The Sony Reader WIFI, or the PRS-T1, is seeing some significant price drops just in time for the holiday season. The new prices are putting it into competitive territory with Nooks and Kindles.
Originally the Sony PRS-T1 hit Canada at $169 and the USA at $149, but lately the prices have dropped dramatically. The price in Canada has come down to $149 at most retail locations of the Sony Store, Sony Style Online, Best Buy, and more. In the USA the T1 recently came down to $129 at most online and retail locations.
Certainly the e-reader space in Canada is not as crowded as the USA, so the price cuts are more noticeable and puts it in the same price range as the Amazon Kindle, Pandigital Novel, and Kobo Touch. Meanwhile in the USA, it is very competitive with the mainstream e-reader brands.
I am a huge fan of the new Sony e-Reader because it allows you to tap into three different ecosystems right out of the box. You can download books from the official Sony Store, which is the first dedicated e-reader that allows you to do this. It also gives you the freedom to tap into the Google Books ecosystem, which has over 100,000 free and paid books. Finally, it has a a great Overdrive app to borrow books directly from the library and have them synced to your device within seconds.
Whether you live in the USA or Canada, the Sony Reader WIFI remains the only e-reader the company is peddling due to the discontinuation of the Sony Daily and Sony PRS-650. If you are looking for a low-cost gift for that special someone, I would recommend this one.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
