[negris123]

I just received my Nook Simple Touch and I have been playing with it over an hour.

First off, I own a NC, so the only reason I bought the Simple Touch is because of the Pearl E-Ink display, so I can read books in direct sunlight or in very bright environments. Even with the brightness maxed out on my NC, it is not comfortable to read it under those conditions.

In General:

Touch screen responsiveness is awesome, no complaints here, really fast and accurate. Looking up words in the dictionary is a breeze.

No fingerprint smudges. The screen just does not attract finger oils, I guess, so no need to be concerned about that. Contrary to the NC where I have to wipe it down constantly to remove fingerprints, even with the screen protector on.

Light, feels great in your hands, the eink screen is great for reading in direct sunlight. Something about the screen, I was expecting it to be sharper. I don't own a Kindle, so I'm not sure how it compares to that, but from the hands-on reviews I had seen and from the B&N videos, it just seemed sharper than what it really is. Nonetheless, the screen is great and much better to read in direct sunlight and bright conditions than the NC and somehow the images seem sharper than plain text. Another thing I wan to point out is there is noticeable ghosting due to the screen refreshing only every 6 page turns instead of on every page turn. It is not a big deal, but I am sure some people will find it distracting and downright unacceptable to see ghosting from the text from the previous page while reading a new page.

No landscape mode for anything, I know a lot of people are not going to like that.

No web browser, no apps, no games, nothing but reading. Also shopping from the B&N store, of course!


Library:

I guess the main thing about the library is that B&N books and sideloaded files are all in ONE library so no more segregation between B&N books and sideloaded files. The only annoying thing that happened to me so far is that I sideloaded a PDF file just to test PDF files on the device (more on that later), deleted it, but I could still the icon for it on the device. I tried refreshing the library, but the only way I could get rid of the icon was by powering off and on. Maybe some glitch, I don't know.

PDF

I only tried one PDF that contained images, but the device only showed reflowed text, so needless to say, no panning nor zooming, because you are not looking at the normal PDF image, but only the text of the pdf.


Bottom line: This device is great for reading text-based books. There is really not much more that you can do with it (to my knowledge, so far). If you are interested in comic books, reading lots of pdf (actual pdf, not just the text), magazines (again with all images and not just the text), play games, etc, I recommend the NC, which I own and I am very happy with it, but if all you want is to read text-only books, then this is a great choice

I think I will keep it because of the touch eink screen which is really the only reason why I wanted it

Let me know if you have any specific questions