At first glance The Nook made me want to read books without pictures. Right now I read comic books/graphic novels. I’m happy with that, but last night when I first touched The Nook, I really wanted one. The device felt like a first class device and in my opinion the premier ebook reader. You know that same feeling when you open a really shiny gadget and you just want to keep it with you forever. I felt that way with the Nook. It’s a really classy looking device. Keep in mind the entire time I was dr0oling, I hadn’t pushed a single button on it. I was judging this book by its cover. HAHAHA!

The device is built well. The Nook has a soft grey rubbery silicone back. It is really nice to the touch. The soft backing is much more comfortable to hold than a hard piece of plastic. Secondly the body of the reader is slightly curved so that the face is rounded out. This is also similar to how a normal book arcs. The curve provides kind of a grip too for your fingers to rest in. Another fancy feature about the backing of the ebook is that it is removable. You can peel it off to expose the rechargeable battery and microSD card slot. Drop in a card to supplement the onboard 2GB if you desire. Also, the ebook reader is very light; it’s only 11 ounces. You could throw it in your bag and not even know you’re carrying it. It’s Great for backpacks and purses. You know who you are, you girls with purses that carry a week’s worth of laundry. You just might lose this thing in there.

The face has a bright white border with four buttons. Each side of the screen has two buttons, back and forward. This allows for one or two handed navigation. And as expected the eInk screen looks just like a paper. Right below the eInk screen is a color touch screen. This is where thing start to go south.

I really didn’t like the touch screen. It isn’t nearly as responsive as the touch screens I’m used to (iPhone and Android Phones). Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice, but it’s not as fluid as one would expect for a product entirely dependent on its touch screen for navigation. There is a a long lag in between menus and the home button is a little buggy. I noticed every time I pressed the home button the screen would reset to home but then automatically switch to the search menu. It did this about three times until I could get it to just stop at the main menu. It’s just weird, like it wasn’t completely thought out. I hope they issue a software update on it soon to make the color touch screen a bit more user friendly.

Finally I was able to browse the preloaded library and select a book. I started reading the book and I really enjoyed the experience. Now I’m not a heavy reader. Like I said above I read mainly graphic novels. So I was okay with the flashing during the page switch. However, I think big time readers may not. Let me explain. When one advances or goes back a page they push the back or forward buttons on the face of the book. The eInk screen then flashes and a new page pops up in about three to four seconds. This process is much slower than just “turning the page”. So big time readers who can read fast are going to get slowed down by this a lot. I also want to make it clear that I did not fiddle with the settings so there might be a setting to make this thing faster. Since it wasn’t a nuisance to me I didn’t care to look. Sorry.

Overall, I like it, don’t love it. B&N needs to issue some firmware upgrades and speed it up a bit. If it supported graphic novels, maybe I’d own it. Here’s a summary of its features:

• Access to Barnes and Noble Book Library
• Download via AT&T 3G and Wifi
• Built in 2GB
• Charge through Micro USB
• Reading Battery Life of 10 Days
• eBook Sharing — limited
• MP3 Player
• On Board Mono Speaker
• Personalized Screen Saver
• Add files from your computer

Below are a few hands on photos of The Nook:

Website: nook.com

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