I checked out both the Daily edition and the Nook last night right before the stores closed. I was in a hurry because I knew I couldn't do it today before the huge snowstorm arrived here in Jersey.
Anyway, loved the big size of the Daily edition but wasn't impressed with the screen, noticed glare right away and imho it IS a bit darker than the kindle 2. Why they chose to make it so dark is baffling to me. Overall the design is very nice and the large screen looked super to me.
I then went to see the Nook and noticed the difference in contrast immediately. The text really is more crisp and had none of the darkness that the PRS-900 had. It is very noticeable or it was to me. I don't think the demo had the new 1.2 firmware, I should have asked but anyway, it looked quite nice to me. The only reservations I had was that that the color touchscreen would drain the battery a lot when in use plus the main screen itself wasn't touchscreen but I could live with that especially with the better contrast. Very nice design also and again, I could see that reading books would be more enjoyable because of the better contrast. Sadly it doesn't come with all the extras Sony has.
While the Daily edition looks fantastic, comes with all the extras and is much less restrictive than the Nook, it boils down to the screen itself. If I am going to be reading a lot, I couldn't deal with the glare and the darker screen. The Nook contrast imho is simply not an issue, so I probably will get that. I still have to think about it though. I just wanted to let you guys know.
This is only my opinion, some others might disagree.
