[mwheinz]

Through a "Complicated Series of Events" my son rather abruptly inherited my PRS-600, leaving me looking for a fast replacement. After having difficulties finding a PRS-650 in the desired time frame, I decided to pick up a Nook Color instead.

I promised my colleagues over in the Sony forum that I would post my impressions of switching to the Nook so, here they are, along with what I thought about the Sony it replaces:


About Me:
So you know where I'm coming from - I'm a middle-aged super-computer engineer who has worked on every type of machine from IBM main-frames through programmable calculators through the first generation of personal computers through the first generation of personal digital assistants back up to 1000-processor computer clusters used by people I can't talk about working for 3-letter agencies.

Why do you care about any of that? Only this: After 30 years of dorking around with large amounts of data on nasty CRT monitors, I need bifocals. This makes me very cranky about how I use eReaders. In particular, I like to hold them sideways so I can use a bigger font while maintaining basic word-flow.



I. Battery Life

Sony: Let's just get this out of the way. eInk readers last weeks on a charge and can be charged by almost anything. (See the Sony forums for a discussion on all the chargers that work with the PRS-650. Basically, anything that can charge a flip-phone can charge an eInk-based reader.

Nook Color: By comparison, things that have WiFi, LCD displays and higher powered processors last only hours between charges and, apparently, my 2011 Macbook Pro apparently can't deliver enough current to charge my Nook Color. (I deliberately ran the Nook dead today to see how it reacted, then discovered, to my chagrin, that it just wouldn't charge off of any of the computers I had available....) This may significantly affect the road trip I'll be taking Friday.

Winner: Sony. This was never really a question, although I'm still disappointed that I can't charge the NC by hooking it up to a computer.


II. Everything that doesn't involve reading books

Sony: As with "battery life", let's just get this out of the way. The Sony is an eReader. That's it. Yes, in theory you can "take notes" with a Sony. I don't know about you, but I can never read a darn thing I wrote in those notes.

Nook Color: No news here, either. The Nook Color is a large-screen Android phone, without the phone. It plays videos, it surfs the web, it can show you your email. While It's underpowered compared to devices like the iPad, it's the Starship Enterprise (model E) compared to the Sony PRS-600's Space Shuttle Enterprise (that never actually made it to space, BTW...)

Winner: If you want something that lets you read books and does a lot more besides, the Nook is the clear winner. Note that this does not make it a replacement for an iPad.


III. Display
Sony: My previous-generation Sony had the older 8-level eInk display. When I first got it, it was quite acceptable but the newer generation displays have much better contrast levels.

Nook Color: The display is amazing. I still wasn't sure I was going to keep the Nook color till I actually turned mine on and saw the tutorial video pop up. compared to the relatively low-resolution display of the PRS-600, this was an absolute mind blower. Yes, it has all the problems that reading on an LCD is heir to: washed out in direct sun, a bit of an eye-strain in dim conditions, but still, spectacular. First thing I did was set the background screen to an astro-photo of a portion of the Orion Nebula. Very, very cool.

Winner: Nook Color, by a landslide.


IV. Reading ePubs

Sony: ePubs are generally great. Page turns a bit slow. Any document can be read in landscape or portrait mode. I used to think the UI was a bit crappy but - I've come to realize that, of all the eReaders, Sonys are the absolute best at organizing large numbers of books and have the best integration with Calibre, by a mile.

Nook Color: WTF? I must read the sample children's book in landscape, but I can't read any of my personal books that way? What's up with that?!? (This is the first of many complaints that have a similar theme - see further below....)

Winner: I never thought I'd say this, but.... Sony. I'm sorry, I'm just not going to sort my 200+ ePubs and PDFs by hand, on the actual device.


V. Reading PDFs

Sony: There are two kinds of PDFs in this world. One kind, the good kind, actually contains fonts, text data, layout information and so on. Such PDFs can be easily displayed on the Sony PRS-600.

The other kind - the more common, low-class, sort of PDF is actually just a series of pictures, where each picture represents a page from the PDF file. Such documents make me say bad, bad words when I try to read them on the PRS-600.

Nook Color: Right off the bat, there were two PDF-formatted graphic novels I've wanted to read since I was a wee lad growing up on the farm back in the old country. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) They simply weren't readable on the Sony Reader, so I never did anything with them.

As soon as I got through the tutorials I loaded and tested them against the Nook Color.

And I was disappointed. The first one (The Clockwork Girl from Wowio) simply displayed as a blank page. The other one, (Earthlight from I-can't-remember-where) displayed but.... once again, only in portrait mode and no zoom?!? What?!?!?11?!11?!!!! My outrage knew no bounds.

Winner: Sony. Wait. What do you mean, there's another way to read PDFs on a Nook? Hang on...

Nook Color With ezPDF Reader: Oh. Oh. Yes. Oooooh - it works in Landscape mode. It has Zoom?!? It can display my 81 megabyte PDF in full color and high resolution?!? Oh my.

Real Winner: Nook Color With ezPDF. Pay the 99 cents and download the ezPDF reader. Yes you will need to buy or scrounge an external memory card. Tough. Do it anyway.


VI. Host Software

Sony: A rather awkward java-based tool that only half works on a Macintosh, coupled with a device driver that only works if I reboot my Macbook in a special mode. Forget it. Just use Calibre.

Nook Color: Host Software? What's that? Just use Calibre.

Winner: Sony, because when used with Calibre, you can manage the collections (shelves) on a Sony, but there's no way to do that with the Nook.


Conclusions:

The Nook has tremendous potential but so much of it, like its PDF capabilities, are half-baked. Landscape mode that doesn't always work, a wall-paper tool that crashes more often than it works, it can all be very frustrating. There's a thriving community of people dedicated to overcoming those limitations, but still - if Android phones are as fiddly as the Nook Color, I'm glad I still have my old fashioned flip-phone.

But that doesn't mean the Sony is a perfect solution either. My PRS-600 did crash several times over the two years I owned it, and more than occasionally just spontaneously drained the battery.

Still, if all we're talking about is replacing a paper book - and nothing else - readability, simplicity and battery life give the Sony a definite edge.

On the other hand, if you want to dabble with Android, add extra applications, or if you just want a device that lets you read your favorite websites without having to use Calibre to convert them first, the Nook is a very nice device.

Just keep a charger handy.