Barnes and Noble Nook!!!

marathonic

With the most recent pricedrop in the Barnes and Noble Nook to $149, I decided to take the plunge and order one.

I'm not a big book reader or anything - in fact, I'm far from it. It's something I'm gonna try and get into a bit more. What's happening on TV's getting to be a bit to boring of a conversation starter and all that

I'm actually in Boston at the moment so got to have a look at the Kindle, Sony and Nook in action at a local shop. To be honest, there's not much of a difference in them.

The main thing that turned me off the Kindle was the fact that you're stuck with Amazon for book purchases and, to a much lesser extent, the size - the keyboard takes up a lot of space. The size may actually be benificial to some users - in particular, those who'll be taking notes on what they're reading (the Nook does have a small touchscreen keyboard that you can switch on at the bottom but would be a bit harder to use).

This left me with the Sony and the Nook. For the same size screen, the Sony costs an additional $20. The Sony has 1/4 the storage capacity. Both have adjustable font sizes and there's only about a 45 gram difference in the weight. The Sony is smaller, albeit not by much.

Dimensions:

Nook: 4.9 * 7.7 * 0.5
Sony: 4.8 * 6.9 * 0.4

Another advantage of the Nook is the Wifi connection. However, there's never a problem attaching a USB cable - the main advantage of the WiFi is in the states when you can Browse and Buy books in the Barnes and Noble stores.

The Nook also allows you to lend books to a friend - although only some books support it and those that do only allow for lending once and only for 14 days. Also, you cannot access it when lent.

I think that, given the above specifications, it all comes down to looks. Personally, I like the Nook but thought the colour touchscreen might become annoying when reading. This fear subsided when I used the Nook in the store as the colour screen automatically switches off after a few seconds reading. The pages are turned by pressing the arrow buttons alongside the main screen that you'll be able to see on the photos of the Nook.

ei.sdraob

I got one few weeks ago in US and I love it, at 149$ its a steal

works even better in sunlight, was using it by the pool so much more readable than a book

so far it worked with every PDF i threw at it, plenty of free books floating about the interwebs

ei.sdraob

im ordering a few of these of ebay now as presents, im not reading alot more since its a pleasure to read of eink screens

corpo3030

Does anyone know how this will work in Ireland? Thinking of getting the wifi version.

Gone West

I have the nook. Fantastic piece of tech. As said above, it really excels in sunlight.
The capacity is ok at 2 gigs, but I filled that in a day. I stuck an 8 gig micro sd into it and now I have 10 gigs which is excellent. I have a lot of magazines in pdf format, as well as many technical manuals and books with diagrams so the 2 gig was never going to be enough. I am glad I got the nook over the kindle, as it is expandable.
I have the grey backed one, with 3g.
I love the heft and feel of it, its slightly curved in the back and feels grand to hold.
Those small design features really make a difference in something that you hold for a long time. Likewise the screen is great outside. I fly a good bit, and I find that it can be a little dark on planes.