Classic Finally used a nook....

[crutnacker]

Saw one at B&N. The entire time I was there, nobody appeared to have any interest in it, which could be due, in part, to the fact that it's on display at the service desk.

I was prepared to dislike it, but didn't. Here are my thoughts in the brief time I used it.

• UI was not as difficult to figure out as portrayed
• Reviewers that said the touch interface makes you want to touch the ink display were absolutely correct
• The color screen looks nice, but isn't really a killer feature (in my opinion)
• E Ink was crisp and easy to read
• Unit feels solid and well made
• Page forward button and backward button should be flipped. My thumb landed where the back button is. HOlding it in the position where it falls on the page forward button gives it an awkward balance.
• Page turns are slow, but not horrible.
• Unit looks like very good.

Overall, I was more impressed than I figured I would be.

[Fuzzykinz]

That's the boat I am in... I ordered mine with the intention of paying the twenty-six bucks and returning it after a week of play..

Everything that irked me about it could be easily fixed with a firmware update, and with BN having no history with this kind of thing, whether or not they deliver on that is up in the air, In my super humble opinion.

The only thing I found absolutely horrible was attempting to high-light a word... but that could just be my amazing hand-eye coordination.

Fresh opinions are always appreciated and welcome, it helps avoid the Nokia-esque fanboyism that is slowly conquering the interwebs.

~Fuzzeh

[Not_A_Crook]

I tried it out, I agree with everything you said except for mistaking the E-Ink as a touch display.

It's really not that hard to distinguish between the two.

(Sorry if this sounds snappy, I just dont see how enthusiasts miss the difference.)

EDIT: The EPD/E-ink is not slow to me one bit.

[JJoyce]

For me it's not an issue of mistaking the e-ink as a touch screen.

I know the e-ink isn't touch sensitive.

But like the reviews have mention and crutnacker reiterated....For some reason, the touch screen does make you (or me at least) instinctively try to select something on the e-ink screen. Sometimes I catch myself before doing other, other times, I've already tapped before awareness catchs up with reflex..

[crutnacker]

I think it was a combination of owning an iPhone with similar touch capabilities and having the touch screen on the bottom that told my brain, "TOUCH THERE". It probably wouldn't be hard to overcome, but in my initial use I found myself doing it multiple times.

[pbennett]

Sounds like you need to use it some more. I spent about thirty minutes with one in a B&N store and came away *very* unimpressed. It has some *serious* speed issues and some *serious* usability issues. Searching is completely broken - you can't search anything globally unless you purchased it from B&N. When searching, you're forced to step through each match one at a time [with a large delay between each match]. The Kindle shows all matches up front [almost instantly] with context and lets you quickly jump to the appropriate match.

Looking up words in the dictionary is pretty much completely unusable. You first have to activate the touchscreen (which presumably would be off after reading for a little bit). Even doing this never seemed to work consistently on the store unit. Then you have to scroll the menu up to expose the Look Up option (which also was flaky as the scrolling gesture wouldn't always stick). You pick look up, then you get a four-way control so that you can *slooowwwllyyy* move a highlight on screen to the word you want to look up in the dictionary. Once you eventually get there (and I mean eventually) you then click look up, wait a second while it tells you its looking it up, and.... most of the time, the word wouldn't be found. So... all that time and it wasn't even in the dictionary. With the Kindle2, a bunch of rapid clicks on the 5-way navigation nub and the cursor is on the word very quickly - if it's in the dictionary the abbreviated definition (usually more than enough) appears at the bottom of the screen within a half second. If I want the full definition I just hit enter.

I never would've thought the Kindle 2 was an example of great design, but after using the Nook, it really makes me think Amazon got way more right than I ever would've thought.

It crashed on me once [I had to pick force quit at one time]. I downloaded a sample of a book that never appeared (after about 15 minutes). I searched for a word [from a B&N downloaded book!] from the main screen that wasn't found that was found when in the book itself. I could go on. As open as I tried to be about the Nook I came away thinking, wow, that thing is a real mess. The 3 B&N employees I talked to about it didn't seem real thrilled with it either.

Maybe after it's had some updates it might not be the total disaster that IMO it is now, but I think having to use the touchscreen for everything but prev/next page is actually a pretty serious hindrance. The additional hard 5-way navigation and back buttons [ignoring the keyboard - which I think is probably fine as virtual only] make a huge difference in usability.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by pbennett

Sounds like you need to use it some more. I spent about thirty minutes with one in a B&N store and came away *very* unimpressed. It has some *serious* speed issues and some *serious* usability issues.

...As open as I tried to be about the Nook I came away thinking, wow, that thing is a real mess. The 3 B&N employees I talked to about it didn't seem real thrilled with it either.

Maybe after it's had some updates it might not be the total disaster that IMO it is now, but I think having to use the touchscreen for everything but prev/next page is actually a pretty serious hindrance. The additional hard 5-way navigation and back buttons [ignoring the keyboard - which I think is probably fine as virtual only] make a huge difference in usability.

