Unique Title: Which E-reader should I buy?

[sun surfer]

Thanks for all your help, guys.

I'm still trying to decide, but I have made a few decisions. First, I now definitely know I want one with e-ink. But, I think all of your suggestions are e-readers with e-ink, so that's a moot point I guess! Second, I've kind of given up on handwriting recognition for now. Of the ones I can find with it, they either are too expensive or just for one reason or another don't seem right.

Based on all your suggestions, I have been searching around the web researching and now have a subject-to-change list of ones I'm likely to end up getting:

Most Appealing At The Moment - Nook. First, boswd, your post was fantastic and very informative, so thank you a lot. But I didn't just base this off one post. The nook seems like it may not be perfect, but it may have the best combination of what I'm looking for. What I'm reading in reviews about Kindle is how it really tries to restrict usage to only its e-book store, which has frustrated other users and I'm sure it will me. nook also restricts usage, but from what I'm reading is a little more open. I know Amazon has the biggest store at the moment, but the nook is apparently good with more than just one bookstore, making the selection actually larger. I also like the idea of free first chapter reading at the B&N store, free hour of reading in a B&N physical store, and free coupons for Starbucks and stuff. It also has a dictionary and can take notes and stuff, and I think I can live with a small touchscreen keyboard. Plus, it's so cheap at the moment I can hardly believe it. This does not mean I've made up my mind already; though I could be on my way to it unless I find something bad I didn't know about the nook or better I didn't know about the others.

Close second - Bebook Neo/Onyx Boox. I really want this one. It has a stylus and though it doesn't do handwriting to text, you can handwrite on it, as well as draw and stuff, and take notes and more. So it has a lot of good features. There are two main problems though - One is that it still apparently costs $300 - twice as much as the nook. Can I justify that just for the ability to write with a stylus? I don't know but probably not. Two is that from what I've read you can only order it directly from the manufacturer for the U.S. and they're European. Apparently this means I can't return it under any circumstances (! ) and there's going to be a hefty shipping and customs charge added to my order which would make it a good bit more than $300. Also, for a tech newb like me, downloading books may be harder on this device than the nook. And, just browsing their forums real fast, it seems to get a dictionary in it you have to manually download it, which may be easy but for me may be hard. And it I have to do that trouble just for an in-device dictionary, what other trouble may I be in for?

A Slightly Farther Away Third - Kindle 2. I really like the look of this one. I even like the name! I like the ease of usage on it, which from reviews it seems to be the easiest of all to use. But, as I said above, the file format/bookstore thing turns me off. For someone like me who is not good with all that stuff, I can see myself getting annoyed when I want something on it and it won't work or I have to pay money to buy it from Amazon when it's free elsewhere. Now, that doesn't mean I don't like this one! It's still a very viable option and in my Top 3.

Pretty Much Out Of The Running - Sony PRS-600 and 900. I have nothing against Sony, I promise! Just the reviews make me weary of them. The 900 is I think a little too big for me, and the most expensive of all. It does have some great features, but I just don't think it's for me. The 600, I've heard terrible things about the screen, and I've also heard Sony's store isn't great. It actually costs more than the nook now, so I just don't think I'm at all interested in the Sony one. I do like that it supports many file formats but that's not enough for me to want it I don't think. If I'm going to really go for one that supports many file formats, I'll probably spend the extra and go with the neo.



So, unless some other one I haven't paid attention to pops up, I'm probably going to get a nook, neo/boox or a Kindle2. That's what I've narrowed it down to, which is sort of funny since that very first review I read had those as the top 3. But I used all of your input to help narrow it down, and will continue to since I'm so new to it.

I'm going to a B&N tomorrow to see the nook if they have it so I can try it out, and maybe try a Target to see if they have a Kindle display? I don't think neo would be anywhere on display.

I don't think there's any questions I have about the Kindle at the moment, but I still have a few about the neo/boox and the nook:

-Can you do landscape, 2-page view on the nook? I thought I wouldn't want landscape view, but I just found out today that in landscape you can have 2 pages appear as it looks when you're reading a physical book, and I'd really like that.

-On the nook, does the colour screen on bottom go black or go off while you're reading? I really hope so, cause it could be a deal-breaker otherwise. It would be very distracting and annoying to me to have that colour screen on bottom while I'm reading on top, especially at night when I'm reading in low light in bed, which is where I often read.

-nook does support the web, right? I thought it did but some reviews say no, that only Kindle does. Not that I really need it, but I would want it to browse bookstores and stuff, and maybe wikipedia.

-nook wi-fi vs nook wi-fi/3g. What's the big difference? I'd much rather get the cheaper one obviously, and I thought wi-fi was better than 3g?!? Does 3g just make the internet available in more places or something?

