 Glad I gave it a chance |
| Review Date: February 10, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Eddie E. Hicks, |
I purchased a Kindle for my wife last Christmas. She loves it and uses it more than any other gift I ever purchased her. She was having so much fun with it I decided to get an ereader for myself but I was drawn more toward the Nook. I read so many bad reviews about the Nook I wasn't sure if I should get it or a Kindle or maybe something different with a touch screen and wireless connection. I thought about it for a few weeks and noticed that the reviews started getting better. I decided to go for it. I ordered it last Wednesday from B&N and received it 2 days later. I am so happy I did. I didn't experience any of the the negatives I read about with exception that battery could stay charged longer. Talking about the battery, it's nice to know that you can change it yourself and at a much lessor expense than with a Kindle. I'll probably never need it but it's also nice to be able to add a memory card to hold more content. And the Nook just looks nicer in my opinion.
The new update was released the same day I received my Nook and I updated the firmware the second day I had it and it runs even more smoother. I have been a gadget man all my life but this is my first touch screen device. I had no problems what-so-ever navigating the menus and the menus changed fast enough for me.
My wife still loves her Kindle but I think she is a little jealous. She asked me why I didn't get her a Nook for Christmas.
I was completely in the dark about ereaders until just 2 months ago. I know during my research I found people that were experiencing problems and were unhappy with every reader I checked into. If you were putting off getting a Nook because of bad reviews, I would give them another look. There has been 2 firmware updates already that probably addressed many of the earlier concerns. That's not bad for a device that was only released a short while ago. I'm sure there will be further updates as time goes on and it will get only better.
~eddie |
Don't understand the negativity...
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| Review Date: January 31, 2010 |
| Reviewer: S. Dayton, Indianapolis, IN |
I've had my nook for 2-3 weeks now, and I don't understand why people haven't liked theirs. Maybe it's that I'm 21 and part of the Millennial Generation and can learn how to use most technology without too much difficulty. I love my nook. The screen is easy to read, it holds a library large enough for me to take a lifetime to read, the e-book store is easy to navigate, it has twice the library size of the kindle (yes, many of them are low quality scans from google books, but they are still readable and in most cases free), the color touch screen adds flair when appropriate and hides the keyboard when not in use (unlike the kindle), the screen looks like the page of an actual book, and the nook looks seamless in general.
Alleged problems people have with the nook:
Slow page turn and power on.
Touch screen not sensitive enough
Frequent crashes
Can't jump to specific pages
In my experience, the page turn is not bad at all. Perhaps it is a bit noticeable at first, but just like turning the pages of an actual book, you cease to notice it. In fact the page turning takes no longer than turning actual pages and probably less. If the lag does actually bother you, try pushing the button as you're on the last sentence. The split second that it takes you to finish the sentence will be more than enough time for the nook to turn the page. This may sound more complicated than you would like, but once you've done it a couple times it will become habit.
The touch screen is easy enough to use most of the time. The keyboard buttons are a tad small and occasionally hard to tap, but in general it's responsive. It is nice that it hides the keyboard when not in use, unlike the eyesore keyboard of the Kindle.
I've heard of frequent crashes on the nook, but I haven't experienced them. Every once in a while the nook has trouble loading and formatting a book (this does not include starting where you left off on a book, that's just fine), but if you wait for a minute or so, it resolves itself.
The nook cannot jump to a specific page number, but it does remember the farthest point you've reached in a book, and it does allow you to jump to specific chapters (and sometimes sections of chapters). With a few clicks of the page turning buttons (or swipes of the touchscreen), you reach the page you're looking for. So no significant trouble.
Problems I have experienced:
Slow Power On
Slow Formatting
The nook does take a while to power up and format books (only occurs when switching to a new book, the nook knows what you're currently reading and keeps your place). I will admit these are probably the biggest problems with the nook, but in general they are not that hard to deal with. A few seconds of patience never hurt anyone, and once you've loaded the book, you're off to the races.
Overall, I recommend the nook. It has everything one needs in an e-reader, it's fun to use, and has the biggest library selection available.
P.S. If you're considering the iPad instead of the nook or Kindle, don't. The iPad's screen strains your eyes. How many times have you gotten a headache from using a computer screen too often? Don't get me wrong, I love apple, and I'm writing this on a mac right now, but the iPad is just not the way to go for an e-reader. |
The Nook - Great Device!
