November 3, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team
Hardly a year after Barnes & Noble released the Nook, the Nook Color came to fruition and was said it would blow away its big competitor, Amazon’s Kindle. But it looks as if the new B&N love child is already receiving a mixture of yays and nays throughout the e-reader community.
An obvious advantage of the Nook Color is, of course, its LCD colored screen, which is ideal for picture heavy books. The downside to this is the inability to read in direct sunlight. Amazon’s Kindle, which has an “e-ink” screen is designed to work just fine when exposed to the sun’s UAV’s.
When it comes to battery life, the Kindle has no competition. With a charge of up to thirty days, the Kindle can be regarded as a true mobile device, ideal for long intervals of no electricity. The Nook on the other hand can only sustain a battery life of around 8 hours, which just doesn’t seem like enough time to finish The Situation’s new novel.
With a backing of one of the largest book retailers the Nook Color has two million titles to choose from. The Kindle on the other hand, though backed by monster online retailer Amazon, only has 725,000 available readings.
The Nook Color racks up another point against the Kindle for its storage capabilities. The Nook Color weighs in with a hefty eight gigabytes of storage, whereas the Kindle consists of a lightweight four gigabyte capacity. This alone may be a large factor in an avid reader’s buying decision.
Doubling as a video player, the Nook Color rises up one more peg above the Kindle. This is of course based on the factor that Google’s Android doesn’t become obsolete within the next few years. And since Google is currently under lawsuit from two different groups because of Android, buyer beware.
Because the Nook Color and Kindle are built and designed around mobility, size and weight are large factors in a purchase decision. The Kindle weighs 8.7 ounces. The Nook Color is the heftier model at 15.8 ounces. The Kindle is 7.5 inches by 4.8 inches by .335 inch. A Nook Color is 8.1 inches by 5 inches by .48 inch.
Price will probably be the end all be all in deciding on which e-reader to purchase. Online sales for the Kindle run around $189 for 3G + WiFi and only $139 for the WiFi version (most comparable to the Nook) and the Nook Color is $249. Ultimately it’s a decision on how much or how little a person wants to do with their e-reader.
A native of Montana, Charlie is a proud graduate of Washington State University. When he wasn't enjoying his independence from parental guidance, Charlie studied advertising, with a fancy toward social media. If he's not writing, Charlie's gaming online or studying the fine art of karaoke at popular dojos like Ozzies and the Butler.
Besides that your picture is incorrect and shows the original Nook instead of Nook Color, and shows Kindle 2 instead of Kindle 3…
Googler, you’re a real person?
I figured you were just a macro programmed by Barnes and Noble to post the comment below on every Nook Color article.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that- it really does help clarify what the new device is.
No, I’m as real as you are, we both are pre-programmed at birth.
The Nook Color will not run apps straight out of the Android Market, but that does not mean it cannot run them. In fact, they have done a lot of tests on apps from standard Android smartphones and they pretty much run on Nook Color, which has Android 2.1 under the hood. (The Nook native interface and apps are just standard Android application layers.) Barnes & Noble special Nook SDK runs on top of the standard Android one and gives developers access to exclusive extensions and APIs for the Nook and its interface. So porting Android apps is not difficult. B&N says it is more like optimising them for Nook than porting them.
Nook Color screen is supposed to be better (less reflective) for reading than iPad as it’s using a new LG screen with anti-reflection coating.
It allows to play video, listen to the music, view Office documents and PDF’s.
If you prefer eInk screen, original Nook is still available.
I love the color; Stunning
Why does every article posted list B&N with 2M+ books, and Amazon with only 725K.
It takes a few minutes of research to figure out that B&N includes ‘free’ public domain books in it’s 2M number and Amazon does not. Amazon has 1.8M public domain books (free) available for the Kindle, in addition to the 725,000 books that you can buy. That’s 2.5M for Amazon, and around 2M for B&N.
Since they are both wireless devices, those numbers reflect the number of titles available for wireless downloading on their respective devices. It appears B&N is using this as a strategy for book lovers, researchers, etc., giving them access to free content, wirelessly.
Also, B&N has a service called Pubit that allows people to publish their own ebook. That expands the service.
About the article content. It would be a much more fair comparison to examine Nook 3G to the Kindle since they are more similar devices (both being e-ink and such). Personally, I think Nookcolor is of a new breed of ereader. I have one on preorder, I’m excited about it. =)
Yet another writer who doesn’t do their research.
As Todd reports, Amazon does not count public domain titles and B&N does. Amazon has far more books written in the last seventy years and are still under copywrite than B&N has, and Amazon has access to 1.8 million public domain books.
Available content is a point to Amazon.
