Sony have a floppy disk version (I highly dislike this version) and a cd version. The picture quality for the floppy disk one is very low, it has to be to fit pictures on the disk which can only support around 1400 kb. That is just three pictures with my camera. Convience is minimum over my plug in Fuji with basically little time difference (but you are correct about the battery drain while uploading).
You want a digital camera that at least has 2.3 megapixal quality. If you are wanted very profession looking photos, then invest in a camera of over 3.3 million megapixals. If you are just wanted pictures that look good but not professional, you can get by with a 1.3 million megapixal camera. I don't suggest the 1.3, cause I have had one and needed to get better ebay pictures upclose and 1.3 just don't cut the mustard.
The Sony with a cd may be a good camera, but I don't like the floppy disk limitations. It's megapixal quality is not good at all.
The best place to compare items is Ebay IMHO. Be sure to click the "completed items", cause the running auctions don't help you one bit when comparing prices. Even the nice cameras are cheaper now than they were 6 months ago. But don't expect to come out with a good camera under 300 bucks. Nice name brands could run as high as 1000 bucks (with lots of bells and whistles). The LCD screens are a waste in my opinion. I have yet to use my screen (it eats up the batteries bad and is hard to see), I just use the view hole. I wished they never put the LCD panels on them.
I'm very happy with my Sony and I can get about 30 pictures on a disk.........