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| Review Date: February 15, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Foot, USA |
(Edit: 2/21/2010 - After enjoying my new Nook so much I was curious about the complaints I have read on Amazon. I just carefully read all of the negative reviews. There is so much mis-information in those posts you can only come to one conclusion. I would say most of these reviews are staged. Unfortunately fanboys of products love to use their anonymity of the Internet to drag down the competition. Before you beLIEve what you read here, go to a Barnes and Noble store and you can actually hold and use a demo unit. If you are still in doubt of the nook, simply vist the Kindle Boards forums, you can Google it. They have a board "Other eReaders" and read the positive raves about the nook from actual Kindle owners.)
I can tell you the Nook I just purchased came with release 1.2 and it absolutely rocks!
One of my Co-workers loaned me his Kindle 2 for a couple of hours so I could get a feel for both devices before I made my decision to purchase. I am not going to bad mouth the Kindle 2 as I am sure it is a fine device. My decision to buy the Nook was based on a few key features I thought important enough to sway me one way over the other.
While in the B&N store, I immediately fell in love with the very intuitive and responsive touch navigation. It just feels natural. I did not even have to look at instructions or guides to figure out how to use the Nook. Great job on the UI design.
After my purchase, I immediately opened the Nook while in store and the device simply connected to the B&N hotspot without user interaction (NICE!). Since I already have a B&N account from the many books I have ordered online, my registration literally took 30 seconds. I just signed in and it was done.
I was so excited, I purchased a book while in the store and sat down and began to read. Since my card info is already stored, buying was a breeze! I just clicked purchase and confirmed, nothing else. My book was available almost immediately.
The Nook feels to be a very solidly built device. The screen size is large and the font is crystal clear. I wish it would have come with a protective case, but while I am here on Amazon...
(Key feature in decision to purchase the Nook) Wi-Fi! I am so happy that included Wi-Fi and not just AT&Ts 3G network. We have very spotty cellular coverage in our area. Including Wi-Fi just seems like a no brainer. (Don't worry Kindle fans, I sure it will be included in the K3)
(Key feature in decision to purchase the Nook) Expandable Memory. By trade I am a Network Engineer and carry loads of .pdf technical reference guides with me on my Notebook computer. It will be nice to have them at my fingertips.
(Key feature in decision to purchase the Nook) LendMe - The LendMe feature allows you to lend books to other Nook owner for up to 2 weeks. Sweet!
(Key feature in decision to purchase the Nook) The Nook has a replaceable battery. Why wouldn't that be included in the design of the Kindle beats me. Having to ship the unit back and pay $59? I don't get it.
Miner points that affected my buying decision
Know the device has the Android OS is a plus. I have found my Android based cell phone is very stable and customizable.
The personalized screensaver is nice.
If you are shopping for an eReader I think either way you go, Nook, Kindle, Sony, etc. eReaders are fun and take reading to the next level. Happy reading! |
Comparison: Nook vs. Kindle 3 vs. Sony Touch from a library book lover
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| Review Date: July 20, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. Boston, Boston, MA United States |
Updated to include details of Kindle 3, the newest version! With the time period, I could still return my nook, but I'm still completely in love with it and don't want the kindle for the reasons below.
The Nook was my final choice for an E-reader. It took a lot of back and forth and research to get to this point. I bought and tried the Sony Touch reader, returned it, and went and got the Nook. I really honestly wanted the Kindle most, because I'm a loyalist. I love Amazon and felt really comfortable here if I decided to actually start purchasing books again(I use the awesome town library). But below, I'll give you comparisons to the three big readers and the reasons I got the nook:
- Nook(N) by barnes & noble
- Kindle 3(K) by amazon.com
- Sony Reader Touch(ST)
1. My biggest decision maker was Epub. This is the format in which you can take ebooks out of the library, so I needed whatever I got to be Epub friendly.
N: The Nook is epub friendly. As well as PDF, and many other formats.
K: The Kindle won't use Epub, which was all I needed to know. It mainly uses it's own Amazon format,while it also uses PDF, mobi and a few others. It makes me feel like Amazon is being greedy, wanting us to only use and buy books from the amazon site. Don't they understand that I love my library?
ST: Sony reader is Epub friendly. pretty much the same as the nook.
2. PRICE!
N: $149 with wifi(or get the nook with wifi AND free 3g for $199)
ST: 169 NO WIFI
K: $139 with wifi(or $189 with wifi and free 3G)
While kindle 3 is 10 dollars cheaper, it doesn't give me those free library books, so it really doesn't make any difference to me.
