The whole ereader world is in a state of excitement with the announcements from both Amazon and Kobo of their newest ereaders.

I need a bit of time to find out more about both of these new ranges of ereading devices, but one thing is clear, following the lead of Nook, they have both launched ereaders with possibly the only remaining real improvement possible, front lit screens.

This is truly bad news for all those companies who produce a wide range of clip-on reading lights for ereaders, since reading an ereader in the dark or in bed is impossible without some such gadget stuck on your ereader.. and this is now a thing of the past, happily.

Many of us were deeply impressed by the reading comfort that Nook gave us with their Nook Glowlight ereader (aside from the persistent tales of how easy it was to scratch the screen of that one) and how much nicer it was to use than an ereader with a clip-on light.

Now we can enjoy the same luxury with a Kindle and a Kobo ereader. This only leaves poor old Sony out in the cold, as they seem to have missed this particular boat, and have just launched a new ereader (PRS-T2) that does not have any sort of built in light. Curiously enough, about four years ago, Sony did have an ereader with a built in front light for the screen, but for some reason they discontinued this.. A bad mistake I reckon.

So now we have a whole range of ereaders to choose from all with WiFi (and some have 3G as well) and those wonderful built in screen lights.

Once I have had a chance to really look at these new models, as well as the other ereaders and tablets that Amazon and Kobo have just launched, I shall write reviews of them properly, but I just felt I had to mark the arrival of all these ereaders with built in lights as I see this as a serious step forward for ereaders and for us as readers…. And the prices are pretty attractive too I see, both these new ereaders are around the $130 each, so quite affordable.

So watch this space for more about these new gadgets to improve our reading lives.

Link to the Kobo Launch: Click here

Link to the Amazon launch: www.amazon.com

Share with us:

Does the addition of a built in reading light impress and interest you, or were you perfectly happy with your clip-on reading light? Do let us share your thoughts on this one please.