Disclaimer: I love my Kindle! Really and truly.
What an well-thought out, informative review! Most so-called professional reviews tend to lean very heavily towards personal preference rather than objectively and honestly playing with and testing the things being reviewed.
When I first got my K3, I had some buyer's remorse and let a very knowledgeable B&N employee sell me the original Nook the very next day. After playing with both, I returned the Nook. (You can find my original thread(s) by searching.) Bottom line is that I felt the K3's screen was much superior, that the little LED screen at the bottom of the Nook was an unnecessary and unwieldy kludge (which, BTW, is what sold me on the Nook in the first place) and that the Nook's battery life suffered terribly because of the LCD screen.
Now comes the color Nook. I initially dismissed it out of hand simply because it of its parentage: it's clearly an Android tablet firmly locked down as an e-reader. More than twice as heavy as my Kindle, with a bright LCD screen that is unreadable in very bright light, and a short battery life typical of tablets, the color Nook is the very antithesis of the Kindle. Except for price, I thought, why not just buy a real tablet with e-reader software?
At least, that was my original and uninformed opinion.
Yesterday, I was pickup up some last-minute stocking stuffers, and popped into B&N. The Nook display is in your face as you walk in the front door, and the seasonal guy manning the stand was patiently busy with a youngish guy who had no idea what the Nook was for and by his questions probably thought that the Barnes in B&N had something to do with farm equipment.
I busied myself playing with the other color Nook on the display. Amazing! It was so much different from the original Nook that I couldn't believe it. Within about 2 minutes of messing around with it, I more or less had all the gestures down pat. Reading was effortless, as was navigating the library. I noted a few minor peeves as the reviewer did in the above-referenced article but overall found it very easy to use.
Because I have a computer and a smartphone, I really could care less about web browsing and so on with my e-reader. For grins, I did try a quick browse to Google and to the Denver Post websites. It seemed to work much better than the "experimental" browser on my Kindle.
I ended up playing with the color Nook for well over an hour. Even though the size differences are nominal, the weight of the Nook was very noticeable, particularly when holding it one handed as I often do with my Kindle. It's quite a bit more expensive than my Kindle, and I can only imagine that I'd be charging it 3-4x more often than my Kindle. I realized as I was writing this I don't know if it is any better than the Kindle at managing collections, so it may mean another trip back to B&N Sunday while the kids are busy with all their new loot from Santa.
Still... The user interface is intuitive and is really what I'd hoped for with the Kindle. I'd have to have one in bed with me for a week or two for a final decision on whether or not the additional weight makes that much of a difference. Oh, and I'd have to put Calibre to work overtime to convert my rather extensive library into Epub format!
Why, oh why can't I have an e-reader with a brilliant high-contrast e-ink screen that has a super-fast refresh rate, an intuitive and highly customizable UI, a battery life of a month or more, weighing in at about 10 ounces, and has a sell-through price of, oh, say about $79!
