I've been using NEX-7 for around a year, and I've kept an eye on the rest of the product line to see what direction Sony is going. Here's my breakdown on the features of each model:
NEX-7:(New model likely to be announced next month)
-24MP, both a blessing and a curse. In good lighting conditions, the images are absolutely stunning, and you can crop to your heart's content. But due to the densely packed sensor, the ISO performance is one stop worse than the other NEXs. Also due to the same reason, it needs top of line lenses to produce sharp images (and Sony has very few of them.)
-Tri-Nav, works wonders, in M mode, unmarked dials work as ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture.
-EVF, works great when you have a large aperture lens. But if you are using a zoom lens at the long end with 6.3 aperture, the screen will become very grainy and slow.
-Tilting LCD, can tilt up 90 degree, and tilt down slightly, which is useful for taking pictures from different perspective.
-Pop-up flash + Minolta Hotshoe, note that Sony has moved to use the standard ISO hotshoe since NEX-6, so you'll want to be aware when buying future flashes and other accessories.
NEX-6:
-PDAF, the supposed big selling point of the new model, but users reviews have been a fixed bag. From what I gathered, it will reduce focus hunting, and improvement in focus speed is around 1/10th faster than other NEX's CDAF.
-Controls, have a physical mode dial that all the models lack, including NEX-7.
-Pop-up flash + ISO Hotshoe, Sony currently has only one flash using ISO hotshoe, you'll need adaptor for their older flash models.
-Wifi, can be used for remote shutter, file transfers. Also supports Sony's camera apps; some are free, some are paid.
-USB charging, useful if you have a mobile battery pack like I already do for charging my phone on the run, but an external battery charger is not included.
-EVF, same as NEX-7.
-Tilting LCD, same as NEX-7.
NEX-5R:
-Touchscreen, it's the only NEX model that has it, and works great for selecting focus point. (When using other NEXs, you want to use center focus and then recompose). Note that Sony has cheaped out and used the old school resistive screens here, so you'll likely shake your camera when using touch to focus/shutter.
-180 tilting screen, useful if you have a SO that wants to take self portraits. It can also tilt down slightly.
-Screw-on flash and accessory port, no hotshoes here, but there's an accessory port that you can plug an EVF on it.
-PDAF, same as NEX-6.
-Wifi, same as NEX-6.
-USB Charging, same as NEX-6.
NEX-3N:
-180 flipped up screen, only flips up, no tilting down here.
-200 Base ISO, Sony hardcoded base ISO to 200 likely to differentiate model lines.
-Pop-on flash, no hotshoes or accessory ports.
-No IR Receiver, I believe it's the only NEX that doesn't have an IR receiver, so you can't use an IR shutter remote.
Size: 7 = 6 > 5R > 3N
Overall it's a decent lineup of cameras, but like majority of Sony's products, they makeexcellentelectronics while their software is below average -- their sensors are absolutely top of lines, but the out of camera JPEGs at times are hideous (I always shoot RAW+JPEG and postprocess majority of images), and the menu systems can take a long time to get used to. In addition, I believe they have the worst average lens quality, that means it's worse than Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic and even Samsung. (There's no comprehensive testing of all lenses from all manufacturers, so it might be a grass is greener thing for me.)
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