It may be that the in store demo models have already been abused and are no longer representative of the nook. I have played with a number of Sony ereader display models, and never have I found one that worked well. Given the love that a lot of members here have for their Sonys, I can only assume that those demo models were not representative either.

[HorridRedDog]

I have a Staples store and a Borders Book store right next to each other. Both have an active Sony display where you can test out the ereaders.

The demo units for the PRS-600 differed in the amount of force needed to "turn" the page. The point being is that, yes one demo may behave diferently than another.

The other point is that the nook was rushed out for Christmass (they tried to anyway). The complaints I have read sound like the nook is at a "pre-production beta" level.

I'm sure that the problems can be fixed with a little more time and effort on B&N's part. We see ereaders as an expensive toy that we WANT. They see it as part of the future of publishing, and a major financial risk. So yes, they will fix it.

[Musicman]

It is interesting reading the negative remarks made by some who have tried the nook demos, since my experience using the demos is quite different.

I found the e-ink page turns are comparable with other devices and the touch screen was fine (once you got use to how to use it). I downloaded books and magazines to the store device without a problem. So I see a disconnect here with some of the negatives on these issues.

I am interested in seeing the review of someone who has used their own nook for more than a few minutes. That will be truely an evaluation you could take seriously. Mine will be here tomorrow and I am looking forward really putting it through its paces.

[luqmaninbmore]

I tried out three nooks in two different stores here in Maryland. Two of them were crap. One worked well. The one in Annapolis was slow in booting up, slow in navigation, slow in loading books, and slow in turning pages. My wife became very frustrated dealing with it; she is not super tech-savy, but she is used to the Kindle 1 and the Sony 700. Both of those devices performed circles around the nook. The devices I tried in Ellicott City were like night and day. One worked acceptably, even when taking notes (which I liked). The other was a true crap-gadget. It kept on giving me the force-close errors that I get from time to time on my G1. Even the touch-screen was laggy when I tried the cover-flow option. I've owned many ebook reading devices (many different Sonys, a Kindle 1, a Pocketbook 360, a Cybook Gen 3, and an Ebookwise) and I have not come across one as buggy as this. The closest match is the Sony 500, but that one would crash only if I fed it something really challenging. The Nook in Annapolis had this wierd dematerializing-rematerializing page flash, not the normal one you get with e-ink (it was also different from what you get on the Gen3 when you disabled page-flashing). I'm all for getting free cookies when I walk into B and N, but they have to seriously upgrade the firmware before I'll consider buying it. Has anybody figured out the processor speed? It's not possible that they skimped on the processor (i.e., it's less than the at least 400 mghz that seems to be standard on high-end e-ink devices these days), is it? I've noticed that the technical specs have not been released.

[Mac Jones]

I think we will know what's what only after using it for a while.

After all, it is a pretty simple device with basically one purpose: Buy books really quick, and read them without much discomfort.

Having a dog slow page turner with convoluted interface (as some suggest) might mar the experience; but I have one and it seems ok.

[PaulGuy]

Originally Posted by Musicman

I am interested in seeing the review of someone who has used their own nook for more than a few minutes.

Well my nook arrived this past Tuesday and I’ve had some time to play with it. First of all the nook is a beautiful device from a hardware perspective. The e-ink display has nice contrast and the ability to select different fonts (3 currently) is a nice feature. The refresh rate or page turn is slower than my Kindle but not absurdly so. The touch screen interface is a nice approach but its response time seems inconsistent. Sometimes it works as one would expect, sometimes it seems very sluggish. I had no trouble figuring out how to use it and for the most part it is pretty intuitive. Some functions though are painful to use compared to Kindle’s interface the most obvious being the dictionary (word look-up) which is cumbersome and slow compared to Kindle’s joy stick type navigation and definition preview window.

The first day with my nook went smoothly and had me wondering what everyone was complaining about. Then came day two. On day two I turned on my nook and it’s functions had slowed to a crawl. I’d tap the “My Library” icon and nothing would happen. After waiting 5 seconds I tried again then 3 seconds later the red icon flashed white, and took me to my library. Finally it froze up completely and I could not get it to work at all. I checked the owners manual looking for instructions on how to re-boot and could find none, in fact, there isn’t a trouble shooting section at all. Calling customer service I was told how to re-boot and that fixed the issues. The battery life seems very short (2 days?) so I’m putting it into airplane mode when I don’t need wireless running. The color screen at factory brightness is too bright and a distraction from the e-ink screen but is adjustable. I set mine at 10% brightness which seems just right. The page turn swipes are nice when they work annoying when they don’t.

But all these problems are a result of B&N’s unfortunate choice to rush a v1.0 product to market before it was ready. The design and concept of the device seems sound to me and the device is a beautiful piece of hardware. The problems cited can and I’m sure will all be corrected via firmware upgrades so the nook in my opinion will be Kindle’s first real competition once the bugs get sorted out and it gets “up to speed”.

