[RockdaMan]

A review and comparison:

The Kindle 3 and Nook Simple Touch cost about the same, weigh about the same, feel about the same, and have the same-generation, same-resolution e-ink screen. (The weight and thickness are both technically different, but the difference isn’t meaningful during use.) The bezels are about the same color and thickness. They both even use the otherwise rare PMN Caecilia font by default, and both display pictures of famous dead authors as “screensavers” when they’re asleep.

Barnes & Noble has copied so many facets of the Kindle that they clearly want consumers to think that this is a Kindle. They’re unquestionably trying to cause confusion in the market, presumably to increase their chances.

The touch-screen navigation, overall, is great.

The Nook embarrasses the Kindle for everything that Kindle users need to use the 5-way buttons for: menu navigation, book selection, table-of-contents navigation (especially in periodicals), and text selection for highlights or definitions.

Overall, I’d classify this Nook as being a generational equivalent to the Kindle 3, but the Kindle 3 is nearly a year old. Launching an equivalent competitor to it today is like launching an iPad 1 competitor in February 2011.

I’d be much more impressed with this Nook had it launched last summer, and it worries me that B&N is only now using the same e-ink screen generation that Amazon had then. (What will the next Kindle use?)

But I like it. And I love the touch interface.

If the review ended here, I’d probably conclude that the Nook is a great alternative to the Kindle for nearly all potential buyers.

http://www.marco.org/2011/06/03/nook...e-touch-review