A few months back, I wrote a post about my love for Sony's Reader. Now, they've gone and released a new model -- the Sony PRS-700. This latest release packs the same things I loved about the old reader and adds a number of sweet upgrades. Here are the standouts: a touchscreen LCD display, expanded internal memory, and built-in LED reading lights. Given my passion for these devices, I eagerly took one for a spin when it came through our office.

Getting this Reader up and running was so simple that I didn't even need to crack the owner's manual. I plugged the Reader into my computer's USB port after I'd installed the eBook Library software. This software's interface is pretty intuitive, and quite similar to iTunes. I dragged and dropped titles from my computer's library onto the Reader. When the file transfer was complete, I hit eject and was ready to roll.

Readers support a number of different file formats, including eBooks from Sony's Connect store, PDF files, and Microsoft® Word documents. I transferred about 10 books and a number of PDF files to the Reader but I didn't come anywhere close to filling up the internal memory. It holds roughly 350 eBooks. And if that's not enough space, there are memory card slots for even more storage.

Once the Reader was charged and loaded with reading material, I was ready to test out the screen. Sony's PRS-700 uses the same E Ink® technology that made older Readers so easy on the eyes. And the new Reader was no exception, I read for a few hours at a time and didn't notice any more eye strain than if I'd been reading from a printed page.

The touchscreen display made it easy to navigate through menus -- selecting books or adjusting screen size -- but I still used the hard buttons for common functions like "turning a page." That's pretty ingenious because touchscreens become smudged with repeated use. Making the frequently used commands hard buttons definitely cut down on the fingerprints on the screen.

The built-in LED reading lights were pretty cool when I read in places that weren't brightly lit. I wouldn't want to depend entirely on the LEDs -- it seems they're designed more for occasional use. Using them reduced the readability of the eInk display and drained the battery a bit quicker than leaving the LEDs off. But, all in all, it's a good option to have. That way, when I ended up sitting in a dark corner of an airport terminal, I popped the lights on and didn't have to stop reading.

Overall, the Sony PRS-700 Reader  maintains the great points of the previous generations -- incredible portability, ease of use, and its awesome display technology -- and adds on from there. The only drawback I found was that this little reader's considered an electronic device, so it had to remain off for takeoff and landing on the plane. But that's a pretty small price to pay for being able to carry an entire library of books around with me when I fly.