By the way, you listed NookColor’s LCD screen as an advantage. Some people find backlit screens hard to read, and others don’t want finger prints over their reading material.
The LCD screen is a draw.
Actually, the prints on the LCD screen may not be an issue. This particular screen is Vivid View and has a laminate over it to prevent some of the glare of typical LCDs. Also it has a 178 degree visibility, and while I’m not sure if that matters in the great thing of finger prints…there will also be the little covers that will prevent that.
I dont understand how nookcolor is being compared to kindle. a better comparison would be nookcolor vs ipad. The kindle has a e-ink screen and should be compared to the original nook, which also has a e-ink screen.
Actually Todd and Jow the above figures are quite accurate, give or take a couple thousand. When Amazon says “free” reading and public domain it most likely means only the first chapter of the book is available to the public for free. After that the book has to be purchased.
If you two are going to berate someone else’s article I suggest you take four minutes to do your research and double check the sources. As an executive of an outsource research firm that specializes in marketing trends and social media I can see what this article is implying.
I can tell you two are probably young gentlemen fresh to the e-commerce world. I commend you on your valiant efforts of attempting to discredit an article, because nothing is more frustrating than receiving falsified information. But like I said double check your sources and where they’re coming from.
Oh, and Jow if you re-read the part about the LCD screen you would see that it does state its downfall.
Now keep it up fellas, but CHECK WHO YOUR GETTING INFO FROM!
thanks!
>When Amazon says “free” reading and public domain it most likely means only the first chapter of the book is available to the public for free”
Wrong. You are being confused with book samples.
>If you two are going to berate someone else’s article I suggest you take four minutes to do your research and double check the sources. As an executive of an outsource research firm that specializes in marketing trends and social media I can see what this article is implying
An executive who doesn’t know what one is talking about. Typical.
IMHO, both you and whoever wrote this article demonstrate serious ignorance on the subject matter.
Media Beat 12-6-10 …..”Google boasts a bigger library than the rest with 3 million titles (including some 2 million free public domain titles), compared to Barnes and Noble’s 2 million (with public domain titles) and Amazon’s 750,000 (not including public domain).”
When I can read in color on planes trains and automobiles for a week at a time without looking for a power outlet I’ll consider the product. It would be nice if Kindle read ePub and if B&N sold Mobi or Amz, at least as far as DRM goes. Otherwise, that’s what Calibre is for.
Really? You’re comparing Nookcolor and Kindle? That’s silly. A more apt comparison would be nook 3G and Kindle. Or Nookcolor and ipad. Did they pay you for this? God, that hurts.
Agreed, though only comparing it to iPad’s reading functionality. Nookcolor, though it will have some extra functionality will not be a comparable mobile computer. It’s built for the reader, first. But yeah, the author should look up Nook 3G and understand the difference.
All I’m going to say is: I own a b&w Nook e-reader, and now, I’m going to get me a NookColor. Kindle never got my attention.
[...] Nook Color v. Kindle, Who Will Come Out On Top? [...]
[...] Nook Color v. Kindle, Who Will Come Out On Top? [...]
Nook Color specs:
- $249 with free shipping
- 7 inch Color LG Touchscreen 16 million colors with anti-glare coating 1024 x 600 delivering 169 pixels per inch.
- 8GB built in memory expandable to 32 GB with microSD card.
- Formats supported: EPUB, PDF, XLS, DOC, PPT, PPS, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, PPSM, DOCX, XLX, PPTX, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, AAC, MP4.
- Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), USB port
- OS: Android 2.1
- Processor: TI 800 Mhz ARM Cortex A8-based, 45nm OMAP3621
The main problem I have with the Kindle is that it CANNOT read epub’s with DRM.. they cannot be converted because of DRM. Well my public library has several thousand ebook titles to choose from to “borrow” — DRM ensures the book only stays active for the borrowing period which is fair. The collection is growing rapidly and the wave of the future. BUT, I can’t read them on my Kindle so for now I am forced to sit in front of my desktop screen to read the epubs. Nice… NOT.
It’s clear Amazon just wants to abuse customers by forcing them to buy every single thing they want to read. Reminds me of my elementary school days when they had the annual book sale in the library — angry ladies would yell out “EITHER BUY SOMETHING OR GET OUT!” Well, that’s what I feel here with Amazon.
The Kindle can handle Unmanned Aerial Vehicles? O.O News to me… probably news to Amazon and the military, too…
Ipad wins! out of Nook vs Kindle!
I think at this point the Kindle is far and away the leader.
It seems like the verdict is still out on this one. Although the nook color has made great strides in the market place, the kindle just keeps on going like the energizer bunny. We will see who wins at the end of this year, when we look at the earnings from these two. I think they both should be applauded for their efforts in the reading industry.