Holly Hibner: eBook Reader #3: The Barnes & Noble Nook

This is the black and white version of the B&N Nook. I had high hopes for this device. I really thought it would be my favorite of the bunch. I still like the Sony eReader best, followed by the Kobo, and then this Nook. We just received the color version of the Nook, though, and it looks much better! Here are the pros and cons of the black & white Nook:

Pros:
-It has buttons on the side of the device for very comfortable page turning while reading
-It has wi-fi, and I was able to get on a public network that required a browser screen log-in.
-It comes with games! Just sudoku and chess, but that's a feature I haven't seen on any of the other devices.
-It is compatible with Overdrive and Google eBooks
-Transferring files to the device is really easy. I'm not including screen capture videos in this post because it is exactly like the Kobo. ePub and PDF titles open in Adobe Digital Editions, and then you just drag the title to the device.
-There are thousands of titles in the Barnes & Noble eBook store!
-It has external speakers for audio books, so you can listen without headphones.
-You can change the font size and the font style. Some of the other devices only let you change the size.

Cons:
-The touch pad is a little rectangle at the bottom of the device. I kept putting my finger on the actual screen to make choices, forgetting that I have to use the touch pad area.
-In the ebook store, there were more than 2,000 books to choose from. You can search by title, author, etc., but you can't limit by price, date, or any other way.
-Because you can't limit a search, you just have to scroll page by page through all those ebooks!
-This is the heaviest device I've tested.
-While I liked having page turning buttons on the sides of the device, I found the arrows confusing. There is a left arrow and a right arrow on each side. One side goes forward or back one page while the arrows on the other side take you back a whole section (or chapter, maybe?) at a time. Push the wrong arrow and you could end up somewhere you didn't intend to go!
-I could not find a way to look up a word in a dictionary.
-There is a My Documents "folder" and a My Library "folder." I transferred a book from Overdrive to My Documents, but then I found three books in the My Library folder. Was I supposed to transfer my title there? It didn't seem to matter - the books opened and could be read in either place, but it seems redundant to have these two locations.

Overall, I'll give it 3 stars out of 5. Again, I'd like to go lower, but I'll give it extra credit for external speakers and wi-fi capability, the two features I liked the most. The features I liked least were its heft and the touchpad setup. I liked the Sony eReader's full touchscreen much better. The Sony still stands as my favorite! Still to come: The Amazon Kindle, the color Nook, and the iPad.

Here are some pictures (click for larger view):

The Nook "My Documents" Library lists what is currently loaded on the device: