Nook color: thanks, but no thanks, I passed

[tequila0341]

I came pretty close to getting a NC as well, but was dissuaded by a couple of things mentioned here:

1) Weight. One of the biggest pluses of e-readers to me is the savings on space and weight of carrying paper books around. I read on the NYC subway to and from work for about an hour each way, and most of this is spent standing and holding on with one hand while reading with the other. The light weight and compact form factor of the Kindle allows me to do this with ease and to read plenty of books I normally wouldn't bring on the train. The NC weighs just enough to make me somewhat hesitant about holding it with one hand, especially when the 4 train makes one of those pinwheel turns out of 59th St. Comfort is also a factor here.

2) Cost vs benefit. The NC is one of the cheapest Android tablets out there, but I really don't need a tablet at all. My netbook suffices for my computing needs, while I don't really need a media player on the go (I'd rather read!). The NC doesn't really browse the internet particularly well - it's a full-fledged browser, but very slow next to my smartphone.

3) Battery life - I just like not having to worry about charging the thing every day.

[v1k1ng1001]

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

I don't think they're making a mistake, so much as they've gotten out what they could in time for the holiday buying season. An update to 2.2 is already slated for next month and the thing hasn't even been out a month. Cut 'em a little slack.

Besides, it doesn't appear to have hurt either their sales or the general tone of the reviews out there.

They'll do just fine for a while...until quality android tablets begin crowding them out.

[voracious71]

Got one for my sister for Christmas, but while she reads, she doesn't read as much as I do. She is also more into magazines and will love the browser, and the audio/video perks.

I stick with e-ink for most of my reading because of eye strain.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by v1k1ng1001

They'll do just fine for a while...until quality android tablets begin crowding them out.

This is almost a tautology.

I've been surprised at the absence of quality android tablets at competitive prices, actually - so it could be 3 months before the NC faces serious tablet competition...or it could be two years.

[screwballl]

I also looked at these types of pros and cons, which is why I chose my K2 wifi... I did not see paying the extra $50 up front for 3G, and I did not see paying the extra $100+ for color screen and massively reduced battery life.
In use, 3-4 weeks on a K2 with wifi off will work very nicely for me. Not having to recharges every 8 hours or 3-4 days is a big deal for me.

We all chose the reader we have for specific reasons, I am happy with my purchase.

[Greenhat]

Originally Posted by jocampo

What if you don't have an outlet at all?

I don't want to start debating the battery advantages that Sony, Nook 1.5 or Kindle have over NC, you should know it. NC battery life is not the best. But honestly, I reviewed what the device can offer right now, "as is". I know you have one and you love it, but trust me, I have no interest on showing or saying something it's not true.

Your review seems very biased to me.
all your cons arguments are in fact shared buy all lcd readers not only NC.
Since LCD readers have more glare and they are not E ink, that means you cannot use them under sunlight or outdoor. they are meant to work indoors ! hence you can find easily the outlets near to your bed or you table in a coffee shop.
This is like telling people not to buy a kindle ereader because it does not contains games and video ! totally nonsense.
As for battery you have to use the device without Wi Fi ON. why are you using Wi fi when reading ?
for the weight, 450 grams is not heavy at all to me.
the auto-rotation huh ? why do you need this feature?
Eye strain because of LCD reading? are you sure for that?

[SCION]

I still don't know why apples are being compared to oranges.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Greenhat

Your review seems very biased to me.

Your opinion, but I don't think so. I do not work for Amazon or B&N. Actually I really wanted to give a try and that was the reason why I bought it and spent some time at home using it.

Originally Posted by Greenhat

As for battery you have to use the device without Wi Fi ON. why are you using Wi fi when reading ?

I do not want to start a debate about this. not again . I've mentioned this several times and it's very well known; the battery life is not better than e-ink devices; the reason why I was using wifi most of the time is or was in order to test battery life before returning the device. When doing benchmark, you push or test something to its limits and help you to establish a possible maximum value later.

Originally Posted by Greenhat

for the weight, 450 grams is not heavy at all to me.

