So I recently bought a Nook, and several people have asked why I chose it in order to help them make a decision. I must admit – it wasn’t an easy decision to make. I was originally waiting to hear more about the Microsoft Courier but apparently that product got nixed. I considerd the iPad, but since my husband is probably going to get one eventually for his graphic novel and comic book reading pursuits – which I don’t really read a lot of – I decided to invest in a less expensive device that’s dedicated to reading books and uses e-ink technology. He and I could always temporarily switch devices if needed. Plus I already have an iPod Touch, and the Nook and Kindle 2 are less than half the price of the iPad.
So I narrowed it down to Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle 2. Here’s a table I made comparing the two:
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NOOK | KINDLE 2 | |
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| Display: | 6″ diagonal E Ink display and 3.5″ LCD color touchscreen | 6″ diagonal E Ink dsiplay | |
| Reading a book on either device pretty much looks the same. However, Nook has a color touchscreen at the bottom for navigational purposes that also lets you see book covers (bought directly from Barnes & Noble only) in full color. | |||
| Size: | 7.7″ x 4.9″ | 8″ x 5.3″ | |
| The Nook is slightly smaller. Not enough to make a noticeable difference, however. | |||
| Weight: | 12.1 ounces | 10.2 ounces | |
| The Kindle 2 is slightly lighter. I’ve held both in my hands before – I didn’t feel a difference. | |||
| Internet Access: | Free wireless via AT&T; Wi-Fi, Free Wi-Fi in B&N stores; 3G only | Free international wireless via AT&T and WhisperNet | |
| I don’t know much about Kindle’s WhisperNet, but I’m pretty cool with Wi-Fi and 3G. I don’t need it on this device much anyway except for buying new books and checking the news. | |||
| Storage: | 2GB, expandable | 2GB internal (1.4G for user content) | |
| They both have around 2 gigabytes of memory, and can hold up to 1,500 books out of the box. However, the Nook’s memory is expandable (via microSD) whereas the Kindle 2 isn’t. That put Nook ahead for me. | |||
| Battery life: | 10 days with wireless off. Removable,rechargable battery pack. | 14 with wireless off (4 days with wireless on). Non-removeable rechargable battery pack. | |
| Kindle 2′s battery is reported to provide up to 14 days of reading without needing to be recharged, whereas the Nook lasts about 10 days. While both have rechargeable battery packs, only the Nook’s is removeable and therefore replaceable without having to replace the entire unit. As someone who’s had plenty of issue with dying rechargable battery packs with other devices, this was a big plus for Nook for me. | |||
| Keyboard: | Virtual | Built-in | |
| Nook has a virtual keyboard that is displayed at the bottom half of the device in the color LCD touchscreen. Kindle has an actual textile keyboard built onto the device. Honestly, I prefer actual keys that I can feel (so I can type without looking at the letters) over a touchscreen keyboard, but it wasn’t an absolute deal-breaker. | |||
| Audio: | MP3 player, mono speaker, 3.5mm stereo audio jack | 3.5mm stereo audio jack | |
| Audio Books: | Supports Audiobooks, music/MP3s | Text to speech; Audible audios books supported | |
| You can listen to MP3s and Audiobooks on both, which is nice. Yes, you can listen to music while you read a book. The one advantage Kindle 2 has in this area is its text-to-speech functionality which automatically reads certain ebooks to you. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on this too terribly though, as I prefer the professional done audiobooks to auto-generated readings anyway. | |||
| Formats Supported: | EPUB, PDB, PDF, Non DRM PDB, Audible, MP3 | Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible, MP3, MOBI, PRC, PDF, HTML, DOC | |
| Not compatible with: | Kindle (AZW) | ePub | |
| Here’s the most critical yet most confusing area – book formats supported. The Nook supports EPUB, PDB, PDF. TXT and DOC. Kindle supports TXT, MOBI, PRC, PDF, HTML, DOC, as well as the Kindle’s own AZW format. You can’t shop on Amazon.com and buy Kindle books to read on the Nook, and you can’t read books bought from Barnes & Noble’s online store on a Kindle. That sucks either way you look at it, to me.Now the interesting thing is that I spend far more money on Amazon than I do at Barnes & Noble, but when specifically talking about books, I tend to buy a lot more books from Barnes & Noble because there’s a great B&N store less than 2 miles from my house.
