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brex Sony Reader Touch Edition Fills a Niche_141

The biggest reason to opt for the Touch Edition is, you guessed it, the touchscreen. Simply swipe a finger across the screen to move forward or back a page. You can set it to recognize a finger swipe left or right, depending on your preference. These aren’t exactly the same gestures you’d use to turn pages of a regular book, but they come close enough. Yet, you must have a firm touch on the middle two-thirds of the screen for the software to detect your gesture.

Two other applications on the home screen also take advantage of touch. With Text Memo, you can store notes such as books you might later want to check out at the library or even grocery lists and contacts. Sony uses a virtual keyboard that appears on screen as needed, instead of the physical iterations seen on Kindle readers. It’s an aesthetic choice that especially helps the black version of the Touch Edition look more elegant. The device is also available in a red or silver finish.

Touchscreen Features

There’s more to touch than turning pages. You can double-tap a word to look it up in the newly built-in New Oxford American Dictionary and double-tap the corner of a page to create or remove a bookmark. By tapping on an Options button on the lower part of the device, an on-screen menu appears on top that lets you choose from a digital highlighter or drawing tool that will store your selections in notes that can later be downloaded to a PC or Mac.

But after testing the Touch Edition over the past few weeks, it’s easy to see why Sony (SNE) opted to include it in the lineup. The touchscreen and other features are a step up for users of the current Sony Reader. And new users who aren’t holding out for a wireless version will no doubt like the intuitive feel. Its features are far easier to master than those of the rival Amazon (AMZN) Kindle family of readers.

This isn’t Sony’s first touchscreen Reader. But the new Reader Touch Edition is a vast improvement over the previous iteration, the PRS-700, introduced in 2008. The now-discontinued earlier version suffered from the inclusion of a well-intentioned but poorly executed feature. Most e-readers are virtually impossible to read in poor lighting. To address that, Sony included a backlight. But to accommodate the light, Sony had to install another layer on top of the digital e-ink used to render images. Contrast was so poor in normal lighting situations, and glare so strong, that users needed to keep the backlight on all the time. That drained the battery within a couple of days instead of the two weeks without a charge that other readers boasted.

Another application, Handwriting, lets you use your finger or a stylus to take notes. Both text and handwriting notes appear under "Notepad" in the desktop software. You can view them but you can’t edit or export unless you highlight them and transfer into a Microsoft (MSFT) Word file.

With the Touch Edition, Sony removes the backlight completely. Instead, it sells a book cover with an integrated book light for $55. Sony also jettisoned the stylish leather cover that came with previous Readers. It’s too bad you now have to pay at least $30 extra for what came standard previously, but Sony at least includes a neoprene slipcase that offers some protection for the fragile glass screen. Amazon.com’s Kindle 2 and Kindle DX come with no case at all.

Sony Reader Touch Edition Fills a Niche

When Sony announced three new digital book readers in August, pundits quickly surmised that the mid-tier model, the Sony Reader Touch Edition, might find few takers. Their concern was that the $299 version might get lost between the lower-priced $199 Reader Pocket Edition, with its obvious appeal to budget-minded readers, and the high-end touch-equipped $399 Reader Daily Edition, which is due later this year and is expected to boast wireless access.

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