Many of us employ screensaver hacks on our Kindles but you don’t need them with nook. Just create a set of images in a folder and put that folder in the screen savers folder. Your set will now appear as an menu option to select from, nice, easy.

The B&N equivalent to Amazon’s “Manage your Kindle” webpage is pretty spartan and has a long way to go compared to Amazon's. Oh yes, as an example of a not fully evolved concept, you can download eBook samples just like the Kindle, but once on your nook you can’t delete them! You have to go on-line to your account to do that.

All said nook is not the “Kindle Killer” so many in the tech world seemed to be dreaming of (for reasons I don’t get) and the Kindle in contrast seems much more polished and easy to use. However once the nook reaches it’s true potential which I feel can be done via firmware not nook2, it will be a real, viable competitor which can only be good for everyone.

[HorridRedDog]

The nook is probably what I will get - - - - latter.

Lets face it, B&N is in such a rush to get the nook out that quality control is going to take a back seat.

On the software side that is no big problem. They can fix that.

But on the hardware side the only fix may be to send it back and hope for a better replacement.

[tautologico]

I've seen a few reports of "day 2" issues like these. Also the fact that different devices seem to behave differently regarding speed and bugs. I think it's an indication that the current firmware is really bad software. I think they'll have to go through some iterations before the nook is truly good.

I hope B&N fixes this and releases the nook internationally, I'd like a cool-looking reader for epub files. But I'd not buy a nook right now.

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by PaulGuy

Well my nook arrived this past Tuesday and I’ve had some time to play with it. First of all the nook is a beautiful device from a hardware perspective. The e-ink display has nice contrast and the ability to select different fonts (3 currently) is a nice feature. The refresh rate or page turns is slower than my Kindle but not absurdly so. The touch screen interface is a nice approach but its response time seems inconsistent. Sometimes it works as one would expect, sometimes it seems very sluggish. I had no trouble figuring out how to use it and for the most part it is pretty intuitive. Some functions though are painful to use compared to Kindle’s interface the most obvious being the dictionary (word look-up) which is cumbersome and slow compared to Kindle’s joy stick type navigation and definition preview window.

The first day with my nook went smoothly and had me wondering what everyone was complaining about. Then came day two. On day two I turned on my nook and it’s functions had slowed to a crawl. I’d tap the “My Library” icon and nothing would happen. After waiting 5 seconds I tried again then 3 seconds later the red icon flashed white, and took me to my library. Finally it froze up completely and I could not get it to work at all. I checked the owners manual looking for instructions on how to re-boot and could find none, in fact, there isn’t even a trouble shooting section at all. Calling customer service I was told how to re-boot and that fixed the issues. The battery life seems very short (2 days?) so I’m putting it into airplane mode when I don’t need wireless running. The color screen at factory brightness is too bright and a distraction from the e-ink screen but is adjustable. I set mine at 10% brightness which seems just right. The page turn swipes are nice when they work annoying when they don’t.

But all these problems are a result of B&N’s unfortunate choice to rush a v1.0 product to market before it was ready. The design and concept of the device seems sound to me and the device is a beautiful piece of hardware. The problems cited can and I’m sure will all be corrected via firmware upgrades so the nook in my opinion will be Kindle’s first real competition once the bugs get sorted out and it gets “up to speed”.

Many of us employ screensaver hacks on our Kindles but you don’t need them with nook. Just created a set of images in a folder and put that folder in the screen savers folder. Your set will now appear as option to select from, nice, easy.

The B&N equivalent to Amazon’s “Manage your Kindle” webpage is pretty spartan and has a long way to go compared to Amazons. Oh yes, as an example of a not fully evolved concept, you can download eBook samples just like the Kindle, but once on your nook you can’t delete them! You have to go on-line to your account to do that.

All said nook is not the “Kindle Killer” so many in the tech world seemed to dreaming of (for reasons I don’t get) and the Kindle in contrast seems much more polished and easy to use. However once the nook reaches it’s true potential which I feel can be done via firmware not nook2, it will be a real, viable competitor which can only be good for everyone.

Thanks for your review.

I tried the look up at B&N today and I did not think it was that terrible, but again I had nothing to compare it to.

The lock up you had, did it only happen that once or has it been a continual problem?

The battery life issue is something that I would be concerned with if it does not last at least a few days with the wireless off.

I am not looking to it as a Kindle Killer - I just want an e-ink device that reads my Ereader DRM books and will read library books (Adobe DRM). I am more concerned with how well it functions as a reading device - The text was sharp and clear - the page turns were OK (using the buttons).

I got Dracula the Undead in Epub format from my library and the f ormat on my EZ-Reader is horrible (Huge Margins of white). I downloaded the book at B&N on the demo nook and ran into the 15 seconds or so of formatting message at the largest font; however once it came up it was excellent.

Mine should be here tomorrow and after I use it a while I'll let you know how good or bad I find it.

I also think that strong competition will be beneficial to all of us e-book readers no matter what device we use.