Specs and pictures of new Sony ereaders leaked
By Paul Biba
Clément Monjou, Rédacteur en chef de Ebouquin.fr, sent me an email to alert me to the news that details and pictures of the new Sony readers have leaked. Evidently their operating manuals were somehow released. The manuals, however, don’t have much technical information so we still don’t know if they have WiFi or wireless. Here’s what seems to be available:
PRS-300: 5″ screen, no touch screen, no audio output, no card slots, ~440MB user partition, 220g.
PRS-600: 6″ screen, touch screen, audio output, SD/MS slots, ~380MB user partition, 286g.
At both the IDPF conference, and the press conference introducing the 700, Sony execs unequivocally stated that they were working on a wireless unit. The Kindle still remains far in the lead if Sony doesn’t add wireless to its stable.
Here are the links that Clement provided to me:
http://forums.sonyinsider.com/index.php?showtopic=825
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52303
http://www.ebouquin.fr/2009/07/30/les-nouveaux-readers-de-sony-le-prs-300-et-le-prs-600/
July 30th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Mobileread has links to the service manuals.
Interesting enough reads.
The 300 comes in at:
4 1/4 × 6 1/4 × 13/32 inches
(107.8 × 157.5 × 10.2 mm)
And the 600 at:
4 7/8 × 6 7/8 × 12/32 inches
(121 × 174.3 × 9.8 mm)
Neither has any form of wireless, both are structured as PC peripherals.
Interestingly, they quote lower battery life for ePub vs Beeb; 6800 page turns vs 7500.
Since the hardware does not look significantly different from their 505 and 700 precursors their competitiveness will depend on pricing.
At $199 and $299 they might be of interest; much higher and it becomes a brand loyalty matter.
July 30th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I wonder if Sony couldn’t shake up the market by going VERY cheap, especially in these economic times. Maybe the price of the 5″ screen model will be a real shocker like $49 or something??
July 30th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Great idea.
And how often has Sony done this kind of thing? >;-)
(I believe the next time they do it will be the first.)
Sony is a firm believer in the value of their brand and in premium pricing.
I will be “shocked, shocked, I tellya” if they even hit $199 on the 300.
(Last I heard the screen alone ran something like $70.)