Not if you read for hours. Actually, yesterday I was in a B&N store and the sales representative wanted to compare and see my Kindle 3. He was shocked about the weight.

Originally Posted by Greenhat

the auto-rotation huh ? why do you need this feature?

For technical books.

Originally Posted by Greenhat

Eye strain because of LCD reading? are you sure for that?

Yes, totally!

[boswd]

So you never read a hard cover for hours? No one will hold a kindle for hours worth of reading one hand.I always find the weight issue to be highly overblown. The nook color weighs as much as a 200page hard cover.
Did you not read any books before ereaders?

Less than pound as too heavy is a lame excuse. Sorry it is. Nobody is reading hours on end one handed.

[iandix]

I find it interesting many many people appear to love the nookcolour .. and they have found that it is more than they wanted or even ask for in a LCD ereader.

A few ...and from what I have seen, it is just a few appear to dislike it, I wonder what reviews these people would be giving the nookcolour if it was Amazon that came out with it first.

LCD has less battery life than a e-ink reader ..wow I'm shocked.. But it has a battery life better than many other tablets on the market. It has a LCD screen I can watch movies, play games, surf the web in full colour... and read books ... but ..it's weights the same as a 200 page hard cover book .. again wow I'm shocked.. (I'm shocked that it weights so less)

I do have problems with my eyes (had an infection in them a number of years ago) I use a eink screen I love the paper like look of the screen... but I also read on my iphone ..and I have not had any problem with reading on the LCD screen on my iphone.


I think B&N are on a winner with this ..they appear to be selling tons of them (and many of those people will not be rooting them..as they would not even know you could) and that would mean many of those people will be buying books from B&N, and people who do root their nooks will still be buying books. (so that's $$$ for B&N)

I will look forward to the comments from some people when Amazon comes out with the kindlecolour...

[lene1949]

OT... Scion.. what do you mean you NC is rooted...? Here in Australia that means it's f***ed..

Originally Posted by SCION

I still don't know why apples are being compared to oranges.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by v1k1ng1001

I really like the Nook Color and I almost bought one. But then I thought to myself that I'd be better off spending the money on an android 2.3 tablet of similar quality later this year.

Do you think that anything significantly better is going to appear in the next two weeks?

[Care]

Originally Posted by lene1949

OT... Scion.. what do you mean you NC is rooted...? Here in Australia that means it's f***ed..

LOL, no that is not what it means. It is where you take your stock Android Nook, Droid, tablet, etc, and free so you can change/add software and apps. You are basically getting 'root' access and you can do a lot more with the products than you could before rooting.

I don't know if I am explaining it right, but that is the gist of it.



The Samsung Galaxy is nice, but the NC probably does what I would need for half the price.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by boswd

So you never read a hard cover for hours? No one will hold a kindle for hours worth of reading one hand.I always find the weight issue to be highly overblown. The nook color weighs as much as a 200page hard cover.
Did you not read any books before ereaders?

Less than pound as too heavy is a lame excuse. Sorry it is. Nobody is reading hours on end one handed.

This is not a real book, it's an electronic device. That's the main purpose of buying an ereader, get rid of the weight and the hassle of carry with tons of books. You can read the same 200 page book with a lighter ereader.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by jocampo

This is not a real book, it's an electronic device. That's the main purpose of buying an ereader, get rid of the weight and the hassle of carry with tons of books. You can read the same 200 page book with a lighter ereader.

Hmm so I have this really nice pen, heavy pen, but I'm going to ditch it because I can use a bic pen that weighs next to nothing.

My point is you claimed reading the nook color for hours is not possible because of it's weight. I'm just calling BS on that claim. Jsut because one thing is lighter than the other does not make the other thing heavy.
A 100LB brick is heavy. my pen weighs more than my pencil, that does not make my pen heavy. To you see what I mean?

For anybody reading this and was curious, it weighs slightly less than 1 lb. the equilvant of a 200 page hardcover. Now if reading a small hardcover book was never an issue in the past, it won't be with this.

I'm just trying to keep things in a little bit of a reality perspective.