The progression of display technology is always evolving from the large and clunky CRT to the modern day ultra slim LCD. While these advancements in technology are great, making display more portable than before, but not much progress has been made in terms of readability, paper has yet to be surpassed in readability and portability, but this all may change soon with the help of a technology called E-Ink.

Ever wish you didn’t have to pick and choose which books to take with you on that next vacation trip? What if you could literally cram over hundreds of your favorite books into one small book, sounds like magic I know, but E-Ink makes this a reality.

In January 2006, Sony announced the Reader at the CES convention, essentially a new and improved version of the Sony Librie, an ebook reader, which was exclusive to Japan back in 2004, the key feature in both products is the E-Ink display. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the announcement, but I have this nagging feeling the Reader is aimed at people that like to read. After 2 years the Reader has finally hit the US, but what’s all the fuss about this E-Ink? Isn’t the Reader just an over glorified portable LCD? I have a PDA for portable reading! I’m sure many of these questions are floating around, but before we assume lets take a look at some distinct advantages E-Ink displays enjoy.

Advantages
(in reference to the Sony Reader’s E-Ink display)

• Only consumes energy when a change in display occurs, for example, turning a page in an ebook. As opposed to a LCD, which consumes energy at all times until the display is turned off.
• Does not use a backlight, which saves energy and improves readability.
• Does not need to refresh like CRT displays, which cause eye strain over prolonged periods of use.

Disadvantages
(in reference to the Sony Reader’s E-Ink display)

• Does not display in full color, only grey scale, 4 shades of grey.
• Cannot display full motion videos, only static images and text.
• Slight ghosting of the previous page.
• Requires a source of light to view.

Physical Aspects

Size - When it comes to portability, size matters. I grabbed a variety of comparison items in hopes that at least one of these items will be in your home for comparison. If there’s an item in your home that you think should be used for comparison in future gadget reviews, let me know in the comments section!

Wait wait, I can explain the pink razr, is not mine, it’s my mom’s, true story!

Many would assume I left in those background objects out of laziness and did not want to redo the picture, but truth be told, I purposely left the water gallon container and clothes iron in the background for size comparison.

I keep getting letters from readers, telling me that it’s easier for them to understand the true size of the Sony Reader if I use my Visa card rather than my Tom Thumb card, should I? Don’t ask about the Hershey kisses.

Appearance - The Reader comes with an attached cover, for added protection. The cover has a quality feel to it, the outside of the cover is very cloth like. The cover is reasonably sturdy, for accidental drops, the cover should do a fine job. As expected the Reader is constructed of an assortment of plastics, as many gadgets are today. Finger prints are not a major issue with the Reader, the only surface that attracts finger prints are the silver areas, which are located on the sides of the Reader. The display is reflection resistant, when light hits the display reflections are softened by the slightly rough surface, as opposed to extremely smooth surfaces found on most gadget displays that cause havok when attempting to view in direct sunlight.

I wasn’t quite happy with the placement of the left-mid page turn controls, since the Reader cover flap is on the left side, forcing you to fold the cover back for one handed use. I’m concerned that over time of repeatedly folding the cover completely under the Reader could result in major wear and tear. The left-mid page turn controls would be better placed on the right-mid in my opinion. Besides, why place page turn controls on the same side? The reader should cater to both lefties and righties.

On the bottom right corner is the joystick/menu button. The joystick works in 4 directions, but cannot be used to turn pages. The circle around the joystick can be easily mistaken for a D-pad, it’s actually the menu button, the button only functions if pressed in the lower right corner. The row of buttons with numbers are used as shortcuts for faster menu navigation and also allows readers to skip to a specific page in ebooks. Page turn controls are located on the bottom left and mid left. There is a small button called “Mark” found on the bottom left, this is used to place or remove a book mark while reading. The size button found on the left side, changes the size of text, ranging from small, medium to large, default setting is small.

Left to right, wrist-strap attachment, miniUSB, I don’t know, DC input, Headphone jack(headphone not included).

The Reader supports both Sony Memory Stick and SD cards, that wasn’t a typo, it does in fact support SD cards. I was quite surprised myself, normally Sony only allows their proprietary memory sticks, change of heart I guess, great for the consumers that have invested in SD cards(I feel so redundant right now). The advertised internal memory is 64MB, but I found 91MB. To give you some idea of how much space ebooks take, a 500-800 page book takes roughly 800KB, so one could perhaps make a gross estimate and say for every 1MB you could fit an average sized book. So with the additional memory slot one could easily carry a few hundred books in the Reader.

I can’t help but think of Starwars when I see that memory slot, I’m just waiting for a few X-wings to shoot out of the slot, it’s really a X-wing hanger I tell you.

I appreciate the fact that Sony kept the reader as simple as possible, control and appearance wise. I think many could agree that their is beauty in simplicity, Apple is the poster boy of simplicity in design, which definitely contributed to the iPod’s success.

Table of Contents:

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: InterfacePage 3: Conclusion