Color Nook Compared to Kindle 3 - the Nook vs Kindle 2011 Battle
Kindle or Nook?
This year the Nook vs Kindle battle of the e-readers continues. The Barnes & Noble NOOK finally joined in with an e-reader worth a second look.
Let's take a closer look at both the new Color Nook by Barnes and Noble and Amazon's new improved Kindle 3.
A couple of years ago when Amazon first came out with the Kindle, bookworms everywhere rejoiced. The Kindle with its sleek design allowed us to take almost as many books as an entire city library would hold anywhere we chose to go.
Ok, maybe not an entire city library, but more then enough books to keep any reader happy for quite a while. The new Kindle 3 Amazon e-reader unveiled has doubled its storage space to 4G, and now holds 3500 books. Not bad.
The new Color Nook however offers a full 8G of built in storage space along with the ability to expand that into an unheard of 32G, making the ability to haul an entire library feasible.
The Color Nook does have a disappointing 8 hours only before it must spend 3 on the charger. This could prove to be problem if you are looking for entertainment on a long trip in a car, train or plane where an electrical outlet is unavailable, without purchasing the optional travel charger.
The Kindle can go for a full 30 days between charges, unlike the Color Nook. This thing is great for traveling even if you are driving clean across the country. A 30 day battery life between charges is even great for an extended camping trip where there are no electrical outlets around. Keep in mind there is no backlight, so you will need a reading lamp in dark places such as your tent.
The Kindle also is the better choice for outdoor reading at the beach or park due to e ink technology which basically means it has a plain grey screen with dark grey text and no glare. It also means no backlight so reading in a dark area, like in bed next to a sleeping spouse, without any type of reading lamp would be difficult. If you want to read in bed or low light conditions then the Color Nook is best, it has an adjustable backlight.
Color Nook vs Kindle 3
If the Kindle has a serious flaw it is the lack of color. Yes, most grown up books are in text only so color is really not a big deal for those, but on the other hand it may take some getting used to reading a magazine without color.
Color is also nice for those times when you need to share your “book” with a little person. Let’s face it, kid’s books need color. So if you plan to share stories with kids often, the Kindle may not be the best choice.
If color is very important to you then the Color Nook lives up to its name with a full color LCD screen. The color really brings children’s book artwork and magazines to life.
The screen of the Color Nook is also a little larger, 7 inches compared to the 6 inch screen of the Kindle Wi-Fi and Kindle 3g + Wi-Fi models. Although the Kindle Wi-Fi and Kindle 3g + Wi-Fi models are much lighter at a scant 8.5 ounces compared to Color Nook’s 15.5 ounces. The top of the line Kindle DX model has a huge 9.7 inch screen, but not color.
Both e-readers boast respectable libraries. Color Nook is the winner boasting two million titles compared to 750,000 for Amazon though Color Nook includes the free stuff such as publicly scanned books.
Amazon is also the best choice for connectivity. While both have WI-FI, Amazon offers free 3g connectivity all across the globe to download new books to read.
The trade off is in sheer entertainment with Color Nook leading. Color Nook not only allows you to read anywhere but also supports MP4 so you watch movies and video, MP3 so you can listen to music and it allows you to store, display and organize your photos.
The Color Nook also allows you to share favorite book passage via FaceBook and Twitter as well as browse and borrow books from friends although you need permission and not all books can be borrowed. To be fair, Amazon is promising the same feature with its next software upgrade.
Although loaded with fun features like the ability to play movies and games the Color Nook is not a tablet PC. Some things that you may take for granted on a PC just do not work well on the Color Nook such as Gmail and chat.
It is however a nice portable entertainment device that compares more like a large iPod Touch then an iPad.