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PRS-T3 Why the T3 is an excellent reader

I bought the T3 on a whim. And all the bad things that are being said about it are obviously true: it's basically last year's e-reader that costs too much. And if the no-front light thing is a deal-breaker for you, nothing I will say will change your mind.

But I think there's an argument that can be made why the Sony PRS-T3 is a truly great e-reader. And it goes something like this: to a lot of people (not the majority here on Mobileread, of course), e-readers are a consumer product like DVD players or cheap compact cameras with the difference being that they're used to read ebooks. If we step back from the "new features every year" mentality that plagues smartphones, tablets and PCs, and look at how well the T3 does at its core functionality, we have to admit that it does a pretty amazing job.

Its software is stable, (almost) bug-free and does not intrude on the reading experience at all; the screen is as crisp as it ever was (while higher definition might sound good, it wouldn't really improve your reading experience), you can buy your books from various sources, you can access library books and you can even buy books on the device itself. Granted, nothing that the T2 didn't do as well, but this year's model is even smaller while leaving the screen size intact and has an integrated cover to boot.

Now, the light issue I can understand to some extent, although it's not that important to me personally. While I enjoy my Paperwhite, to me, my Sony readers have always felt more like a book to me. The Kindle is always a gadget, its glowing screen is a constant reminder that it's just that; with a pure eInk display I find that I often forget if I've read a books a pbook or as an ebook. This never happens to me on the Kindle Paperwhite.

So if you, like most people here, look at the T3 from a feature and technology-perspective, it's not much of a step forward. If you look at it from a "reading books" perspective, it's as unobstrusive and simple as can be; it's designed as lightweight and user-friendly as one could hope for -- (p)books themselves haven't changed that much in the last decades or even centuries.

To me, the perfect e-reader would be one that's like a piece of paper (with a cover), combining all that's good about pbooks (readability) with the storage and ease of use of ebooks. In that sense, I find that I enjoy reading on my T3 (or T2) more than on the Kindle Paperwhite (or the Cybook HD I bought my mom for last Christmas), because they come closer to that ideal.

Now, I agree that it's too expensive and that there's no need to upgrade from a T2. All I'm saying is that I believe that Sony are actually doing something right here (if you ask me, even by omitting the front-light) and it's a shame that their design philosophy is giving way to a market that basically wants tablets.

Matt

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