If you’re in the market for an electronic book reader, there’s a new kid on the block: B&N’s Nook. Billed as “the world’s most advanced eBook reader,” it’s already sold out for Christmas.
The NYT has a review. They point out the similarities:
[T]his thing is ripped right out of the Kindle’s master playbook.
- Same price ($259), same off-white plastic frame around the same six-inch E Ink screen (crisp, black type against a light gray background).
- Same screen saver showing woodcuts of famous authors.
- Same ability to display your own photos and play music files.
- Same free cellular connection so that you can download books wherever you happen to be.
- Same compatibility with iPhone or computer.
But the Nook claims to be different and superior:
- “A beautiful color touch screen.” [The Kindle is only black and gray.]
- A catalog of “over one million titles.” (Kindle: only 385,000.)
- “Browse e-books, magazines and newspapers on AT&T’s 3G Wireless Network or on Wi-Fi.” Cool! The Kindle doesn’t have Wi-Fi.
- “Loan e-books to friends, free of charge.” Wow, that’s a first; until the Nook, buying an e-book meant locking it to your account — not lending, nor donating or selling.
- You can even “read entire e-books for free at your local Barnes & Noble.”
So the Nook is better? Not exactly, says the NYT: “Every one of the Nook’s vaunted distinctions comes fraught with buzz kill footnotes.”
Read the whole thing for the details, but it sounds like the Nook has the potential (someday) to have some better features, but it was rushed to market and isn’t quite ready for Prime Time. Here’s one example:
[T]he touch screen is balky and nonresponsive, even for the Nook product manager who demonstrated it for me. The only thing slower than the color strip is the main screen above it. Even though it’s exactly the same E Ink technology that the Kindle and Sony Readers use, the Nook’s screen is achingly slower than the Kindle’s. It takes nearly three seconds to turn a page — three times longer than the Kindle — which is really disruptive if you’re in midsentence.
Often, you tap some button on the color strip — and nothing happens. You wait for the Nook to respond, but there’s no progress bar, no hourglass, no indication that the Nook “heard” you. So you tap again — but now you’ve just triggered a second command that you didn’t want.
It takes four seconds for the Settings panel to open, 18 seconds for the bookstore to appear (over Wi-Fi), and 8 to 15 seconds to open a book or newspaper for the first time, during which you stare at a message that says “Formatting.”
So it seems to me that the Kindle 2, or now the Kindle DX, is probably still the best choice for now.
If you have an eReader, feel free to leave your thoughts, critiques, reviews, etc. below.
