eBook Reader Comparison

eBook Reader Comparison:

So I get a lot of people asking me about eReaders and which one they should choose.  My answer is usually the same to everyone. It depends on what you want from your reader.  For this posts intents and purposes we will just go over the big dogs. Kindle, Nook and in small detail the iPad.

I personally own the Kindle 3G Keyboard and the Kindle Fire (1^st generation 8 gig)

I owned for a short period the Nook Color

When looking into purchasing a eReader the first thing you want to ask yourself is, what are you going to be doing with the reader? Are you only going to be reading or do you want to be able to do other things such as search the web and play games? Be honest with yourself because this can save you a lot of money.

I have both the Kindle and the Fire, I use both but when I am reading I much prefer the regular Kindle to read on. For the following reasons:

• It’s lighter weight wise
• The screen looks more like actual paper
• The screen is easier on the eye without the backlight
• Longer battery usage

And now with the touch and glow screens you can tap to move to the next page and the screen will light up for reading in darker places. So you don’t need the backlit screen for darker rooms.

When choosing between Nook and Kindle there are a few things to keep in mind.

• Either seller option you are going to be entrenching yourself into that bookseller.  Amazon books don’t work on the Nook and Nook books won’t work on the Kindle.  They have two different file extensions.  The EPUB for NOOK and MOBI for Kindle.  So if you choose Amazon today, your books purchased on Amazon will not transfer over to Nook if you decide to switch later.
• Typically the prices of books between the two are the same or pretty similar but on occasion Amazon will discount the books further for a temporary period, but for the most part the publisher or author in the case of self-published dictate the price.  
• What is nice about the Nook is you can buy EPUBs from other sources, such as directly from the publisher and download them to your Nook reader. Sometimes the other sources will have MOBI extension files as well but EPUB is more universal.

Both Nook and Kindle have/can do the following:

• Loan certain (This is publisher specified) books to other users of the same device.
• Set up “Shelves” to organize your books.
• Read PDF’s on device.
• Long battery life

What I have noticed between Nook and Kindle, I prefer the screen on Kindle. The screen is more crisp and looks more true to an actual book page. Also, if you go with one of the devices where the screen lights up, the Kindle light system in my personal opinion is nicer. It has a more consistent glow throughout the screen. The Nook tends to lose a bit of light in the middle.

Advice:

When choosing between the two I suggest that you one check with your reader friends to see what they are reading on. As earlier mentioned you can only loan to people on the same device so if most of your friends are on one device it might be better to flock to that device so you can share. “Sharing is caring” and all of that. 

Also take a look at both websites to compare Nook Books to Kindle Books. Look at prices and availability. See if your favorite authors are available in both and compare the prices. Also check out the freebies. They should be comparable, but they may not.

When choosing between Kindle Devices:

The cheapest option is a great option. My friend got one and I hooked her device up. It is super light and small. The screen looks just like the other Kindles so you are not losing quality there.  The ads at the bottom are very unobtrusive. The only problem with this one is if you are going to setting up a lot of shelves you have to scroll through all of the lettering so that can be a pain in the rear.  

When choosing between keyboard and touch that’s really personal preference. I have the keyboard and I really like having the buttons when I am typing something out on it. Touch the keyboard will expand up much like your smart phone. The Keyboard is going to be a bit larger but I don’t mind it. It gives me more area to grab. With the touch you have to make sure you stay on the edges or you can start flipping screens.

I don’t believe the Nook has a keyboard option anymore and they are all touch screen.

Tablets:

Ok so if you decided that you are going to want the tablet. I actually strongly suggest the Kindle Fire tablet. The reason is access to Amazon and all of its goodies. Amazon has an extensive movie/music content and app collection. There are lots of free Apps available. The apps that are free in the Amazon store are not always free on Barnes and Nobles App store. Angry Birds is like $3 on BnN along with some other popular apps like Bejeweled. These are free on Amazon. I don’t think there are any downloadable movies from BnN where on Amazon there are thousands. Amazon also has extensive music, I get lots of free music from amazon all the time. You can also upload from your iTunes to Amazon cloud to get access to that music. With the Amazon Fire you are getting a full range of entertainment with your Fire. The iPad is the only one that is going to compare here, in my humble opinion, but you are going to pay for it.

The Nook does have expandable memory slots which the Kindle does not have but the Amazon does have the Amazon cloud which backs up all your Amazon content for free and you can get additional content back up for free or buy some cloud space.

The Nook tablet does have a nice screen it’s pretty clear and precise. I haven’t put the Fire next to the Nook to compare the screens, but at a glance they are pretty comparable. It also allows you to create profiles at least from what I could see from the commercials. I had the Nook Color for about a week and when I downloaded some content to the library it went crazy! It started flipping pages, switching apps, turning on and off. I then exchanged it and the next Nook Color I got did the same thing. So I may be biased but I was less than impressed with the Nook tablet/color.

If you are entrenched in the iWorld the iPad is worth looking at. They have the iPad mini now with a semi reasonable price tag. If you are entrenched in the iWorld you know how hard it is to get out of it. Everything is linked up there; your music, your pictures, videos, everything. I know they have a book store but I am not sure what their book store looks like as I tend to avoid the iWorld. But the good thing with the iPad is you can download both the Kindle and Nook apps to have access to their libraries.

Click on the pictures to get to the Kindle pages on Amazon: