Which eReader

The Nook Color is a table developed by Barnes & Noble as direct competition to the Amazon Kindle Fire.

 

 

So, what’s special about the Nook Color?

First off, the Nook Color has a 7 inch color touch screen that is capable of displaying 16 million colors.  The display is high-resolution with a dpi (if you’re interested in that kind of stuff!) of 169 pixels per inch (ppi).  The screen has been fully laminated which Barnes & Noble say helps to reduce glare so that you are able to read inside or outside as you wish.  The anti-glare coating does work and although there’s still some reflectivity it’s not all that noticable, I was able to read the Nook Color outside in broad daylight without much trouble.

Color images in magazines, children’s books and travel guides are really great and I was amazed at how the screen performs in low-light (e.g. an aircraft cabin) without it causing eye strain.  However, although you can watch videos and movies, but they aren’t as rich as on an iPad.  At maximum brightness the screen did hurt my eyes, but the brightness control is easy enough to adjust.

The Nook Color comes with very few actual buttons: volume controls on the right, a power button on the left, and the “N” logo below the screen that serves as your Home button. All other navigation comes via the touch screen.  The touch screen works well although I did notice a little lag on occasion, particularly when typing.

 

 

The Size

The size of the Nook Color is  8.1″ high by 5.0″ in width with a depth of just 0.48″ which is bigger than the Kindle.  Unlike the plastic wafer feel of traditional e-readers, the Nook Color feels like the slab of aluminum and glass that it is.

 

The Weight

The Nook Color weighs in at just 15.8 ounces.  It’s light enough to carry around without feeling it too much and you can still use it one-handed.

 

The battery

I guess the battery is pretty important and Barnes & Noble state that you can read for 8 hours without recharging. However, what Barnes & Noble are less clear about is how long that battery will last if you are checking email, surfing the web or playing games.  But, in my experience if you read for more than a few hours a day, you should plan on charging daily. You can extend the battery life a bit by turning WiFi off and only turning it on when you want to download a new book or check your mail.

Charging time is listed at about 3 hours but in my experience it’s been slightly less than this.  One thing to note though: Make sure you bring your charger wherever you go. Although the Nook Color looks like it has a standard micro USB port, I could only get it to charge with the Nook AC adapter. After doing a bit of research it seems that the cable that comes with the Nook Color has a few extra pins in it, to enable faster charging…not so convenient if you forget the cable, or it breaks!

 

 

How do I get my books?

The Barnes & Noble Ebook Store has over 2.5 million books, including 194 of the 205 current New York Times bestsellers. The company has signed up a whole load of newspapers and magazine providers, including The Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire and National Geographic. Magazines come through with the layout and images intact. You can read them as a full page or in article view, which re-flows an individual story into a more readable template.

So, how do you go about getting all of that?  At most places you’ll see this bit talked about as ‘Connectivity’. The Nook Color comes with Wi-Fi.

So, you connect up your Nook to a Wi-Fi network. Lots of people now have Wi-Fi networks set up in their offices and even in their homes. There’s also free Wi-Fi networks popping up all over the place, Barnes & Noble say that they have free WiFi in all their stores, but I’m guessing that’s free for anyone (even Kindle users!) rather than just Nook users!  But everyone from Starbucks to MacDonalds, libraries, public buildings, restaurants even some shops have them. So, even if you don’t have access to a Wi-Fi network in your own home or workplace, you may still be able to get by by going for the odd coffee everytime you want to download a new book!!

The third way is via a computer. Every Nook Color sold comes with a cable that allows you to connect your Nook to a computer for charging purposes (either a PC or Mac…it doesn’t matter). The other way to put books onto your Nook is to ‘drag’ them there! When you connect your Nook to your computer, your computer just sees your Nook as an ‘external storage device’. You can download your ebooks from Barnes & Nobel, store them on your computer and then click and drag them to your connected Noble. This is the way you would get non-Barnes & Noble stuff on your Nook too.