-As for neo/boox, what is the difference between the two? Are they both available in the U.S.? Does anyone have either one? Were you worried about the no-return policy and how are you liking the device?

[boswd]

Hi Sun Surfer, glad I could help hopefully I can help some more

to answer your questions.

1. No the nook only does protrait and not landscape.

2. Yes, the LCD screen does go to sleep when you are reading. you can set the timer to 10 secs., 30 secs or 1 mins. And when you need to wake up the screen you just tap the little n just above the screen. It is during its sleep process that you can use the LCD screen (while its black) to finger swipe to turn the pages. I love the finger swipe.

also to add to the point the Nook device itself is an Open device, not only just ePub but Adobe PDF and DRM PDF from other sources.

3. Yes, the nook does have a web browser. You may have read some older reviews, when the Nook first came out it did not have a web browser. but in April it came out with a firmware update (v1.3) that added a web browser and really enhanced it's page turning speed and book opening and downloading performance. I find web surfer is not going to be my cup of tea on it but it's not bad.. My favorite websites like espn etc I use their mobile websites on it. then it's actually pretty decent. But it's biggest asset for the web browser is to connect to wi fi spots that require a "sign in" or a "I Agree" web connection.

4. Wi Fi only vs Wi Fi & 3G? Hmmm thats a toughy. It's basically going to depend on how much you think or may want to be able to buy books, newspapers or magazines on the fly. It's tough, Personally for my likes , I like having the 3G. I like to be able to download a newspaper no matter where I am. I also like browsing for book at work ( did I say that out loud) and then turning on my nook on the way home and have my book there waiting for me. But that's me. My wife on the other hand would have bought the wi fi only in a heart beat over the 3G.

but basically the difference is with wi fi only you can only download wirelessly when you are connected to a wi fi hotspot, either at home or when you are out either at work, cafe's, hotels or internet cafes etc.
With the 3G you can download wirelessly no matter where you are as long as you have 3G recepetion. So you can buy on the fly more easily.

but also remember you can only surf the web via the wi fi connection, which yes is a much much better web connection than 3G, so much faster. And also remember mobie websites work much better than regualar websites.

.

Also a little tip for when you are at barnes and noble getting a hands on. Spend some time with it. don't feel rushed. It does take a little learning curve to get the navigation down and the "feel" for the screen. Don't push and hold down your finger, just a nice simple tap . Also it doesn't ahve that ultra high paced reaction you would find on an iPhone or another smart phen. The concept is the same with the touch screen and finger swiping navigation but it is two technologies handshaking with each other.(LCD and eInk) so it's a tap and "tadda" tap and tadda. It's still fast and response is great but LOL it's no ipone 4. but it's really nice and once you get it down it is rather smooth. I simple love it.
I really do.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have anymore questions and of course the Nook subforum people are great and are very knowledgable

[sun surfer]

Thanks boswd! I think you answered all my questions.

I'm still wanting to hear from anyone who has a boox/neo; maybe I'll post in that forum.

Over the weekend, I went out and got some hands on on a few - Nook, Sony and Kindle. And it's only made the decision harder!

First I ran over the Best Buy because I heard about the mistake in their ads that I might get a $199 Nook with a free $50 gift card....but unfortunately they'd already put up a special sign explaining that wasn't so.

While there I tried the Nook, but they also had all three Sonys - the 300 I think, the 600 and 900, so I tried them all too.

The Nook was nice. I liked it but most things I wanted to try - wifi, note-taking and other stuff wouldn't work. The books on the device were only "samples" so you couldn't even try page-turning with them, let alone anything else.

The Sonys were nicer than I was expecting! Sorry to sound so mean about them in my last post to those of you championing them. The glare on the 600 didn't seem so bad! I actually liked it, but unfortunately it wasn't even set up to let you fool around with - you could pick it up and look at it, but the screen was on like a locked wallpaper mode that just told the features it had, without actually being able to try it out.

Thanks davidspitzer for letting me know Kindles were now sold in Target. I went there and sure enough they had them and a display. I tried it out, but like the Sonys at Best Buy, you couldn't really try it out - it was also locked on a wallpaper that told its features. I have to say though, I really liked it. Of all the ones I've seen in person, it's my favourite as far as looks. The physical keyboard is cheesy looking, but I tried it out and it seems like it'd work fine though, not too small to type quickly I don't think. The only part that was only OK-looking was that little joystick - but I might have really liked it if I could've tried out navigating onscreen with it, I don't know. Altogether though, between the ones I've seen now, if the Kindle wasn't locked to Amazon, I'd want that one. But now that I've seen it in person, it does make me want it more. Sigh, just making the decision harder!

