nookie

After eight months, I sold my Barnes and Noble nook on Ebay and I am now back with Sony -- using their new Sony Reader Touch Edition (PRS-650). 
The history behind the nook is a bit silly, but it goes something like this:  I had the Sony Reader PRS-505 (6" screen) and it was really awesome. When the PRS-300 came out, I thought that it would be more convenient to have a 5" screen device because I could take it with me anywhere. But, as it turned out, I didn't like the 5" screen -- mainly because I ended up having to turn pages too much. I wanted to get another 6" device, but Sony at that point had released the PRS-600 which had a horrible touch screen -- a resistive layer on top of the Eink screen that made the screen muddled. And, that's why I went with a nook.

Did I like the nook? Yea, it is a good machine with some really good qualities, but it also has some drawbacks that I did not like. Would I recommend it? A definite "yes" to all of those people that want an easy-to-use standalone device that is open to books not just from Barnes and Noble, but also from other ebook sellers like the Sony Reader Store and Kobo. And also, a device that can read ebooks from your local library. 

Here are some of my thoughts about the nook...

Wins

• Standalone device that makes buying ebooks, magazines and newspapers uber-easy. There's no need for a PC. You set everything up from the nook and you're ready to go. 
• Low price for entry -- $149 for the basic Wifi version.
• Open. Don't want to buy ebooks from Barnes and Noble? Go buy them from any ebook store that supports Adobe Digital Editions -- like Sony Reader Store or Kobo. Don't want to spend money on ebooks and just want to check some out? If your library has Overdrive, then you're in luck.
• Color capacitive screen. While it seems gimmicky at first, the color touchscreen is actually quite useful. As Eink screens are slow to refresh, putting some stuff that needs to change a lot on the small color screen really makes a difference.
• Expandable. The nook comes with a 2GB microSDHC card. If you feel like you really need to carry more than 1,500 books (or want to carry some music and pictures), then you can easily pop open the back and replace the card with a larger one.
• User-replaceable battery. You don't find this much anymore, but you can replace the battery for the nook. Though this process needs a small eye-glasses screwdriver to remove and replace the battery. Why did Barnes and Noble go with a battery that needs to be screwed down, I have no idea.
• Firmware upgrades. Barnes and Noble may have released the nook prematurely and saddled it with slow page turns and lots of other issues. Surely, but slowly, through firmware upgrades they ironed out most of that. When I sold my nook, it was at firmware version 1.4 and the page turns were snappy (though not as snappy as the current Pearl screens) and BN just added more features. Firmware 1.5 is supposed to make things even better. The Sony PRS-505 has received all of one firmware release in its life. The other Sony Readers have none. This could show that Sony has pretty stable firmware, but it also shows that BN cares enough to release new features to its hardware and Sony does not.

• Weight. The nook is heavy for an ereader at 3/4lbs -- especially when compared to the Sony PRS-650 at less than 1/2lbs. Add a cover to the nook and you're looking at holding a pound of machinery in order to read books.
• Fonts. The nook includes three fonts to choose from and a few sizes to use. I found that I did not like any of the fonts on the nook. There are two serif fonts and one sans serif. The variable spaced serif font was too light for me. The monospaced serif font was the one I used most, only because it was the one I could stand. And I don't like reading books in sans serif.
• Shoddy buttons. If you look at the MobileRead Forums, you'll see that one of the big complaints about the nook are the buttons. The page-turn buttons on both sides of the device are actually hollowed areas of the plastic bezel. You push down on the bezel and it clicks a button underneath. The bezel has a slight bow to it, click it enough and you get a cracked bezel. The way to avoid cracked bezels? Swipe on the touchscreen to turn pages.
• Dual-screens. While the touchscreen is nice, it is also largely disconnected from the top Eink screen -- and there are a lot of actions that require you to look at the top screen, while maneuvering using the bottom screen. This takes a little getting used to. Also, there is a general lag when doing something on the bottom screen and waiting for the top Eink screen to catch up.
• Short battery-life. I can use my Sony for hours at a time and then leave it sitting for days on end. When I turn it back on, the battery still does move. This is not true with the nook. Even with the radios turned off, the nook leaks power like mad and needs constant charging. When you're using the nook, it saps power even worse -- especially if you have to use the touchscreen.
• My Library vs My Documents. Barnes and Noble, while leaving the nook open for your own ebooks, separates them from the books that you buy from BN. So, you get two different "folders" for stuff. There is no way to browse all your ebooks all at once.
• Grouping. If you do have quite a few books loaded on the device, there is no way to group the books. There is no way to skip to a specific place -- want to get to books that start with "M", you have to go page after page from "A" to "M". Kind of sucks. Want to separate out your technical ebooks from your science fiction from your horror vampire fiction? Too bad. For a device that can hold 1,500 books, they sure make it hard to get around.
• Extra stuff. With firmware 1.4, BN added a webbrowser that can only be used only on Wifi connections (the Kindle allows browsing over Wifi and 3G for free). BN also added games. None of this stuff is really useful on a reading device. The webbrowser is slow and near unusable (especially since it is driven from the tiny touchscreen). The games, well why would I want to play games on a slow refresh screen like an Eink screen?