Kindle or NookColor

A

Adam

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
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Sooo my GF wants an e-reader i think... im trying to decide wether to get the NookColor, which looked nice or the Amazon Kindle. Here is where i stand

NookColor looks nicer. I like the touchscreen and the color (its great since i can get her cosmopolitan subscriptions which she likes). Great for that. Seems a bit more responsive when flipping through pages then the kindle.

Price is way more. $249 compared to $189 for the amazon 3g+wifi model.

She can look at things local, for 1 hour, 1 book, 1 day... that part sucks but its okay, its sitll a nice feature since we go to BN a lot.

Screen size is bigger, by 1" but still bigger.

Its color... hows that gonna effect the battery life? Im afraid it'll act like an iPad and drain the battery after a lot of use.

But the nook looks very nice so far. Im not gonna get her an iPad thats a lot, but figured an e-reader... i was really drawn to the magazines... anybody know if the nook allows pdfs to be loaded?

Any thoughts here? Im not interested in rooting it/etc... as its not for me its for her. Im more interested i how she will like it.
 
Rooting simply allows you to install other apps on the Nook Color, like a ton of the free stuff on Android (ironically, the free apps on Android tend to be of significantly higher quality in my opinion than the bazillions of free crap for the iPhones/iPod touchs). It doesn't "break" the Nook Color or damage it in any way, so there really are no negatives to it aside from the potential warranty issues but I doubt that would be a problem either. Toss a few games like Angry Birds on it (once rooted) and I'm sure the girlfriend will be curious about what else it can do. Comes with Chess, Sudoku, Pandora Radio, and some other goodies out of the box.

The Nook Color has far more than the Kindle offers, and that's about the best way to put it. The touchscreen is one thing, the higher resolution is another (with another inch of size too), the IPS color LCD factor is a huge thing (as you noted for the magazine subscriptions), it plays real video content meaning not crappy little low bitrate clips, it plays music in a variety of formats, etc.

And yes, it displays PDFs natively without issues, and they look fantastic on it.

It is by all accounts a superior device - and oh yeah, it's an eBook reader too. :)
 
If your main goal is to read books, Kindle 3, hands down. It is the best e-reader on the market, better than the Sony readers, better than the Nook.

Since it uses an e-ink display, there is practically very little it can do due since the pixels are physical pieces which take a moment to redraw, as opposed to LCD whose pixels refresh at 60hz. That said, it does one thing exceptionally well, reading books, and it is hands down the best device around for that specific purpose. Text is physical, letters pop off the page, and there is no backlight to cause eyestrain. It is like reading real paper instead of looking at a screen. Battery life is also insanely long since the only thing that draws power when wireless is off are actual page redraws. Battery life isn't measured in time, it is measured in page turns, and you can read multiple books on a single charge. I have literally gone a month before recharging it.

Note that I also have an iPad. I use the iPad for everything else, and despite the fact that I have the Kindle app for the iPad (which is great btw, syncs your pages read and notes and everything between all registered devices), for reading books I will still use the Kindle since it is much better for reading over extended periods of time. Fortunately both devices are so light and small that carrying them in my bag is zero hassle.

I also suggest that you consider the wifi only model of the Kindle. I own the 3G version, mainly because I had 3G with my prior Kindles (I've owned both 1st and 2nd gen models), and IMHO it is a luxury that isn't really necessary given how common wifi access is. If I had to do it again I would have bought the wifi only model instead. It is extremely rare when I have used the 3G to buy a book (literally once in an airport "because it was cool"), and IMHO that luxury isn't worth the extra $50. Ditto syncing your data (bookmarks, farthest page read, notes, highlights, etc etc) with Amazon's cloud service, you can do that whenever.

Hope this helps!
 
