Sony prepping two eReaders with touchscreen

Sony is said to be working on the 5" PRS-350 and 6" PRS-650, two new eReader devices with E Ink's touchscreen technology. Sony Insider claims the new units will have very attractive pricing, and a more compact and lighter form factor than previous models. Just like the new Kindle 3, the forthcoming Sony eReaders promise higher contrast and faster page turns, as well as more storage capacity than current models.

The company has also developed a new user interface, and the PRS-350 will now also receive the note-taking software that was introduced with the PRS-600. Battery life is expected to remain the same at nearly two weeks (or perhaps a bit higher), and supported file formats include Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, BBeB Book, ePub/ACS4 and Adobe Digital Edition format.

The two new Sony Reader devices will be very attractively priced, and are definitely much more compact and lighter than previous models with a possible width under 10mm (extremely thin). From what we’re hearing the new models will also have improved contrast and faster page turns. The PRS-650 will have a six inch screen while the PRS-350 will have a five inch screen. There will also be a bump in capacity from the usual 512MB or less found in currently Sony Reader models to 2GB of internal storage. We are not sure if that capacity bump extends to both devices, but will most certainly be true for the PRS-650. We also know that the PRS-650 will have Wi-Fi (and possibly free 3G), while the PRS-350 will not have any wireless connectivity (like the PRS-300).