First look at the all new Sony Reader PRS-T1, are you waiting?

The all new Sony Reader PRS-T1 is the latest in Sony's line of e-books. It has a sleek look and is easy to handle, like its predecessors PRS 300, PRS 600 PRS 900 and PRS 950, PRS-T1 too has an E-paper display which can be viewed in direct sunlight. You can use it for longer hours as the new device from Sony needs no power and can maintain a static image. With a 6-inch touch screen, PRS-T1 has a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels with weight of 168g (i.e. 6 ounces). The font is adjustable with the pinch to zoom option, while for those who love to read more than anything, PRS-T1 has a memory of 2GB and can store more than a thousand books. If you still want more, then you always have the option to use microSD cards for more storage.

Sony Reader PRS-T1

Not just this the PRS-T1 with Wi-Fi support has twelve built-in dictionaries for your benefit. There is also the support for including formats like EPUB, PDF, ACC MP3 and more. The PRS-T1 will also display the book's cover which you read currently when in standby mode.

Price and availability

The new Sony Reader PRS-T1 is priced at $239 . It is available in the US market as well as in Canada, but is expensive as compared to others like Kindle, Kobo and Nook e-readers which are currently on the market.

What's so great about it

It is certainly a change from other e-readers from Sony with the first thing that strikes is that it is made of plastic instead of aluminum. This reduces the weight to 6 ounces. It has a curved edge and has a thinner look compared to its predecessors. It uses the same infrared technology from Neonode as only that facilitates multi-touch. The most important inclusion is the Wi-Fi.

What's not so great about it

The rest of the features are the same like the previous e-readers like highlights, font size and stylus along with adding notes. But, features like enabling the change in font size, line spacing and adjustment in the margins are not there which are absent in it's predecessors too. This should have been considered this time while coming up with the PRS-T1. However, you can use DRM free e-books from Calibre for the purpose of changing font size and other adjustments.

Verdict

All over it is a good combination despite of what it lacks and a change for the readers. It is quite a change which is welcomed when compared to the earlier versions of Sony Readers. It is a good option for the those who are starting with e-readers. It basically follows the steps of its predecessor, PRS-650. The bundles stylus is good for making annotations and hand made notes. It has a perfect chrome finish with the stylus to enable adding notes and creating your own highlights. It will be available in 600 shades of gray along with another or more than the gray color. It has a touchscreen navigation like that of Kobo. It has one month battery life.

Though PRS-T1 will give stiff competition to some extent, it still has to make way through its rivals like Amazon, Kobo, Samsung Fnac, etc.