Ask Engadget: What's the best e-book reader?

Tim from Australia sent in a question via our super-sophisticated submission method (that'd be e-mailing one in to ask at engadget dawt com) regarding e-readers, and given that Sony just pushed out a new one of its own, we found this one particularly timely:

"I'm starting a PhD next year and I'm looking to get an e-book reader so I can read PDFs of journal articles on the bus. It would have to be readable in direct sunlight and have a display large enough to read pages of about 400 to 500 words. Stylishness would also be nice. I don't know the going rate for decent e-readers but I'd be prepared to spend up to $500."

So, intellects -- what's the best piece of kit to snag for visually inhaling those scholarly articles in PDF form? Will it handle the occasional FCC user manual, too? Because that's really important, you know.