I received both a Kobo Touch and a Nook Touch in the mail today because I also was torn on choosing between the two. And I must say that both of these are fantastic devices that I personally think are better than the Kindle 3.
First off, these two devices are very, very similar. I switched off countless times today and found the reading experience about the same. A few differences:
- Downloading a book and navigating the store on the Nook is a couple minutes faster than the KT
- The amount of formatting options on the Nook are also very welcome, and even though the Kobo is somewhat limited they have repeatedly said that they will be adding this in the future
- The buttons on the Nook Touch were disappointing. Having used both the K3 and the Nook Wifi (both of which had solid buttons) these ones are a little too stiff and therefore took away one of its potential advantages over the Kobo
Even though it has a couple shortcomings, I decided that I am going to keep the Kobo Touch. It had just enough bezel for me to keep my hand there comfortably making it a slightly better experience over the Nook Touch. But for people with bigger hands, have a B & N store nearby, or at least the option of page turn buttons, the Nook Touch is probably the right device for you as that extra width and the curved back is a big help. The only thing I can really gripe out is the lack of collections for both and for the Nook the limitation on sideloading content. Other than that, you really can't go wrong with either of these!