[jocampo]

I had the chance to play a bit with the Nook Color at work (some coworkers who bought one), and my initial feeling and feedback was not so positive. I immediatly compare the experience with my Kindle 3 and Kindle DXG, of course, because that's what I own and my opinion at that time was that NC was not so good in many aspects.

Days later I made some comments here and Nook fans hit back, with tons of passion! :-) ... understandable ... but I kept my feedback and support with technical facts.

Having said that and because I want to give the benefit of the doubt, I just bought a Nook Color (with the main idea of returning the product back soon) and I've been using it, heavily, since yesterday.

The nice:

Cool Browser and Internet feature.
Of course, the use of internet and a browser is a selling point. No way you can compare to a Kindle and even with the Nook Color virtual keyboard, browsing internet was easier than using my Android Cellphone and by far, better than Kindle 3 or Kindle DXG. Books with hyperlinks you just touch the screen and the the corresponding site will open; of course, assuming you are connected to wifi/internet

Library and Book organization
Really nice. Of course, you can see your book covers and organize or list by title or most recent addition. You scroll down and look for your books using your fingers, so it is faster and cool, much better than using a button of course. Something that I did not like to much is that after connecting to B&N, it put all my books on the Home Page, I don't know why. I don't want my stuff just on the Home Page and if this is the default, it is kind of annoying because later you need to cleaning up. But honestly, not sure if there is a way to alter or change that, it could be just a one time thing.

Good PDF experience
Reading PDF documents and books is good. You can expand, shrink and move around with your fingers, of course, Nook Color is kind of a hybrid tablet, so when moving around PDF documents or zooming is way faster and better than using a 5 way or regular button than Kindle. Turning pages is also way much faster and again, just sliding your finger on the screen. It was odd though, that for changing PDF pages you can only do that sliding "up" or "down" not "left" or "right", like in a book.

The color experience
Of course, is a Nook Color, duh! :-) ... so if you read magazines you will notice the difference.


Cons


-No autorotate
I was shocked! I can't use landscape mode on ePub books, only PDF. Big disadvantge, because on technical books or poetry, the format got messed up. I don't want to speculate with future firmwares and upgrades, I am saying what we have now, "as is", so this was a " no " no to me. I can rotate on both Kindles and is really useful for my Oracle and SQL books, which are plently of tables and long queries.

Heavy
-Man, I read last night for about 6 hrs straight and I had to use my knee or stomach as support. If you have a Kindle 3, you know what I am talking about. Even if you compare with Nook 1.5, this is way too heavy for long reading sessions. My Kindle DX is heavier and bigger too but feels different. From a technical stand point I think is something related with the Nook Color weight distribution and width; it keep pushing your wrist and hands down.

-Glare/Eye strain
I really want to see this myself and after long hours of reading, and I was right. The glare is minimum but still you get some eye strain during long reading sessions. I guess this is not a problem for a casual reader, but becuase you can do the same with Kindle (long or short reading sessions) I would not choose this one as my device. I reduced the brightness to slowest possible value and light conditions were optimal, but for indoor reading,my Kindle 3 is much better.

-No zoom on book's pictures
Another big surprise! I was reading "The Art of Intrusion", which does not have bunch of pictures, but at page 113 there was an image that I tried to click, expand or do something with it, because was kind of small: no luck! For a Hybrid tablet like this, I was expecting more! So, if your book shows any small image or picture that you would like to enlarge, you are out of luck.

Battery life:
I charged it yesterday morning, it took about 1 hour and a half, that was quick (I am assuming there was initial charge there) Use it for 1 hour during lunch time including configuring wifi, etc. Then I came back to work. At 5pm, I started using it again and since then, for about 6 hrs with wifi on all the time and minimum brightness. Todday is about 16% and I've being using it for about 2 more hours maybe? So it will give you about 8 hrs at heavy and continue usage. Good for a hybrid table, not for an ereader. I can't imagine this one on my travels and keep charging all the time. Not to mention that, as per manual, you can't use the USB cable and computer to charge, just the wall adapter which by the way, it is propietary.

I would like to mention also that while browsing internet and using Hotmail, it froze two times. Totally unresponsive (just the browser) I had to power off and on. And there is no flash support.

I still believe this is a nice e-reader (I am saying e-reader because that's how B&N is pushing or selling the product) but there are more cons than Pros on this new gadget. At this moment Kindle is the closest and better paper reading experience that you can get for your money.

For a very casual or magazine reader NC is an alternative, but for a better ereading experience I think that Kindle, Nook 1.5 or Sony provide an effective and simpler way to read; not too fancy and graphical, but let you read in a comfortable and easy way.