 

 

Games and Apps

The Nook Color runs a version of Android 2.1, but does that mean it supports Android apps? Yes and no. The Nook Color does not access the Android marketplace directly so don’t expect all the apps that you have on your smartphone to be available, but Barnes and Noble has ported some Android apps to the platform.  Barnes & Nobles reason for this is that they expect the primary purpose of the Nook Color is to be reading, which probably explains why movies and sound are not all that great.  That being said, the Nook Color comes pre-loaded with Pandora internet radio, Chess, Crossword, Sudoku, Media Gallery, NOOK Friends and Email, but you also have access to lots of free and pay-for apps (applications) including ‘Angry Birds’, Weather Apps, News, Scrabble and many, many more.

 

Sound

The Nook has sound capabilities which include an audio jack so that you can listen to your movies or music with headphones.  If you want to listen without headphones there’s a built in mono speaker.  However, the sound is not as good as on an iPad or a Kindle Fire, probably due to it being a mono speaker rather than stereo.  Also, because the speaker is at the back, I found it a problem with the Nook laid down on my lap.

 

Why would you go for the Nook Color instead of one of the others?

The Nook Color is a really nice gadget and seems really well integrated.  I guess one of the definite advantages of the Nook Color over say the Amazon Kindle Fire is that there are Barnes & Noble shops everywhere offering free support so if you’re having problems you just pop in and someone will take a look at it for you.

 

If you would like to see a more in-depth Nook Color vs Amazon Kindle Fire just click the link

 

Plus Points

Barnes & Noble offer free support in their shops.

Memory is expandable – you can add up to 32 GB with a microSD™ card

Comes with a Power Adapter/Charger

Parental controls to easily disable the Web browser

 

Downsides

Only a mono speaker which isn’t going to sound all that great when your listening to movies or music

Only supports one standard of WiFi so you’re not going to be able to connect in as many places as the Kindle Fire.  If you have a home Wifi in place you should check to make sure you have an N-type wireless home router otherwise you may have problems…Older types of WiFi are particularly problematic…if this is your situation you may be better off with a Kindle as they support a much larger variety of WiFi network.

No 3G…you can only download books when you are attached to a Wi-Fi network.

Must use the cable that comes with the Nook Color.

If you live outside of the US or Canada, don’t buy it!!!! E-book purchases can only be made from a location inside the US or Canada.

 

If you’d like to check out more information about the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, click here for the all the details.

 

 

Do you have a Nook Color?

I would love to hear your comments and opinions on the Nook Color. Please click the button below and let me know your thoughts

 

For the Techies…

(Thought I’d put this in here in for completeness sakes!)

Display	Ultra-responsive 7-inch multi-touch screen displays 16 million colors ultra-bright.High resolution display — 1024 X 600, 169 pixels per inch (PPI)Full lamination process reduces glare and optimizes brightness — read indoors or outside
Size (in inches)	Height: 8.1 inches Width: 5.0 inches Depth: 0.48 inches
Weight	15.8 ounces.
System Requirements	None, because it’s wireless and doesn’t require a computer to download content.
On-device Storage	8GB (up to 5,000 books) built-in memory (6GB available for content, Expandable storage up to 32GB with microSD memory card
Battery Life	Read for up to 8 hours without recharging with wireless off
Charge Time	Fully charges in approximately 3 hours via the included USB 2.0 cable connected to a computer. or the supplied Power Adapter.
Wi-Fi Connectivity	Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use the 802.11b/g/n standard.
Fast Processor	800 MHz TI processor with 512 MB RAM
USB Port	USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
Audio	3.5 mm stereo audio jack, mono speaker
Content Formats Supported	EPUB (including Non or Adobe DRM) or PDF file types,CBZ, XLS, DOC, PPT, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, PPSM, DOCX, XLX, PPT, MP4 or Adobe Flash Player forma, MP3, AAC, Load photos and create personal wallpaper: JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Documentation	Quick Start Guide (included in box)
Included in the Box	Nook Color, USB 2.0 cable, and Quick Start Guide. Power adapter.