I ended up buying the nook color tonight and im debating wether to go and buy myself one... im having a blast loading books on it for her. its really a very sleak device. Im not happy about three things

1) wifi only... not a HUGE deal because lets face it, i dont think she'll be anywhere that she'll need a book, she has a ton on here already, and we have wifi everywhere we go

2) downloaded content (user loaded content) are not allowed to showup on their "home" screen... not a HUGE thing but still quirks me

3) the touch interface... its nice and smooth, which im surprised about, based on my experience with android, its actually quite smooth no delays... but it feels a bit weird, maybe its because i have rough fingtertips from working with my hands all day but still not like my iphone... but damn what a nice device it is, and for only $249.

maybe i'll root it maybe not, i might get one myself and root that so i dont risk screwing up her xmas gift before she even gets it... but i couldnt play with it in front of her till after xmas or she'll get jealous/suspicious

is it wrong of me to read some books on this thing until xmas? lol
 
Uhmmm... nope, that's still the primary purpose of an eBook reader, yanno. :)
 
Sorry about your mistake... ;)

You should have bought the $139 Kindle 3 non/3g and one of these:

http://aluratek.com/cinepal-hd-personal-media-player-8-9-inch

Which is currently $99 after instant rebate + mail-in rebate from Newegg and does almost everything the Nookcolor does, including e-reading, has the same battery life more or less, has a larger screen, and does quite a few other things the Nookcolor doesn't do. Only downside is that the user interface is not nearly as good (buttons instead of touch screen).

You could have had the best of both worlds, and then some, for the same price.
 
Umm why would i want that? I can use the nook color for both on a single device...
 
Although I really don't prefer ebooks but if I must choose one then I would definitely pick Kindle.
 
For actually reading a book, it's not a contest. For misc usage; the nook color as it's basically a tablet.
 
For ebook reading, I wouldn't touch anything without an e-ink display. Amazing battery life, text looks like a real page, and I can read my screen at any angle even in direct sunlight.

I've got the Kindle 3 wifi only. I didn't see the point in 3G since I plan ahead my reading and will have the next few books already purchased and loaded. It's also half the weight of the NookColor.

Obviously the NookColor can do a lot more, but I've got a lot of that covered with my cell phone.
 
To me; there was one feature that made me splurge on the 3g; that being page syncing.

When i'm out; the kindle is a little too big to have with me less i'm carrying laptop bag; so if i'm stuck in line at the dmv or similar situation (Surprisingly often) I simply load up the kindle app; read 3-4 pages of whatever's interesting on my phone. Where ever i am; the pages will be synced on my kindle when i go back. Extremely convenient.

Though honestly, 60% of even this use case the kindle has wifi access; so it's somewhat a mute point.. haha.
 
Before you choose the Kindle over the Nook Color (or even just the Nook, which I use and prefer) make sure you don't prefer the Nook's native support for epub. I can check out ebooks from my local library and just drop them onto the Nook, something that cannot be done on the kindle. If she is going to be checking out library books (or buying anything else that uses epub), the Nook is the way to go (and yes, it does support PDFs).

Most libraries use this system: http://overdrive.com/resources/drc/compatibleebookdevices.aspx
 
Nook and Kindle are almost in two different markets (ironically):

Kindle's eInk serves pages up for reading. I can go hours on this one device. The surfing is difficult but good to have as a "just in case."

The Nook is like a tablet, and its battery doesn't last very long. Good for light reading and for doing everything else (Surfing, etc.)
 
Google just launched their ebook store today and it also does not support Kindle. Amazon really needs to get with the program and include epub support, but I guess they don't care that the Kindle is worthless at the library so long as you cannot buy books from elsewhere.
 
She got the nook color, or is getting it... i like how i can convert almost any kind of ebook into an epub for it to read. Works very well. I even made my own ebook by converting a txt document into an epub, and put my own art in. So thats good.

I think she'll like it better as she can play some light games on it and eventually more games via the BN app store, which we all know will happen eventually they just released the sdk so thats good.

Sure its more of a tablet then an eBook but thats fine. Shes not a hardcore reader like say my cousin, who works for book companies for a living. Shes more of a kindle person as shes constantly found with her nose in a book. Whereas my GF reads when say shes waiting for me to finish playing video games or shes going to bed.
 
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