Long post, possibly short answer:
Did you know the Iliad only has upto 15hours of battery?
For me that was what made me decide for the Sony.
You'll possibly have to wait untill may 09 to get the next e-reader that supports higher than 600x800 pix. from Netronix (probably named EZ-900,and the reworked (second generation) of this device:
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EB-900).
There's plastic logic which has a huge screen, but guess is they will be expensive. Also, not much is known about their technical specs.