Review Barnes and Noble NOOK ebook reader
These days the e-Reader market is constantly updated. It might seem that the main feature of e-Readers is e-paper that is still produced by just a couple manufacturers, so e-Reader developers don’t really get much chance to do what the customers expect of them – lower the prices. Since it can’t be done just now, the companies are trying to attract customers by something else: improve the device case or add a special feature.
Barnes & Nobel has developed their own feature for their e-Reader: the device doesn’t only has the basic 6’’display made of e-paper but also a small 3,5’’ sensor color display.
The approach is quite simple. Sensor displays are very handy, since it greatly improves the device capabilities, such as allowing an easy search and notes.
Sony tried to solve this problem by placing sensor film right over the e-paper display. For the first time this technology was used in Sony Reader Digital Book with touch screen - PRS700, and a lot of users were greatly disappointed with it, since the text readability became visibly worse. The readability of the next model Sony Reader Touch Edition (PRS-600) was a little better, but not much – sensor film-free models still looked a lot better.
Barnes & Noble has decided to separate the two. Let the device have the basic 6’’ display, and a sensor display below it – a small box should be quite enough not to make the device much larger. The idea is quite interesting and in B&N’s credit, it’s very well thought-out.
The Nook e-Reader by Barnes & Noble is the first e-Reader that uses Google Android. This fact doesn’t mean much for the user though, since the software of the sensor display is quite basic. It could just as well be Android, Linux, Paranoid or OS/2 – doesn’t matter too much.
Case and Control
The case is just amazing. In my opinion, it’s the best I’ve seen. The front cover is made of light glossy plastic and the back – of rubberized grey plastic.
The only buttons are page-turning buttons on the left and right parts of the upper cover, and the buttons have dead surface so that finger smudges aren’t noticeable.
There’s also a long Power bottom on the upper side - nothing else.
In the lower side there are speakers, micro-USB and a universal 3,5 mm slot for the headphones.
The device fits perfectly into the hand but, to my mind, it’s a little too heavy – 317 grams.
The control is operated via the sensor display, so the right and left buttons are only used for page-turning.
The interface of the smaller display isn’t too bad – the buttons and menu items are large enough and easy to press with the finger.
The main features are all there: substring search, bookmarks, table of contents navigation. However, I was rather surprised not to be able to turn to a certain page (only to the first and last pages, and to table of contents entries) and not to be allowed to make notes in the PDF-format documents (ePub only).
Operating the Device
The power-save mode turns off the sensor display after 30 seconds of disuse (this can be changed though). You can turn it on by pressing a sensor button in the center above the lower display.
The e-Reader has 3 kinds of networks - AT&T, WiFi, 3G – which proves that it was created as the main rival to Amazon Kindle 2. The Nook is related to the range of e-Readers that are aimed at not just reading but also downloading books and other publications from the corresponding online shops – in this case, from Barnes & Noble store. The store boasts over a million books, 500,000 of which are said to be free. You can also transfer the books you bought to the iPod Touch, BlackBerry, iPhone, PC with Mac OS, and soon you’ll be able to transfer them to pocket computers that utilize Android and Windows Mobile.
The online store looks quite spectacular with its book covers in color that you can scroll on the lower display and read their summary.
The PDF format is quite well supported on the reader, but there are obvious disadvantages as well: there’s no hyphenation or text alignment and you can’t see the number of the pages since you have to press the page-turning button several times to view a single PDF page.
There’s another point that is worth mentioning: for some reason the e-Reader is terribly slow when turning the pages. The process takes much longer than on other e-Readers.
Conclusions
The device is quite interesting and has at the same time obvious advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is wireless networks support and the ability to buy books online.
Let’s list the advantages and disadvantages of the Nook.
Advantages:
- a great case
- superb design
- a nice way out with the lower color display
- good controllability
- convenient page-turning buttons
- ability to buy and download books directly to the e-Reader
Disadvantages:
- no FB2 or Word format support
- weak software
- rather heavy
- slow page-turning
- strange PDF-format display
- can’t make notes in all the formats
In the US the device costs $259 – quite reasonable for a product with these functions and capabilities for this country. However, let’s wait and see if Barnes & Noble creates another device with better software, more formats and without any network support.
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