The world of electronic books has seen many false dawns. After years of incremental and largely ignored progress, it appears that Sony has come close to a breakthrough, with the aid of technology developed by Philips.

The Sony Librié uses Philips’ 'electronic paper' technology, and the resolution of the Librié’s screen is about 230% higher than your typical computer monitor. The Guardian newspaper has had a sneak preview, and reports:

The quality of the display will come as quite a shock to any seasoned user of mobile devices; it looks more like paper than the computer screen it is. The closest comparison is to think of old-fashioned ink on pulp you're likely holding now, unless you're reading this online, in which case the Librié looks far better.

According to Sony, the Librié runs on four AAA batteries, which supply enough power to view 10,000 pages. Data is stored on Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick Pro cards, and you can store around 500 books on a 512MB Memory Stick.

The unit measures 12.6 × 19 × 1.3cm and includes a Qwerty keypad, loudspeaker, earphone socket and voice recording facility.

The Librié will cost ¥40,000 (NZ$580) when it is released in Japan tomorrow. The high initial cost will be offset by the low cost of the books you read, which will be available on an 'all you can eat’ principle for a NZ$3 per month subscription.