*You can now lend some books from the Nook for 14 days to a friend with their new "lend me" technology. While this is in beta stages, and not ALL books are lendable. It depends on the agreement with the publisher. The other two you cannot lend at all.
*The Nook has a replaceable, rechargable battery. So it'll last awhile, but when its dwindling, you can spend 30 bucks and put a new one in yourself. For the Kindles, they are sealed inside. People have said you can do it yourself, but you must be tech savvy. Or you can send it away to Amazon for about the cost of $50+shipping charges and they'll replace it for you.
*You can expand your memory on the Nook and on the Sony touch. The Kindle you cannot, though the Kindle will hold 3,500 books, don't know if you need more space then that?!
*Nook has a fancy color touch screen at the bottom. While the Sony touch has a touch screen(the entire screen), it was slow to respond, very klunky and not very pretty. The kindle is loaded with buttons along the outside of the screen.
* all three have a built in dictionary, which I think is just awesome.
*The new kindle now meets with the nook on their slim width. People used to say the nook was more comfortable to hold because of the width, now the kindle will be as well.
*Yet, the Nook is heavier by about 3 oz then the Kindle or Sony.
*The Nook battery life lasts about 10 days with wifi off, the Sony has 14 days, and the new kindle is up to a month with wifi off(3 weeks with it on)This wasn't a big deal to me, and I was more interested in the other features the Nook DID have, like replaceable battery and expandable memory.
*And you may be wondering, why did I purchase a Sony Touch, and then scamper back hours later to return it? Well. When I got it out of the box, it wasn't techy enough for me. It felt like a very basic, bare bones E-reader. And I already had in my head all the things you hear about the nook: books more expensive, and for some reason I thought it wasn't epub friendly. But the moment I had that Sony in my hand, I went to look at the nook more indepth online. The Sony online library was nothing in comparison to Kindle's Amazon.com or Nook's Barnes & Noble. One of my favorite reads recently was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It was nowhere to be found on Sony. That gave me a bad taste in my mouth.
*In the past people have complained that Barnes & Noble is significantly more expensive then Amazon. I did some price comparisons of big titles, and found them most of the time to be exactly the same. I think Barnes & Noble might be trying to keep in line with Amazon to draw more readers(Like ME!) into getting the Nook.
On the whole, the nook is everything I wanted. I've downloaded some free classics from google books, I've taken out library ebooks and it was REALLY easy! I even bought my first book(well, ebook) in a long time. Despite being a new release, it was under ten bucks. I even bought another book I've been meaning to read for years for under four dollars. The nook is comfortable to hold with one hand. I like the using the touch screen to "swipe" and turn pages. And tops on my list, I didn't feel horrificly guilty for buying it. one fifty is a reasonable price for such a fun new book reader. |
A lot of Bonuses come with the Nook
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| Review Date: June 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: D. Nutting, |
I have had the Nook for three weeks now, and I have not experienced any "crashing." Page turning is faster than I can turn a page in a book. I also really like being able to change the font size.
A lot of people seem to overlook the extras that come with the Nook. For example, every time I went to B&N in May, I got a free "seven layer bar" from the cafe. All I had to do was show them the coupon on my Nook. I didn't even have to buy another item. I love free food. I went to the same B&N three times in a week, and they accepted the coupon each time. This month, the nook gives me a 10% off coupon. I expect that each month there will be a coupon to use.
Furthermore, the read in store function is very nice. If you are looking to read a book, but B&N doesn't have it in store, you can likely find it on the Nook and read it for free.
Battery life is great. It will last me a week or so with Wi-Fi left on.
One of the reasons I chose the Nook over the Kindle was because of the native PDF support. I just load the PDF onto my Nook. This is another reason why the SD card functionality is very useful, in case you have a lot of PDFs.
I wish, however, that the Nook had a zoom function for PDFs. Sometimes, when a page comes out as a single picture, it can be difficult to read.
Also, while the touch screen interface is easy to use, I would prefer up and down hard keys to move through the menu. Not a big deal at all, but I think up down left right motion in a menu should always have a hard key. (I really like the Sony's keys along the side of the screen, I think that was a great idea.)
Overall, I'm really happy with my purchase, and I expect the Nook to pay for itself with the discounts on books and free food from the cafe. |
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