I also made my way to a Barnes & Noble yesterday and tried out the nook there, thinking I'd get a better feel than I did in the Best Buy. It really did. B&N has a big display with knowledgeable staff there to tell you all about it and show you. I tried out pretty much everything - note-taking and highlighting, page swiping, navigating the menus, internet wikipedia and google, the in-store promotions you can get through it (the free coffee and free random e-book were OK, but I was impressed that it had a 10% off whatever coupon in there for the B&N physical store too).

Overall I liked the nook OK. It was funny, knowing what people here in these forums have said about it, that the knowledgeable staff were having trouble navigating and showing me certain features on it. But overall, like boswd said, I think it just takes a learning curve and then you're fine. From what I'm reading around here, many people who don't like it return it without getting used to it first. It's definitely not perfect - note-taking took longer than I'd want and I have to be careful while typing on that little onscreen keyboard, but it's doable. I don't think any e-reader is perfect right now; maybe in the next generation lines or the ones after that they'll start being great, but for now I think any you get will have quirks and things that aren't great.

So, I'm going to buy an e-reader this week - if I can make up my mind then as early as today. I'm pretty sure it will be either the nook, neo or Kindle. Just of those, I'm having a very hard time settling on one lol!

Of them all, I really want the neo. But now I'm even more reserved about it because I haven't heard anyone talk about them here and I can't try one out in person like I can the nook and Kindle. Add that to the twice as much price tag and it's a hard sell...but with the stylus and seeing how easy the note-making looks on youtube, it's hard to eliminate from my choices too since it's still (barely) in my price range. Overall I probably won't get it unless I just splurge and take a risk at the last minute.

Of the nook and Kindle, I like the look of the Kindle better and I hear it's easier to navigate and maybe easier to make notes with, but I can't get over how closed it is to file formats. I probably won't get the Kindle unless I decide the style and ease is more important to me than the openness.

So that means I'm still leaning towards the nook, at the moment anyway. LOL, I know I came in here a tech know-nothing with e-readers, but when I'm making a purchase like this I go into investigative journalist mode.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Were you worried about the no-return policy and how are you liking the device?

Both are available in the US. We have a 30 day money back return policy.

For more insight into the Boox/Neo try the booxusers.com forum. Its turning into an excellent resource.

[Noah98]

I think boswd sums up my thoughts exactly

I just recently had to make the decision between Nook and Kindle, and the Nook won hands down. The problem with reviews about the device is that they are mostly old and do not reflect the current performance of the device with the new firmware.

For more points about the "ereader wars" (all in good fun lol!) see my responses in this thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87874

[AndyfromVA]

I decided today to go with the Nook over the Sony PRS-300 and Kindle 2.

The Kindle 2 was very appealing because of its thinness and quick operation. But I just couldn't get over the fact that it did not allow you to access ebooks from the public library.

The Sony was very basic and simple, which I liked, and allowed access to ebooks from the library. Though I never got the chance to try it out I read in many places that it was very slow - a major negative factor.

The Nook allows access to public library ebooks. While it's not as thin or quick as the Kindle 2, it's adequate in both respects. It isn't as small as the Sony but it's significantly smaller than the Kindle 2 because it lacks the latter's keyboard, which is something I have little use for anyway. While I initially disliked the Nook's touchscreen control panel, after trying it out in the store on several occasions I got used to it and no longer consider it a problem.

All in all, the Nook had the features I wanted and did not have any serious flaws, unlike the Kindle 2 and Sony PRS-300. While it's not perfect, it's the best of the three for me.

[sun surfer]

I made my decision! I went with the nook wifi.

Thanks Dulin's for the info, it really helped my decision. That boox/neo website really helped me learn about it. While I still like the neo, after searching around there awhile, I came to the conclusion that it seems it has too many random problems that I might encounter (no refresh in sunlight, sometimes a freeze and you can't even turn the device on/off, having to manually load a dictionary, etc.), some of which I wasn't aware of, that could be hard for me to fix myself, being somewhat of a tech noob. I still think the neo sounds great but that site helped me decide not to get it now.

As for the Kindle, I'm sure I would've been happy enough with it or probably most any of the better e-readers, but I just think with its closed file format system (if it even only also supported e-pub things may have ended differently...) it's not the best fit for me now.

The closest B&N store was out of the nook wifi, but they were very helpful with everything. They called around and found that the next closest B&N had just gotten a shipment in today. I thought about just ordering it online - but I wanted it now damn it!

So I went to the other one, about 40 minutes away. The customer service there was incredible. I actually had the manager of the store waiting on me; let me tell you, once I came in saying I wanted the nook I was VIP to them. It's funny too because it seems like they're selling out of them like hotcakes, but still I got great treatment. I was fawned over the entire time I was there! And even though the nook comes with a little basic instruction booklet, they gave me an additional printed-in-store starter's guide for it too.

