Blogocentric Formulations

Kindle (Again) or Nook?

I'm hopeless when it comes to technology. I just can't help myself; I have to explore every option and revisit each choice a hundred times before I actually decide to buy something, even if it's relatively inexpensive. Since I gave our shared Kindle to my wife, I've decided that I'm going to buy myself an e-reader as well, so we can each enjoy the glory that is having a library of books on a device the size of a paperback.

Originally, we settled on the Kindle because I just plain didn't like the feel of the Nook. The Nook felt a little big and clunky compared to the Kindle, and so we went with the Kindle, which has been a great experience. I love our Kindle.

But... Barnes & Noble just released their Nook Simple Touch, which looks amazing. It's like a Kindle without the keyboard, and the form factor is very similar to that of a Kindle now; they figured out a way to get rid of the bulk.

So now I'm back at square one and trying to decide what to purchase. I've pretty much narrowed it down to the following list of selling points for each device:


KINDLE

Compatible with all the e-books I've already purchased. I have an Amazon account, and my wife and I would even be able to swap books between our Kindles.

Wonderful cover with a built-in light. The cover my wife bought is sturdy leather, and has a light built in that is powered by the Kindle battery and extends to perfectly cover the entire screen, then pushes back into the hardcover itself and completely disappears when not in use. The Nook, as far as I can tell, requires an external light to be attached to any of its covers.

Kindle is cheaper. $25 cheaper, but still. I'm looking at the Kindle With Special Offers, which is the one that had advertisements as screensavers (but no ads during the actual reading). I also have an Amazon gift card, which technically makes it $75 cheaper than the Nook.

Audiobooks & Text to Speech. The Kindle allows you to plug in headphones and either download audiobooks to listen, or have the Kindle actually read the text of enabled books to you. The Nook is only for reading.


NOOK

Better selection of books. I'm not quite sure either one is lacking in content for me to read, but the Kindle store has 950,000 books, and the Nook store has 2 million. While both stores can be described as having "plenty" of selection, still... 2 million > 950,000.

Cleaner, more modern look. I've always wondered why the Kindle has a keyboard when it's used so infrequently. The Nook Simple Touch has a definite visual appeal. And it's got a touch screen. Everything's touch screen these days, because they're convenient and they look nice.

Custom screensavers. With a Kindle, your screensaver choices are pre-selected from a very limited supply (on the standard Kindle), or advertisements (on the Special Offers Kindle). With the Nook, you can upload your own screensavers.

Refresh rate. The "black flash" that happens on the Kindle screen with every page only happens once every six pages with the Nook. It's never been a huge bother to me on the Kindle, but still, the Nook has the edge on the refresh rate.

The Nook has several different text styles you can choose from. While the Kindle has one more font size option than the Kindle, the Nook also offers four more font styles than the Kindle, allowing for greater customization.


I know a lot of these are rather aesthetic debate points; but the honest truth is that they're both excellent e-readers. When it comes to actually reading something, by all accounts, the experience is much the same. So the real question is... which bells and whistles do I want?