Nook Ebook Readers
Barnes & Noble had 3 ebook readers available currently. Their classic Nook reader comes in two variations (wi-fi, or 3G and wi-fi enabled). In addition the company offer a reader’s tablet in the form of the Color Nook.
New Nook Touch – The Simple Touch Reader
The latest Nook is smaller, brighter, faster and much neater than ever. A squat body and a black rubberised body give a new feel to the device.
Using infra-red touch screen technology lets you navigate more easily without compromising the display (which is new and improved Pearl e-ink).
Only available as a wi-fi reader this is running on Android but can not run any apps and is definitely a dedicated ebook reader for those on a budget. If you want to read, and read only, it is just the ticket. But we do wish it was a little more competitively priced!
Classic Nook Ebook Readers
Updated – please note since the introduction of the new touch-screen Nook the Nook Classic have been reduced in price and will be slowly phased out.
This is the big competitor to Amazon’s Kindle 3 reader. Using the an e-ink Vizplex display the reading experience is very similar to the current Pearl e-ink used by Amazon. It allows for low power and high definition, making it great for reading.
Where the device differs significantly is by adding a color touch-screen for navigation. This does away with the need for a keypad and makes navigating menus and your libraries far more intuitive, as well as simply giving the device a sexier look.
There are two to choose from. One offers both 3G and wi-fi whilst the cheaper versions has only wi-fi.
As with Amazon’s reader you have a basic web browser so can use the wi-fi connection to access your email and browse online. Of course, this is a simple monochromatic display so you won’t find web browsing quite as enjoyable as from a tablet or computer, but for basic access it more than manages.
The Barnes & Noble store offer around 2 million ebooks for sale, and because this ebook reader supports ePub format you are free to buy books elsewhere relatively easily.
You get a library online so any B&N purchases (along with your notes) will be backed up for you to transfer to other devices in the future. Of course there are Nook apps available for all the leading handheld gadgets too so that you can read on smart phones and tablets as well as the Nook reader itself.
Key benefits (for some at least), of the Nook over Amazon’s Kindle are:
- An SD slot so you can expand the memory as needed (around 1500 books can be stored on the internal memory alone).
- The color touch-screen panel for easier navigation.
- Ability to upload photos to the reader for use as personalised screen savers.
- The original book lending facility, which has since been adopted by Amazon too.
- The support of ePub so that downloading books from other sites is more easy. However, you can convert ePub to Amazon’s .azw Kindle format with a little help from Calibre software.
- Ability to borrow ebooks from libraries (though Amazon are introducing this facility too in 2011).
The drawbacks are:
- Only a 10 day battery life (rather than up to 4 weeks.
- Note taking and annotations can be a little difficult to get used to on the Nook.
- The B&B ebook store is not as large as Amazon’s
- The price is $10 more for each than the equivalent Kindle.
- The older e-ink displays used on the Nook aren’t as high quality as the newer Pearl ones used by Amazon.
As far as we can see the classic Nook ebook reader is dieing a rather slow death at the expense of the Kindle, and its bigger brother the Nook Color Reader:
Nook Color Ebook Reader / Tablet
Whilst the original classic Nook is starting to look a little tired, B&N hit upon a rather impressive idea with the Nook Color, released in 2010. Rather than using e-ink, this is a back-lit LCD touch-screen just like those used in modern tablet PCs.
In fact a tablet is what this really is, albeit a tablet designed with reading in mind as its primary function.
Of course, web browsing is a whole lot more enjoyable when you have the speedy refresh rates, and high definition color of an LCD screen. But, you are unlikely to be using this at the beach since LCD also means lots of glare.
With its built in wi-fi you can surf and download new titles just about everywhere at no cost.
And, if you are simply itching to buy a tablet but don’t want to pay the hefty price tag associated with most apparently these can be hacked to make them run more like the Android tablet device it is.
Current views are describing the Kindle 3 as the best e-ink based ebook reader, and the Nook Color as the best LCD based one, and we think they are probably right. Which also begs the question, when will Amazon release a Kindle tablet to compete?
