swipe with your fingerwhile drinking a cup of coffee and on the train!

User Interface and Features

Sony made full use of the touch screen in designing the user interface, with the main menu now a proper graphical UI, with big chunky icons for the main tasks, creating a very visually appealing homepage.

Annotations, Note Taking, Handwriting and Drawing

One of the long standing gripes from many eBook reader users was the lack of support for making annotations. Sony has now fulfilled this along with adding note taking and drawing options, which can be done directly on any page.

Except for perhaps when drawing, all these tasks can be made with just your finger, however, I found initially that my first tapwas not always recognized - quite a firm press is needed - but I soon got used to this.

Handwriting, drawing, annotation and note taking is quite intuitive though it did take me several attempts to work out how to access the notesfeature - you'll might want to read the manual for this.

Text and Page Zooming

Sony has improved the zooming options tremendously and provides 5 levels of text zoom - more than enough for anyone - and a full page zoom. The same text zooming is also utilised on PDF documents, but will only work on documents with real text charactersand the layout formatting will be broken.

The combat against this broken formatting in PDF's, Sony has added a page zoom. Now the layout formatting stays intact and as a bonus we can zoom in on images. The one thing it doesn't do, which I wish it would, is to retain the zooming after turning the page. Perhaps a future firmware update will fix this.

Built-in Dictionary

One of the best features of the Touch Edition is the new built-in dictionary - actually there are two; Oxford British English and Oxford American English. This is a fantastic addition to the reader making it worth buying just for that. Usage is very easy; double-tap a word and a basic definition will pop-up at the bottom of the screen. You can expand this out to show the dictionary page with the full definition.

It seems that the French and German versions of the reader only come with an English dictionary. We have to presume there are licensing issues, but whatever the reason this feature becomes pretty useless for those people. To make things worse, there does not yet seem to be a way to purchase additional dictionaries. Let's hope there's a solution soon.

Page Turning and Fast-forward

Page turning has been drastically improved as a result of a faster processor being used, but what's really impressive is the new fast-forward page turning.

When holding down one of the page turn buttons the Reader switches to turbo mode. On text-only ePub and PDF documents you can flip through 3-4 pages per second. This was a real surprise and points to the possibility of having animated images (low quality GIF images?) here and now, never mind in the future.

Battery Life

As with all E-Ink eReaders the battery life is very impressive, although I'm a little concerned as to what cost the touch screen, faster processor, and other features will have. I certainly have had to charge the reader more than I did with the PRS-505, but until I've spent a few more months with it I won't know if that's due to my experimentations or whether there is a real impact on power consumption.

Content - Reader eBook Library

As with most current digital readers the Touch Edition doesn't come with any Wireless or Wi-Fi connectivity so all content must be loaded via a USB cable. As there are still millions of people who load up their MP3 players via USB cables, this shouldn't be an issue for most.

You will need either a Windows or Mac computer to add content to your Reader and this is done via the Sony Reader Library or Adobe Digital Editions. I won't go into details on how to use these as they are both very straightforward and come with their own help, I will note however that if you wish to purchase commercial titles you will need to activateyour Reader first (most current commercial books for the Sony Readers use Adobe DRM).

Free and Commercial Content

Free content sites are springing up all over the place though most only provide Public Domain titles (the Classics) or from unpublished authors.

At the start of 2009 just a handful of websites offered titles in ePub, but before the summer had gone cold almost every major publisher and book seller was stocking ePub eBooks. These stores are mostly in Great Britain, United States, France and Germany, but there's one or two in other countries too.

Check out the Buy eBooks pagefor a listing of the more popular free and commercial online stores, or take a look at my own free classicshere on epubBooks.com

Borrowing from your Local Library

As the ePub format is now the industry standard you will find many libraries making eBooks available to borrow. This is currently more prominent in the US but is growing in the UK and other countries; over the coming years I'm sure we will see a great number of libraries offering ePub content.

Accessories

Protective Covers

At present there's not that many accessories available but as the Touch Edition comes without its own hard cover, I expect the cover accessories will be one of the most popular - you can now get ones that come with a pop-up light.

Chargers

Charging the reader is done via USB but if you're the type of person who likes to go on holiday without their laptop (amazingly these people still exist) then you're going to need either an official Sony charger or one of those generic USB chargers, similar to an iPod USB charger.

Screen Protectors

Many people like to give the screens of their mobile devices a little extra protection with a stick-on screen protector. These will certainly help protect the screen but might possibly add a little extra shininess, which is definitely worth considering before you buy.

Pros and Cons of the Sony Reader Touch Edition

Pros

• Enhanced user interface, making full use of the touch screen.
• Built-in British/American dictionary.
• Annotations/Memo/Handwriting/Drawing functionality.
• 5 font sizes and full page zoom function; including on PDF's and images.
• Accelerated forward/backward page turns (over 3 pages per second).
• Comes with a soft-cover pouch instead of the heavy hard-cover, thus reducing weight.

Cons

• Text is not totally crisp and the screen background is a little darker than the 505.
• Touch screen makes the display slightly shiny.
• Feels like you're now reading behindthe screen rather than with the text onthe screen; due to the addition of touch surface.
• Needs a firm press of the finger for the touch to work (no problems when using stylus).
• Only comes with a soft-cover pouch, so less protection for the screen.
• No Wireless or Wi-Fi.

Conclusion

One of the strongest assets of a dedicated eBook reader, with their paper-like displays and long battery life, is how they provide users with an amazing reading experience. With the new Touch Edition Sony has certainly added to that experience with the many great new features. However, the addition of the touch screen itself has had a somewhat detrimental affect on that experience.

Adding a touch screen has introduced an extra surface to read through and as a result the E-Ink background is now slightly darker than on a normal E-Ink device, which becomes more noticeable in low light situations. Add to this a somewhat shiny surface and the reading experience; that experience of reading on paper, being comfortable for hours on end, starts to be diminished.

The ability to make annotations and the built-in dictionary are fantastic additions and if Sony can make it possible to add other dictionaries, such as translators, then this reader could be the first step in allowing students to realistically be able to use a dedicated reader in their studies.

In releasing the Touch Edition, Sony has given us one of the best designed readers on the market and with the touch screen marrying perfectly with the user interface, we have two features which really make this one of the most desirable digital readers around. Unless you know you will be reading regularly in very low light conditions then the Touch Edition should be a serious contender if you're looking to upgrade or be buying an eBook reader for the first time.