So this was a tough choice for me. What finally gave Nook the advantage though was the fact that the Nook can read ePub files. I already had a lot of ePub books on my laptop. I had a few Kindle books too, but I can still read them on my PC or on my iPod Touch using the Kindle App. Really, it’s a toss up. I recommend you consider where you buy your books from most often. |
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| Store: | 1,000,000 books at Barnes & Noble online store | 400,000 books on Amazon.com | |
| I can’t say that these numbers mean much to me. To be honest, there are still books I can find on Amazon.com that I can’t find on Barnes & Noble’s online store. Not enough that has caused me personally a lot of concern.For a while, the Kindle 2 was winning simply because it seemed that MORE of the specific books I look for are there. Sometimes books are cheaper on Amazon.com, but sometimes they’re cheaper at Barnes & Noble. I have a B&N Membership as well as a Amazon.com credit card, so I get lots of great discounts for both stores.
To tell you the truth though, I’m trying to make an effort to buy more books directly from publishers’ sites more often, to put a little bit more back into the pockets of publishers and authors. But since I hang out in brick and mortar Barnes & Noble A LOT, it makes sense for me to be able take advantage of the free access to full books while I’m I the store, so Nook has the advantage here. Only by a smidgeon, though. |
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| Price: | $259 | $259 | |
| They’re the same price and both come with a standard 1-year warranty. | |||
| Charge Time: | 3.5 hrs, includes charging via PC USB | 4 hrs, includes charging via PC USB | |
| Both can be charged either by being plugged into an outlet via an attachable adapter, or via your PC USB. | |||
| Web Brower: | Yes | Yes | |
| Dictionary: | Merriam-Websters | American Oxford | |
| They both have okay web broswers on them – but I have yet to find a need to surf the net on my eReader. The dictionary is essential, though. | |||
| Sharing: | LendMe technology | None | |
| With the Nook, you can share some of your ebooks with friends for up to 2 weeks, using the LendMe technology. You can share your Nook books with people with other Nooks, Apple devices, Blackberry, PC or Mac, with the ability to share with Android and Windows Mobile devices soon. Kindle 2 doesn’t have anything like this. | |||
| Synching: | Apple devices, BlackBerry®, PC, Mac | Apple devices, PC, BlackBerry® and Mac | |
| You have the ability to read the books you bought for either device on your Apple, BlackBerry, PC and Mac devices as well. On the Kindle 2 the last page you read on one device will be sychnronized on all other devices. Nook is coming out with this functionality soon. | |||
| Other Pros and Cons: | |||
| There are some other things to consider. The Nook allows you to read full books while you are in the store. Also, the Nook is an Andorid-based reader, which implies to me that it has a lot of capability for expanded functionality in the future. It already has Sudoku and Chess on it, which wasn’t really necessary but is a nice little bonus since I love both games.The Kindle 2 is a second generation device, which means it may be a little more polished and reportedly has higher speed performance than the Nook. The Nook has recently pushed free software upgrades to the device to try to improve its performance, but to my understanding there is still some ways to go. The Kindle 2 also has Wikipedia access and may be more popular than the Nook at this time. | |||
Overall, it was a very close tie between Nook and Kindle 2. I had a really, really hard time deciding, especially since I love to shop at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In the end, Nook won out because of the ability to replace the battery pack and upgrade memory, sharing abilities and it’s tie-in to the Barnes & Noble physical stores. The availability of games and support of the ePub format also helped me decide, but in all likelihood I might have been satisfied with either.
Got any questions for me?
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How about travel? I thought I heard something about one device allowing you to purchase/use outside of the country and the other not? Do they have airplane modes? Thank you a lot though Wanna, this was extremely helpful.
Okay, about international travel. Although you can read books you've already loaded onto your Nook, and download ebooks and magazine/news subscriptions you already have when connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can not buy new stuff online with it. You'd have to buy your books beforehand, at least for now. However, I believe you can purchase new books over the internet with a Kindle 2.
Yes, they can be used on airplanes. The Nook gives you 2 different ways to turn off the wireless function, including a feature called "Airplane Mode".
YUP! If is now official, to me anyway, you are in IT professional! You went about this the smart and analytical way. I am still leaning toward the iPad though but this is giving me a lot more to consider. Thanks for all the info!
You're welcome, CC! Good luck with whatever you decide to get.
Excellent right-up! Thanks for the info. Now that both devices have dropped in price, I'm giving some serious thought to an e-Reader. Do you have any first impressions after using the device? I tried out a nook in store when they first came out, and I couldn't get past the interface/lag problems. I'm hoping they've made some progress in that area since then.
