Sony has once again slashed the price of the Sony Reader PRS-T1 from its original price when it was first introduced of $149 down to $129. And Amazon has an even better deal right now through Electronics Expo, taking the price down to a $114 both for the red and black Readers.
It is surprising that Sony is able to offer such a low price on the PRS-T1, especially since Sony is generally known for having higher prices. Last year’s 6-inch Sony Reader retailed for $100 more, and with a lot less features. Yet they’ve somehow managed to price the PRS-T1 lower than Amazon’s equivalent touchscreen ereader, which goes for $139 without ads ($99 with ads).
The Nook Touch goes for $99, but the Sony Reader offers a lot more features than the Nook does with the addition of audio support, a web browser, library ebook downloads, multi-touch support, and on-screen notes.
The Sony Reader also has much better PDF support than the Nook and Kindle Touch. That isn’t saying much but it is one of the better 6-inch PDF ereaders. Check my review of the Sony PRS-T1 for more info.
Some folks have experienced crashing and freezing issues. I haven’t had any crashes, just some slowdown and general oddness with some PDFs. Sony is aware of the issue and is supposed to be issuing a firmware update for the PRS-T1 soon. Hopefully that clears up the bugs.
Otherwise the PRS-T1 is a solid little ereader and is one of the Best eBook Readers for 2011. And as long as the price keeps falling, it is just going to keep getting better.
Too bad they had to wait so long to drop prices. I was a fan of the old sony readers but when it was time to upgrade I went to kindle since it was about half the cost at the time.
I love my PRS-T1. It has the best E Ink screen contrast in my opinion.
If you want to trade in another ereader Sony will give you a $50 credit towards the purchase of the PSR-T1.
It is a great e-reader. It is a pity there is not a bigger one of Sony. I hope, in the next upgrade of firmware, they fix its constantly full refresh for every page.
@Vicente: I saw reports about serious ghosting on the Kindle Touch, which imho uses the same type of Pearl-eInk-Display. They should give users a choice between more refreshes and ghosting. I for one think Sony went a bit overboard, but even then I can sometimes see menu-ghosting (grey lines). So if I do not want more ghosting, guess I have to live with the constant refreshing.
Without having seen the ghosting on the Kindle Touch it is not easy to decide which is worse.
I just looked at Amazon.com and only the red color is left. It’s actually $121 delivered ($6.99 shipping), so you’re saving $8. Many sellers are still offering the PRS T1 (all colors) at $129 with free shipping. I currently have a PRS 950SC and like Vicente I’m wondering why Sony did not also produce a 7 inch screen. I went into Best Buy and looked at the demo unit and the screen text appears to be a little crisper than the 950SC. While I’ve heard complaints about the interface being different, I think it is actually an improvement and the web browser looks to be amazing. Also, you can direct where the ebooks are downloaded to either the reader memory or the memory card. I’ve ordered one at $129 and will evaluate it against .pdfs. I’m a hard core .pdf user and prefer to purchase my ebooks in that format. But I also think a tablet makes a very poor ebook reader due to its light emitting screen.
Jim, I had an opportunity to test a Sony Reader yesterday after having my Kindle Touch for a week. My main problem with it was that I have to use the buttons at the bottom a lot when doing anything other than page forward/back. I had gotten used just about everything done onscreen. Other than that, it was better in every way especially with pdfs. While fonts wouldn’t render properly on the Touch (every letter broken and barely legible), things were very readable in portrait mode even with my less-than-great eyesight. Also, the Kindle Touch kept freezing then going back to the first page of pdfs. In landscape there’s no comparison mainly since the Touch doesn’t even have the option. Even pan-and-scan on the Reader was very smooth on pdfs. Just adding some more info to Nathan’s Reader review. I ordered the red Reader last night (don’t care about color) and it has already shipped. Soon as it arrives, my Touch is going back.
I checked it out at Best Buy and ended up ordering also. I was going to get the Nook Touch but the Sony reader had a crisper screen and it seemed more substantial. I really wanted the landscape mode option also.
@Ingo: Thanks for the information. I did not know what was ghosting and I may not have purchased a machine with that problem. Furthermore, Jonston report other avantadges. Thanks too.