Nook vs Kindle vs Real Books
By Verena Block, a Nookboards.com and Kindleboards.com member.
Many first time e-book reader purchasers may be surprised to find that using their new device is not as easy to use as advertised. To begin, I want to state it simply:
If you are afraid of using external PC/Mac drives...
If digital file formats confuse you (think .mp3)...
If you cannot read a user manual or search with Google...
... you might be better off sticking with books for the time being.
An e-book reader is, in essence, a little computer, and it has all the glitches you will find in a computer. It will lock up on you. There are incompatible file formats. Lots of them. You may need to load a file from your PC onto your e-reader (do you know what the root directory is?). These are just a few of the things that freak out the non-techies.
That said, if you feel you can handle a few device errors now and again - and have a love of reading - an e-book reader is a splendid device, and will enhance your reading experience.
So which e-Reader is superior? The Nook or the Kindle?
Here are a few of the major advantages of the Kindle over the Nook:
1. Amazon still has more contemporary books available, and their pricing is still better.
2. The user interface. Don’t be fooled by the pretty little display under the nook screen, it is not nearly as efficient a user interface as the archaic buttons on the Kindle. Things that only take one or two steps on the Kindle can take up to five on the Nook, and then you have to wait for the pretty screen to refresh and hope that you pressed the right button. Sure, Android is the operating system of the future, and someday the nook will do wonderful things! But not today.
3. The dictionary on the Kindle is not only better than on the nook, but it is so much easier to look up a word. Just move the little toggle switch to the front of the word, and the definition appears at the bottom of the page. On the nook, it takes five very slow steps. (As someone who likes to frequently look up words, I do it often on my Kindle, and never on my nook.)
4. I’ve heard all of the Amazon DRM arguments, and the open ePub arguments, and I am still not convinced that Amazon is the great Satan. They are a publicly held company, and in the business of making money and selling Kindles. I can’t really blame them for having a proprietary hold on their e-books. The fact that you can now read any book you have purchased on your PC, soon on your Mac, and now on an iPhone/iPod Touch or Blackberry makes the whole if you drop your Kindle your e-books are gone argument worthless.
Heck, my husband bashed his first Kindle with a bottle of wine. The only thing I lost was a nice Kindle (thankfully the wine bottle was unharmed). Also, I know that B&N has said that they would open up their DRM so their e-books can be read on other devices including the Sonys, but until that happens, they are on the same DRM footing as Amazon.
5. The Kindle is less prone to freezing.
6. The Kindle lists all of your e-books (and other documents) in one spot. Nook splits out B&N purchases from everything else.
Many first time e-book reader purchasers may be surprised to find that using their new device is not as easy to use as advertised. To begin, I want to state it simply:
If you are afraid of using external PC/Mac drives...
If digital file formats confuse you (think .mp3)...
If you cannot read a user manual or search with Google...
... you might be better off sticking with books for the time being.
An e-book reader is, in essence, a little computer, and it has all the glitches you will find in a computer. It will lock up on you. There are incompatible file formats. Lots of them. You may need to load a file from your PC onto your e-reader (do you know what the root directory is?). These are just a few of the things that freak out the non-techies.
That said, if you feel you can handle a few device errors now and again - and have a love of reading - an e-book reader is a splendid device, and will enhance your reading experience.
So which e-Reader is superior? The Nook or the Kindle?
Here are a few of the major advantages of the Kindle over the Nook:
1. Amazon still has more contemporary books available, and their pricing is still better.
2. The user interface. Don’t be fooled by the pretty little display under the nook screen, it is not nearly as efficient a user interface as the archaic buttons on the Kindle. Things that only take one or two steps on the Kindle can take up to five on the Nook, and then you have to wait for the pretty screen to refresh and hope that you pressed the right button. Sure, Android is the operating system of the future, and someday the nook will do wonderful things! But not today.
