We all love our gadgets, and now the competition for our e-reader dollars has upped another notch with Sony's new PRS-700, due in stores next month for about $400.

This new e-reader will feature a touchscreen, which is a big, consumer-friendly improvement over the Kindle, which uses confusingly-placed long buttons to scroll between pages and a strange keyboard -- I know, blasphemy coming from me considering I am a huge fan of the Kindle. But, having played around with one, it's definitely a GUI you have to get used to.

Also a strange feature to Sony's PRS is an LED backlight for the screen. What's odd is that the Kindle specifically didn't add a backlit screen based on market research that it would cause eye strain by reading off a computerized screen. Why Sony included this feature I don't know -- perhaps to allow a user to read in the dark, which is interesting -- but I still think Kindle may have the advantage if it is truly easier on the eye.

The touch-based screen may be its biggest advantage over the $380 Kindle, based on the boom of touchscreen interfaces made popular by the iPhone and a bunch of new smartphones currently hitting the market.

My money is still invested in the Kindle, I think. But it certainly speaks volumes of the e-reader market that we are even having the discussion. I'll always have my home hardcovers for display purposes and the occasional reading of my favorite screens, but as an environmentalist I'm psyched over the idea that people could buy their throw-away paperbacks/airport reading/trashy romance novels currently hiding with the dust bunnies under the bed on a device that saves paper. Definitely a cool development.

Have an e-reader and want to share your thoughts?