The Nook's color LCD touch screen drains its battery quickly - I could never get more than 5 days out of a charge.
The Kindle 2 had longer battery life than the Nook, and Kindle 3 has even longer life: in the 3 months since we received our Kindle 3's, we typically get 3 weeks of battery life between charges. (We keep wireless off about half the time to save battery power.)
* Weight
Nook weighs about 3 ounces more than the new Kindle, and you can really feel the difference. Without a case, Nook is still light enough to hold in one hand for long reading sessions without fatigue. But in a case, Nook is a heavy sucker.
The new Kindle 3 is so light, even in a case, we find it comfortable holding in one hand for long reading sessions.
Reasons some people might prefer the Nook:
* In-store experience
If you need help with your nook, you can take it to any barnes and noble and get a real human to help.
You can take your nook into the coffee shop section of your local B&N store and read any book for free for up to one hour per day.
When you take your nook to B&N, some in-store special deals and the occasional free book pop up on your screen.
* User-replaceable battery
Rechargeable batteries eventually lose their ability to hold a charge. Nook's battery is user-replaceable and relatively inexpensive.
To replace Kindle's battery, Amazon wants you to ship your Kindle to Amazon, and they will ship you back a DIFFERENT Kindle than the one you sent (it's the same model, for example if you send a white Kindle 3, you get a white Kindle 3 back, but you get a "refurbished" one, NOT the exact one you sent them). I don't like this at all.
However, several people have posted comments here that have eased my concerns. Someone looked up statistics on the Kindle's battery and did some simple calculations to show that it should last for 3 or more years.
Before that happens, I will surely have upgraded to a newer Kindle model by then. Also, someone found some companies that sell Kindle batteries at reasonable cost and have how-to videos that demonstrate how we can replace the battery ourselves.
Doing this would void the Kindle's warranty, but the battery will probably not fail until long after the warranty expires.
* ePub
Nook uses the ePub format, a widely used open format. Amazon uses a proprietary ebook format. Many libraries will "lend" ebooks in the ePub format, which works with nook but not kindle.
However, a free and reputable program called Calibre allows you to translate ebooks from one format to another - it supports many formats, including ePub and Kindle.
The only catch is that it doesn't work with copy-protected ebooks, so you can't, for example, buy a Kindle book (which is copy protected) and translate it to ePub so you can read it on a Nook.
* Nook's color LCD touchscreen
The original Nook has a small color LCD screen on the bottom for navigation. This could be a pro or con, depending on your preferences. It makes the Nook hipper and less drab than Kindle.
Some people enjoy using the color LCD to view their library or navigate. I did, at first.
But after two weeks of use, and comparisons with my wife's Kindle, I found the dedicated buttons of the Kindle easier and far quicker to use than the Nook's color touchscreen.
I also found the bright light from the color screen distracting when I was trying to read a book or newspaper (though when not in use, it shuts off after a minute or so to conserve battery).
* expandable capacity
Nook comes with 2GB of internal memory. If you need more capacity, you can insert a microSD card to add up to 16GB more memory.
Kindle comes with 4GB of internal memory - twice as much as Nook - but there's no way to expand that. Kindle doesn't accept memory cards of any type.
If you mainly use your device to read ebooks and newspapers, this shouldn't be an issue. I have over 100 books on my Kindle, and I've used only a tiny fraction of the memory.
Once Kindle's memory fills up, just delete books you don't need immediate access to; you can always restore them later, in seconds, for free.
A few other notes:
Kindle and Nook have other features, such as an MP3 player and a web browser, but I caution you to have low expectations for these features.
The MP3 player on the Kindle is like the first-generation iPod shuffle - you can't see what song is playing, and you can't navigate to other songs on your device.
I don't like the browser on either device; e-ink is just not a good technology for surfing the web; it's slower and clunkier than LCD screen technology, so even the browser on an Android phone or iPod touch is more enjoyable to use.
However, some commenters have more favorable views of either device's browser, and you might, too.
* ebook lending
If you have a Nook or a Kindle, you can "lend" an ebook you purchased to someone else with the same device for up to two weeks.
The Nook has always had this feature. The Kindle just got this feature as of December 2010. Most but not all purchased ebooks are lendable, due to publisher restrictions.
* PDF support
Kindle and Nook both handle PDF files, but in different ways. When you put a PDF file on your nook, nook converts it into an ebook-like file, then you can adjust the font size, and the text and pagination will adjust just like with any ebook.
But you cannot see the original PDF file in the native format in which it was created. Kindle 3 and Kindle DX have native support for PDF files. You can see PDF files just as they would appear on your computer.
You can also convert PDF files to an ebook-like format, and then Kindle handles them just the way the Nook handles them - text and pagination adjust when you change the font size.
Unfortunately, some symbols, equations, and graphics get lost or mangled in the translation - even when viewing PDF files in their native format on the Kindle.
Moreover, the small screen size of the Kindle 3 and the Nook is not great for PDF files, most of which are designed for a larger page size.You can zoom and pan, but this is cumbersome and tiresome.
Thanks to commenters who suggested viewing PDF files in landscape mode on the Kindle (I don't know if you can do this on Nook); this way, you can see the entire top half of the page without panning, and then scroll down to the bottom half. This works a little better.
SUMMARY:
Nook and Kindle each offer their own advantages. We like the nook's user-replaceable battery, compatibility with ePub format, and in-store experience.
But we strongly prefer Kindle 3 because its performance is zippier, its higher-contrast screen is easier to read, and it's smaller and lighter so it is more portable and more comfortable to hold in one hand for long reading sessions.
* Nook Color
Everything I wrote about the Nook in this review applies to the original Nook (which continues to be available), not the new Nook Color. To me, the Nook Color is in a different product category than the Kindle or original Nook.
Nook Color has an LCD screen, like an iPad or most computer monitors. That's a big disadvantage for people like me, who get headaches from reading a computer screen for long periods of time. Amazon's Kindle product page has an informative section on e-ink vs. LCD displays.
But many people don't have problems reading from computer screens, and the Nook Color is getting glowing reviews in the press and by owners.
For the money, it offers a lot of functionality such as a good web browser and the ability to play games and watch movies.
But keep in mind: it costs a lot more than the Kindle, it weighs nearly twice as much, it doesn't come in a 3G version, and (unlike the original Nook) the Nook Color doesn't have a user replaceable battery.
Relate Post
Kindle vs. Nook Reviews by Real User Part 1
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