Sony Reader (PRS-T1): The Best E-Reader for Biblical Scholars

The ubiquity of the Kindle says more about the success of Amazon's marketing machine than the quality of its product. To be fair, the Kindle Touch would probably best the stock edition of my Sony Reader in a head-to-head comparison. Despite its pinch-to-zoom touch screen, good pdf support, browser, and general flexibility, the PRS-T1's PC/Mac Reader software is lousy, and user highlights aren't preserved on the "cloud" as they are with the Kindle. But the Sony has one feature that makes it far superior, in my opinion, to the competition: It runs Android OS 2.2, and can easily be rooted to run a wide variety of Android Apps, including the Kindle App for Android--so any concerns about accessing Amazon's wide selection are moot.

I was delighted to be able to access a mobile Android version of Anki's excellent free flashcard program:

A work-around has been developed to display Hebrew correctly right-to-left, although it involves stripping vowel points:

(I haven't tried any Greek databases yet, but they do work.)

You can also install a modified Home screen even without rooting the device:

Update: There is also a modified reader, which significantly improves the stock Sony Reader. After installing GentiumPlus as an additional font, getting Polytonic Greek texts to display with full accents is as simple as choosing the correct font.

Best of all, I was able to install the Logos Bible Software Android App, which gives me access to anything in my Logos library as well as morphologically tagged Greek and Hebrew Bibles:

 The Hebrew vowel points aren't perfect, but they are certainly readable, and the app works great:

• Since I've criticized Logos in the past, I should note that their initiative to make libraries available to users across platforms at no extra charge is fantastic--definitely a selling feature.
• Getting the Logos app working involved the rather more complicated process of installing a Micro SD card and resizing the data partition. I followed the directions here and here.  
• If you don't own a desktop version of Logos several other Bible apps are available. 

In sum, the rooted Sony Reader can do just about everything my old Tungsten E2 could do, with a larger e-ink screen, a better battery, and internet access. If you are thinking about purchasing an e-reader, the Sony is definitely worth considering;  the-ebook-reader.com calls it "the Best Advanced eBook Reader." The only downside is the time it takes to get all the "productivity software" up and running.

Note: Obviously, I can take no responsibility for what might happen to your device if you follow the same process.