Sony Adds Touch, LED Light to E-Reader

Sony's second crack at the e-reader market, the PRS-700, makes a number of upgrades from the last version, including a full touch interface, LED backlight, and doubled storage.

Seeking to reestablish itself in e-readers after Amazon’s Kindle stole the thunder from its first model, Sony introduced a new e-reader on Thursday night that features a purely touch-based interface: the PRS-700.

Sporting the same six-inch e-ink display as its original PRS-505 reader, the PRS-700 eliminates the array of buttons that speckled the old version in favor of a simple touch interface. Besides making navigation easier, it also opens more doors for reading, like allowing users to highlight words with a stylus and even annotate books with an on-screen keyboard. It’s also the first e-reader to market with a built-in LED backlight for situations where ambient lighting doesn’t quite cut it.

Other specs, including the claimed 7,500-page battery life, weight of about 10 ounces, and support for multiple documents including Adobe PDFs and EPUB files, remain close to the original. Storage, though, doubles from 160 average-sized books to 320.

The PRS-700 will debut around Nov. 14 with an estimated retail price of $400. For customers who order before the end of March 2009, Sony will also throw in 100 classic titles from the Sony eBook Store.