Just got home an took it out. It's charging up now. It's already charged some but they recommended charging it fully up before the first use.

First impressions: I love the packaging - reminds me of Apple brand packaging. And I've said before I love the look of the Kindle...but I also love the look of the nook too! Also, when I plugged it in to charge up, it automatically went to a screensaver which seems to me is Edgar Allen Poe. Screensaver is very cute.

I'm also excited about all the accessories nook has. I won't buy many, but I love the variety I have to choose from. I can even change the back cover out with different colours if I want.

I guess I shouldn't count my chickens before they've hatched since I haven't actually used it yet - but I'm still excited and I think I'm going to really enjoy it.

Now, I need to go investigate this thing called calibre everyone's talking about and see if it's something I need, and get my list of ebooks I want to download ready for once it's charged.

Thanks everyone for all your help with this! If it wasn't for this site and you guys, I probably would've by accident ended up getting an e-clusterbuck 666 reader or something similar and hating it.

So thanks!

[Elton Noway]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

What are the new ones coming out soon? It's really hard to find anything online, at least the way I'm searching.

Amazon plans to start shipping a new version on July 7th with a graphite-colored-case and an improved E-Ink screen with 50 percent better contrast than previous models. For all their power-efficient, non-reflective virtues, they’ve always looked like dark gray ink on light gray paper… like a poorly-printed paperback on cheapo newsprint. Amazon is claiming the new Kindles read like real paper. The new Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today at http://www.amazon.com and it ships July 7.

[Mickey330]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Now, I need to go investigate this thing called calibre everyone's talking about and see if it's something I need, and get my list of ebooks I want to download ready for once it's charged.

First off, congrats on your new Nook! IMNSHO, ebooks and ereaders are the best thing since sliced bread!

And, in my relentless (though obscure and unknown) quest to make sure people know how great Calibre is - by all means, use Calibre. I've used it from my beginnings as an ebook user/owner and it is more awesome than sliced bread.

Very user-friendly and intuitive library management system.

Have fun with your new "toy" and happy reading!

Marilyn

[malligator]

Congrats, sun surfer. You made a good choice (not that there is a bad one). I got the red carpet service myself on Saturday when I bought mine. In January when I went to look at a Nook for the first time there was only one in the store at the help desk. Not that the staff was rude, but they really didn't know anything about it so I was on my own. Since it was 1.0 software is was slow and clunky. I didn't leave very impressed at all. This past Saturday I walked in a side entrance and went straight to the same demo model. I was suprised that is was still the only one in the store. The woman behind the desk asked me if she could help me. I said I was just checking out the Nook. She said okay and if I had any questions I could walk over to the Nook staff. I turned around toward the front entrance and saw the Nook kiosk with staff and customers all around it. Now, this is more like it, I thought. The staff was helpful as usual and the new Nooks running 1.4 were fast and flawless so I bought one. I think 4 or 5 other people bought one while I was there. It's nice to see that B&N didn't abandon the Nook after its shaky initial release.

[bauerhjb]

Have you considered buying a netbook instead of a dedicated device? I did that and had a want list similiar to yours. Just a thought...

[sun surfer]

Thanks for the info Elton!

Mickey/Marilyn, I'm definitely looking into Calibre. I've seen it recommended too many times not to!

malligator, glad you had a good experience too. The in-store experience right now is definitely very nice.

bauerhjb, lol I know this may sound stupid but I'm not even sure what a netbook is. Is it like one of those really cheap little computers? They might have what I want as far as features, but I'm mainly getting this for ease of reading and those wouldn't be as comfortable as e-readers while I'm in bed (where I do a lot of reading at night).



As far as the nook, I'm still loving it. I thought I wouldn't care about the colour screen at the bottom, but I'm finding it's actually very nice to see the cover of a book while I'm browsing the store. I also LOVE the page swipe option while you're reading. And I've already played one game of Sudoku just to try it out.

The keyboard isn't nearly as cumbersome as I thought it was going to be. I've only barely used it and am finding I can type much more quickly and accurately than I thought I would be able to. Neither is the menu cumbersome - I've already gotten the hang of it and seems relatively easy and straightforward to me. I guess I went in thinking everything may be subpar and so am being pleasantly surprised.

But anyway, it is still just my first day with it so we'll see. So far anyway it's great.

I do love this on the Daily/blogs part under "Your New Nook":

"Congratulations on your new nook! We're sure it will give you many years of trouble-free enjoyment until next week, when we come out with a newer version."

And at the end of that same blog under "How To Contact Us":

"If you have questions, or need to get in touch with us for any reason, simply hold your nook to your mouth and speak directly into it, using a calm and gentle voice."