Can Sony turn us into a nation of e-readers?

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

I spent yesterday’s tube journey home, and my usual half an hour reading time before bed, getting to grips with Sony’s new eBook reader – the snappily-named PRS-505.

I’ve not used an eBook reader before – I’ve never felt the need – but I was pleasantly surprised by the readability of the screen. It uses an incredibly clear monochrome E Ink display that’s about as close to ink-on-paper as I imagine it’s possible to get.

E Ink is a passive, reflective technology so once there’s text on the screen, there’s no refresh or backlight to annoy the eyes. It consumes so little power, in fact, that battery life is measured in page turns (6,500 in this instance) rather than minutes, hours or days.

It’s robust too – rather than the liquid crystal screens that adorn our laptops and mobile phones, E Ink displays are constructed of ink capsules printed onto a plastic sheet that is then laminated to a layer of circuitry, so it should withstand the sort of abuse you’d normally subject a book to.

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