Kindle vs Nook - How Nook Color Changes the Game
A glowing touch screen and an expanded market make things interesting
The battle of Kindle vs Nook seems to be a constantly changing landscape in which each contender seeks to one-up the other. Amazon definitely achieved this with their latest Kindle release, which boasts tremendous speed on a sleek, thin device. However, as Barnes and Noble released the new Nook Color, the marketplace just became even more competitive.
Priced at $250, the new Nook color shows a departure from the original Nook's approach. Before, deciding on the Kindle or Nook was a fairly difficult decision because both products were essentially the same. But today, the Nook made itself a different type of product, making the matter more a question of what type of user you are, instead of which device you want to buy.
The Nook Color has a crisp design made by Yves Behar and features a great 7 inch display with touchscreen capabilities. The device has great hardware inside it, making it quick to respond. It is able to feature color and touchscreen capabilities because it has moved away from e-ink in order to use an LCD screen, which means rich colors but a significantly lower battery life. As such, if you go on trips, you will need to bring your charger for sure.
Where the Nook Color really differentiates itself from the Amazon Kindle is in its use of the rich colored screen. Magazines can now be read on the device in full color, with great features, making this the device to own if you're interested in periodicals. It also features a ton of features for childrens books, including a "read to me" option in which a narrator will read the book to your child, and animations in the pictures. As such, if you've got a family with young children, the Nook color easily becomes the best eReader to own.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how Barnes & Noble expands the device. It currently runs a little slow with videos, and for many it won't even play. It also could stand to have an operating system upgrade to the newer versions of Android which would show further performance improvements. Otherwise, the issues with the device are about what would be expected from a device using a color screen. The battery life isn't as long, lasting about a day of active use, and the device is now susceptible to glare. However, if these issues don't affect you, the new Nook color offers a product that fits nicely between the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad, at an affordable price.
You can watch a video that demonstrates the new features of the Barnes and Noble on the page here. Take a look and let us know what you think of Barnes and Noble's change in direction.
