Barnes & Noble Nook Review

Written by: Gundeep Hora on 3/07/10  |  Filed Under Mobile  |  Share    

E-readers are all the rage these days. It’s almost as though they made reading books a trendy, edgy activity that the hipsters thought it was uncool before. What started off as an ambition project from Amazon with the Kindle has now morphed into a growing market that Apple’s hoping to takeover with the iPad.

PCWorld did a review of the Barnes & Noble Nook and said, “Amazon’s Kindle 2 and Barnes and Noble’s Nook are neck-in-neck in many ways. Each has unique capabilities: Amazon supports international shopping ( if you have a model with AT&T Wireless inside) and has text-to-speech; Nook has Wi-Fi, supports ePub, and runs the Google Android mobile operating system, which throws opens the door for customization and future enhancement.”

In conclusion, they summarized, “At least for now, though, I can’t confidently the recommend Nook. If the promised software update dramatically improves performance, the Nook could emerge as a worthy competitor to the Kindle 2. But it’s current sluggish performance, along with the caveats about the LCD’s interaction with the E-Ink screen, can’t be ignored. I’ll revisit this review after Barnes and Noble pushes out its firmware update.”

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  • Ed Kinberg
    One of the major advantages of the Kindle is that it plays audio books from audible.com which the Nook does not. I am able to keep the books I am reading and the ones I am listening in the car on the same device. As a result, I always have my Kindle handy because I use at home, in the car and in the office.

    While the Nook allows you to loan books, which I understand is a one time only feature that blocks the book on the lender's Nook during the two lweek loan, the Kindle allows up to six devices on the same account to access the entire library. As most of the book sharing I do is my wife and children, this is a great feature. I have not seen any info as to whether the Nook provides this capability. If it does not, the Kindle is a much better value.

    While the color screen on the bottom looks great, I think it is unecessary. I would prefer to have addtional screen area for reading. Ereaders need to be built for functionality, not glitz.

    I don't see a big market for the IPAD as a reader. It is hard to hold an object that size for the substantial time someone would be reading a book. Also, using it a reader will eat of the battery. More importantly, there is not a good "niche" market for the IPAD. If I have typing I will use a net or note book, if I have a lot of text to read I will use an reader with a battery measured in weeks. It may be a good entertainment device, but without flash, it is quite limited. I'm not sure this is a substantial market for a device that is basically a big smart phone without the phone.

    From my perspective, the IPAD is too large, and too expensive, to be used primary as reader. While that size may be beneficial for business users, the Que ProReader will be a better fit for that market. the Que has the long battery life and business ready features needed to get business users to switch to an ereader.
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