Yes, my Nook right out of the box was slow had the original interface, but I was able to upgrade the software to version 1.3 the same day I bought it, and so I didn't have to experience the painful lag or the older interface for long. Another software update – version 1.4 – just came out this week, which proclaims to make the device even faster still. I just upgraded the software a few minutes and I have noticed an even greater performance improvement.
So yes, they've made progress in those areas.
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
I have two Questions; one, what does the airplane mode for the nook do? And also, around how much is each book for the nook? Last thing, are you happy with the nook?
Airplane Mode simply turns off the wireless feature.
As far as how much they cost – the prices are all over the place, and depend on the publisher of the book. I've got books on my Nook for as little at $2.50 (that I bought directly publisher websites), pay an average of around $7, and have seen some as high as $12.99. I also have several that I got from B&N for free.
Thanks for the write-up!
BTW, one can open up a Kindle – yes, even a Kindle 2 (see http://www.ehow.com/how_5999067_open-back-kindle-… for general insight) – to expose and/or replace its battery. [I do agree that it's much better to make this more accessible to users, however.]
Also, do you know if the Nook browser allows one to save web pages, particularly as PDF, but in any format at all? Finally, I don't know what browser Nook's browser is based on. I'm wondering if it is feasible to expand it so that it supports Zotero.
Finally, the Kindle 2's physical keypad is so tiny that you'd almost certainly have to look at it while typing, despite the tactile feedback.
Hi Marisano,
Thanks for the additional tips and insight. I do not know much about the Nook's browser at all – I've yet to use it. I'll check it out soon and post an update when I do.
Thanks a lot, I was searching for reviews and I stumbled upon this
Since black friday is coming up and all, I needed something to decide which e-reader to get.
The nook is being sold for 100$ and the kindle 2 is being sold for i think $89
Hard decision indeed, yet i'm definitely going with the nook considering i have an android powered phone. Considering how well google does with syncing between devices, i'm sure the nook will have some awesome features coming up soon. Maybe email integration and the ability to since your google docs and all that jazz.
Thanks again!
Yes, I have a lot of high hopes for the additional features for the Nook in the future, too.
I'm glad to hear that I was able to help someone make a decision – it's a tough one!
I need to be able to upload WORD docs onto the e-reader – read and underline and then download from the e-reader back to my computer for further use of the WORD docs. Can either the Kindle or the Nook do that. I'm confused from what I've reader whether either one can do that. And what about the iPad does it allow to do that?
Thank you
You can not do that with the Kindle, not to my knowledge.
With the Nook and Nook Color you can upload Word docs, but I don't believe that any notes you make in them on your Nook would actually save onto the file itself and show up on your computer.
What you'd need in order to do that is an actual MS Word app, or Word-like app. You possibly *could* do that on a Nook Color, if you root the device and then purchase an app that lets you open and modify Word docs, but I have not done these things so I can not speak to it with absolute certainty. Since the iPad is an tablet I'd assume that you could do these things with Word, but I'm not familiar with how well Apple products play with Microsoft products, especially since it sounds like you're talking about going between your PC and your tablet/e-reader with MS Word. I'd visit a Barnes & Noble and Apple store / website / online forum and ask around.
I've heard that the nook doesnt do well with reading outside, how true is this? Also i didnt really understand your comment above " Okay, about international travel. Although you can read books you’ve already loaded onto your Nook, and download ebooks and magazine/news subscriptions you already have when connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can not buy new stuff online with it. You’d have to buy your books beforehand, at least for now. However, I believe you can purchase new books over the internet with a Kindle 2."
Would you care to explain further thanks
Hi Victoria -
My original Nook worked just fine outdoors. It uses E-ink and so there wasn't an issue with glare from the sun on the screen. Perhaps you're thinking of the Nook Color (which wasn't covered in this product comparison post, since the Nook Color wasn't available yet at the time of my writing this) that may not be as easy to read outside? Even still – I haven't had an issue reading outdoors with my new Nook Color either, although I must admit that I've only done that once so far.
It's not true that you can not buy new stuff online with the Nook. If you have a wi-fi hotspot then you should be able to make new purchases online. I have the Nook 3G (and the Nook Color) which also mean that I don't even have to have a wi-fi hotspot in order to make purchases.
The original Nook, the Nook Book are pretty much on par with the Kindle 2. The differences between the devices are minimal – the real difference is around what store you want to buy ebooks from. The Nook Color on the other hand, is actually several steps ahead of the Kindle 2, since the Nook Color is more like a simplified tablet instead of just an e-reader.
Hope that helps!
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