The Sony PRS-T3 has been leaked before the official press event in a few days and we now have a sense on what it looks like and the finalized hardware. On the surface it looks very much like the T2 and only has marginal enhancements.
The Sony PRS-T3 has a six inch e-Ink Pearl HD display screen with a resolution of 1024×758 pixels. You can pinch and zoom to have more control over your internet and PDF experiences. This is the same type of functionality that the new Kobo Aura has. You have 1.2 GB of internal memory to play around with when you take it out of the box for the first time. This will be enough for most users, but you can increase it up to 32 GB via the Micro SD Card. The exact dimensions are 107 x 160 x 8.8 mm. and you will get around eight weeks of battery life out of the e-Reader.
This device does not support a ton of different eBook formats, but you can read the popular ones with ePub, PDF, TXT. There is also a photo section with the support of JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP. Buying books is fairly simple using the dedicated Sony Reader Store, although the Spanish website that sent us all of the photos does not have access to the store yet.
On the software side of things, Sony is still using the Android operating system. You can borrow eBooks directly from the library using the OverDrive app, but it is only available in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. The T2 main selling points were the Evernote and Facebook integrations, and the new T3 model has both of these still on it. This e-Reader also has WIFI, so you can simply connect right up to the Sony Store, OverDrive, and the internet.
Sony has maintained the quintessential drawing app that allows you to take notes with a freestyle approach. You can use a stylus for more precision and actually take notes in the book. The one thing Sony has always done well is allow readers to underline or take notes directly on the book. This is useful because with PDF’s, you can simply draw all over it and save the book in its current state. This will allow you to basically have two copies of the book, one original and one with your changes, which is useful for students and people who are doing research or even belong to a book club.
There is no front-lite on this e-reader and many people may be up in arms about it. Sony has publicly proclaimed that they fail to see the point of an illuminated screen. The T3 does come with a case, but does not have the reading light that was leaked a few weeks ago. Instead, you have to buy this additionally and should cost around $60.00. Speaking of prices, the T3 e-Reader is poised to retail for $189.99.
Thanks to Estudio Dos of the Librista website for answering our questions and taking custom photos for this reveal.
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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.
