Photo: Sony

IFA is in full swing, with Sony having day one’s major press conference and Samsung being the stars of the show today. The Japanese company took the opportunity to unveil its new range of e-readers, and as attractive they are, they have one glaring ommission. No wireless.

The new range

The updated Sony eBook readers include its 5” Pocket Edition, the 6” Touch Edition and the 7” Daily edition, with inches representing display size. And, in the interest of not leading you on, these devices look absolutely gorgeous, with the Touch Edition being our personal favourite.

E-ink, the defacto e-reader display format the Kindle and many other readers use, powers the devices’ displays and it supports various book formats, including ePub (something the Kindle does not, by the way).

‘Why so expensive?’ – you Joker’

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Sony must’ve missed, oh, all of July and August, where the prices of e-book readers cratered, because these Sony ebook readers aren’t cheap. The Sony Pocket Edition costs $179, while the Sony Touch Edition costs $229. The Sony Daily Edition will set you back $299! Seriously, Sony, that’s just $200 shy of an iPad. Why do this? And, what’s worse is us Brits will likely pay even more for these devices.
What’s worse about these obscene prices is that neither the Pocket Edition nor the Touch Edition have either wi-fi or 3G. You want to get books onto there? Plug them into your computer and transfer them over cable. Unbelievable. The Daily Edition, which is designed primarily for dowloading newspaper content has wireless capabilities, though.

Aesthetics

Aesthetically we prefer the Sony ebook readers to Amazon’s Kindle. The fact that it’s all touch-screen based is great, ditching the nigh-on useless (depending on how you use your Kindle) keypad and making for superior navigation, in general. But that price tag? Man. And the lack of wireless? Ouch. You’re making it hard to recommend picking these up

There are various other Sony e-book readers on the market already, if touch-screen is not what you’re looking for, or if you’d prefer to pay a slightly more agreeable price.