According to
this review:
"Sony added a touch layer on top of the e-ink display and embedded LED side-lights into the frame that surrounds the display. Clever. But this comes at the expense of contrast and glare, and the Sony Reader PRS-700 looks more like a grayscale notebook screen than an eBook reader. The glare isn't nearly as bad as the average PDA or gloss notebook display-- it's on par with matte finish notebook displays."
500 vs 700 contrast comparison:
Now, i was all set on buying the 700. but this review has come as a big downer. Touchscreen goodness is fine, but i would assume that the most important element in an epaper-based reader would be the screen. and if the 700's screen is worse than the one of 500, it would be a dealbreaker for me. might as well live with the 500 till the next version comes out.
Would like to hear from folks who have seen both screen side-by-side.