3. The dictionary on the Kindle is not only better than on the nook, but it is so much easier to look up a word. Just move the little toggle switch to the front of the word, and the definition appears at the bottom of the page. On the nook, it takes five very slow steps. (As someone who likes to frequently look up words, I do it often on my Kindle, and never on my nook.)
4. I’ve heard all of the Amazon DRM arguments, and the open ePub arguments, and I am still not convinced that Amazon is the great Satan. They are a publicly held company, and in the business of making money and selling Kindles. I can’t really blame them for having a proprietary hold on their e-books. The fact that you can now read any book you have purchased on your PC, soon on your Mac, and now on an iPhone/iPod Touch or Blackberry makes the whole if you drop your Kindle your e-books are gone argument worthless.
Heck, my husband bashed his first Kindle with a bottle of wine. The only thing I lost was a nice Kindle (thankfully the wine bottle was unharmed). Also, I know that B&N has said that they would open up their DRM so their e-books can be read on other devices including the Sonys, but until that happens, they are on the same DRM footing as Amazon.
5. The Kindle is less prone to freezing.
6. The Kindle lists all of your e-books (and other documents) in one spot. Nook splits out B&N purchases from everything else.
- article continues below....
Here are a few things that are pretty much equal on both:
1. The display on the Kindle and Nook are exactly the same; dimensions, manufacturer, everything. The only thing that makes reading on the nook slightly better is having a choice of font; but with a simple hack you can have a choice of fonts on your Kindle as well.
2. Buying books from Amazon and B&N is very easy, whether you do it from the device, or from the web.
Here is the one major benefit of the Nook:
You can purchase e-books from a variety of sources, including Fictionwise - which can be a great value if you purchase a lot of books and have the patience to work the system - and Kobo, which often has very good coupon deals.
Hopefully you are an organized sort that can keep good track of what you purchased; the possibility of buying repeats is much better than if you stick only to B&N. Myself, I am the proud owner of My Fearful Symmetry from two different sources that I purchased within a few days of each other (I keep much better track now).
To summarize, if you want to compare prices and have the option of purchasing books from other sources, you can overlook the horrid dictionary on the Nook and the multi-step processes, have no issues with connecting your nook to your PC, and just know that Android is someday going to make the Nook the most advanced e-book reader, go Nook. If you just want to simply purchase and read a book, get a Kindle. For most people (who are not overly technical), my current recommendation is the Kindle.
PS - In the event that you decide purchase a Kindle or Nook, do yourself a favor and join a user forum, such as kindleboards.com and nookboards.com where you can get answers to the questions you inevitably will have.
1. The display on the Kindle and Nook are exactly the same; dimensions, manufacturer, everything. The only thing that makes reading on the nook slightly better is having a choice of font; but with a simple hack you can have a choice of fonts on your Kindle as well.
2. Buying books from Amazon and B&N is very easy, whether you do it from the device, or from the web.
Here is the one major benefit of the Nook:
You can purchase e-books from a variety of sources, including Fictionwise - which can be a great value if you purchase a lot of books and have the patience to work the system - and Kobo, which often has very good coupon deals.
Hopefully you are an organized sort that can keep good track of what you purchased; the possibility of buying repeats is much better than if you stick only to B&N. Myself, I am the proud owner of My Fearful Symmetry from two different sources that I purchased within a few days of each other (I keep much better track now).
To summarize, if you want to compare prices and have the option of purchasing books from other sources, you can overlook the horrid dictionary on the Nook and the multi-step processes, have no issues with connecting your nook to your PC, and just know that Android is someday going to make the Nook the most advanced e-book reader, go Nook. If you just want to simply purchase and read a book, get a Kindle. For most people (who are not overly technical), my current recommendation is the Kindle.
PS - In the event that you decide purchase a Kindle or Nook, do yourself a favor and join a user forum, such as kindleboards.com and nookboards.com where you can get answers to the questions you inevitably will have.