Kindle 3 Vs Nook color: Product review

Kindle 3 Vs Nook color: Product reviews

In every good e-reader, all will look for 5 main things , before I purchase. This list same, irrespective of Nook color came out of not!

Cost for the reader (Kindle wins) & the ebooks I download (Neutral)
Storage space (Nook wins)
Battery life (Kindle wins)
Look & feel (Neutral. On color, Nook wins)
Weight (Kindle wins)

I looked at the two most competing e-reader categories - Kindle 3 & Nook color. Here is the details & summary of what I found... Hope it is useful to you. The color screen aspect was a BIG mental blocker, but I didn't really want to get too emotional about it, as for reading books b/w is good enough, seriously! But BN.com has clearly built the nook to have this edge for sometime before Kindle color comes, and have built it more for other things. But you have to pay 110$ for the extras you get. If you are a serious book reader, who is looking at book reading only, Kindle is good enough. Else, nook will double up as a quick laptop too with its internet, Quick office features etc.

Kindle 3: Advantages

Kindle beats heads-down Nook color in battery life (without WiFi: 1month Vs 8 hours), and the Kindle reader is cheaper by 110 bucks ($139 Vs $249). But you would have to spend money in shipping your favorite Kindle, but you can ship a Nook for free. Or you can buy an additional $25 worth of Super saver shipping items from Amazon, and get Kindle shipped for free. I don't really bother about the extra $15 (or the shipping cost) I might have to spend here. The Kindle looks good, sleek and lighter than the Nook, and this is something important for me to consider, esp. since I will be taking it out with me. Kindle is half the weight than the Nook and I love it, esp. because an ereader should feel like a book!

Nook advantages

Nook seems to beat Kindle in terms of free shipping & book selections, in addition to BIG space (6GB Vs 3BG), and most importantly the COLOR! But I don't really bother about those, as I have all my books in Amazon Library. If you are Chess or sudoku buff, then you get these apps with the Nook. It has a color touch pad at the bottom too. Using Nook for Browsing the web, emailing and Quick office needs will be useful.

Neutral

In both, you might have to spend about $9.99 per book, they seem to have played it neutral here.

Our decision

No brainer for us, Kindle 3 is my e-reader, as it scores over Nook on 4 of 5 critical things for me.

Buy/ NOW:

	Kindle WiFi	Nook color
Cost
Price	$139	$249
Shipping	No, by default. But buy super saver items for $25	FREE

Product details
Weight	8.5 ounces (241 grams)	15.8 ounces
Screen size	6" diagonal	7" diagonal
Overall size	7.5" x 4.8" x 0.335"	8.1" x 5" x 0.48"
Warranty	1yr limited warrantly and service	1yr standard warranty

Network connectivity
WiFi
WiFi connectivity	Yes	Yes.
Free WiFi access	Yes. At AT&T hotspots.	At BN stores
3G	No	No

Power options
Battery life
WiFi off	1+ month	8hrs
WiFi on	3 weeks
Charging
USB	Yes	Yes.
Power adaptor	Yes	Yes.
Full charge time	~4.5hrs with adaptor	3hrs with adaptor

Reading experience
Heating up	No
Under sunlight	Easy	Easy
Storage	~3500 ebooks (~3GB for users of total 4GB)	6000 books (8GB)
Archive	All books bought from Kindle store are archived in your Kindle library.		Micro SD support
Narrator	Yes	No.
PDF support	Yes. Native	Yes. Native
Views	Both potrait & landscape	Both potrait & landscape
Microsoft .doc support	Mail to Kindle Id and view it.	Native support for editing also.

Native Localized text support
Chinese (Trad & Simplified)	Yes
Japanese	Yes
Korean	Yes
Cyrillic (such as Russian)	Yes
Greek	Yes
Latin	Yes

Selections
Best sellers	107 of 111 New York times best sellers
Total books	670,000+ ebooks	2,000,000+ ebooks
Book prices	80% books @ $9.99	Many at $9.99
Best sellers prices	65% @ $9.99
Free books	Pre-1923's 1.8million books	Yes. Read-in at store
Free samples	Yes. Read first few chapters free	Yes

Other Features
Ebooks sharing		Yes
Web surfing & check emails		Yes
Wikipedia access	Yes	Yes. Through browser
Dictionary	Yes. Inbuilt New Oxford American Dictionary	Yes. Inbuilt Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary
Sharing in Facebook	Yes	Yes
Sharing in Twitter	Yes	Yes
Play Games		Yes. Chess & Sudoku
MP3 play	Yes	Yes
Office		Quick Office