Kindle vs Nook (Again)
UPDATE: 11/07/11 – Nook Touch price reduced to $ 99.
It seems like only yesterday that I posted on the Kindle vs Nook struggle – in fact it was only back in August – but things have changed quite a bit over the last few days. Amazon’s unveiling of a whole host of new Kindle readers, plus the new Kindle Fire tablet computer, means that the dynamics of the ebook reader market, not to mention the tablet computer market, have changed dramatically again.
In fact, the earlier Kindle vs Nook comparison is still valid since it put the Nook Touch head to head with the Kindle 3. As Amazon are going to keep the Kindle 3 on the market – the only change being that it is now called the “Kindle Keyboard” – apart from changing the name, the review still stands.
There are now so many different variants of the Kindle reader, that it’s difficult to know which one to compare with the various competing readers. Visitors to Amazon’s Kindle page will note that there are now no fewer than 6 Kindles displayed in a bar across the top of the page for you to compare. That includes the Kindle Fire – but not the DX. Read into that what you will.
And that doesn’t take into account the other option of with/without “Special Offers”. In fact, there are now so many different Kindle options available, that some websites have dedicated large amounts of space to help you decide which Kindle is best for you. At least one well known gadget type blog has taken it upon itself to publish a flow chart to assist prospective buyers to navigate through the various options and arrive at the Kindle which is just right for them.
However, for the purposes of this exercise, it seems to make sense to compare the Nook Touch with the Kindle Touch Wi-Fi edition. Not too many people seem to object to Amazon’s “Special Offers” approach – the ads are just on the screen saver pages anyway, so you won’t find them intrusive – so the comparison chart below compares the Nook Touch with the Kindle Wi-Fi Special Offers model.
Nook Touch vs Kindle Touch Wi-Fi (With Special Offers)
|
Nook Touch |
Kindle Touch |
|
| Size (inches) |
6.5 x 5.0 x 0.47 |
6.8 x 4.7 x 0.4 |
| Weight (oz) |
7.48 |
7.5 |
| Display |
6” Pearl e-ink technology with infrared touch controls |
6” Pearl e-ink technology with infrared touch controls |
| On board memory (GB) |
2 |
4 |
| Extra Memory |
Micro SD up to 32GB |
Free cloud storage (Amazon content) |
| Battery Life |
2 months |
2 months |
| Connectivity |
Wi-Fi |
Wi-Fi |
| Keypad |
Virtual touch screen |
Virtual touch screen |
| Orientation |
Portrait only |
Portrait only |
| Price |
A Few Points To Note
User Experience
The Kindle Touch won’t start shipping until November the 21st. Apart from a few journalists, not many have touched it or played around with it. Even those journalist who did attend last Wednesday’s Amazon press conference were more interested in the Kindle Fire. So it won’t be possible to judge how user friendly the new Kindle is in a hands-on test for a few weeks yet.
Price Difference And Adverts (Special Offers)
The price difference of $ 40 does seem significant. Fans of the Nook will point out that it has no adverts on it, and that’s a fair point. Moving to the Kindle “no special offers”, will cost you another $ 40 and the Nook and the Kindle achieve price parity.
B&N has just reduced the price of the Nook Simple Touch to $99. And, as their adverts say, there are “no annoying adverts”.
However, based upon the popularity of the existing Kindles with Special Offers to date, that doesn’t seem to be something that bothers a fairly high percentage of the buying public. The adverts only appear on the screen saver pages and at the bottom of the home page. They don’t pop up half way through an especially interesting passage in your latest blockbuster novel. But, if you really don’t like the idea of ads, then you do have the choice of paying extra and getting rid of them.
I suspect that not many will take up that option. I also suspect that the Nook price will be coming down sometime in the fairly near future.
Memory
Amazon continue to out-gun B&N with 4GB of on-board memory compared to 2GB. That’s the difference between 3,000 books and 1,500 books. In practical terms, it doesn’t really matter very much for most people.
In a similar way, the inclusion of a slot for an SD card is not, in practical terms, very significant at all for the vast majority of people. Even so, it does seem to be a topic which is frequently raised, and it is clearly something which many prospective customers view as a desirable option. Amazon has gotten around this rather neatly, without increasing cost by the addition of a (largely useless) SD slot, thanks to their “unlimited cloud storage space” feature.
Once that price disparity is addressed, we are looking at two very good readers here. Which one you choose is entirely a matter of your own personal preferences.
Back to ebook reader home – or have a look at Wi-Fi only Kindle Kindle Touch Kindle Fire
Seems to me that the Kindle Touch is the better buy in both features and price. Having said that if I was going to buy an eBook reader I would be buying the Kindle Fire. Now that one really looks great.
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It depends upon what you want it for – but I think you’re right – the Fire is going to prove very popular. The price alone will make it a good choice for many people.
A few things.
1. People always compare the ad-driven kindle to the ad-free nook. If they didn’t show this kind of bias, the price would be the same.
2. For “Extra Memory” you mention a micro sd slot in the nook, but instead of saying “None” for the kindle you justify it by saying “Free cloud storage (Amazon content)”. This is all well and good, but why didn’t you mention the ability to archive books bought at B&N to free up space and re-download them later from B&N as well as an (up to) 32gb micro sd card? This is the exact same thing as Amazons cloud. Again, the biased is very obvious.
3. Why, at the bottom of the “chart”, is there a link to the kindle, but not the nook? I’m beginning to think amazon paid you for your “comparison”.
4. Why didn’t you mention that the nook has physical page buttons while the kindle doesn’t? Or epub support?
“Amazon continue to out-gun B&N with 4GB of on-board memory compared to 2GB.” Out-Gun? But then you call the ability to add 8x more space than the kindle “not, in practical terms, very significant at all”. And that “Amazon has gotten around this rather neatly without increasing cost by the addition of a (largely useless) SD slot thanks to their “unlimited cloud storage space” feature” which you can also do with B&N, but again, you failed to mention that, didn’t you?
Why did you even bother? You could have just said “the kindle is great and the nook isn’t. So there.”
Sir Loyne,
I have compared the “ad-driven” Kindle with the ad-free Nook as they are both the standard model. Based upon Amazon’s sales rankings, there isn’t a lot of evidence to suggest that many people are bothered by the ads – or at least not bothered enough to fork out the extra cash to get rid of them. I specifically pointed out that, if you want the Kindle without ads, then the Nook and the Kindle “achieve price parity”. Not sure how I can make that any clearer.
It is something that you are going to see more and more of. Amazon has, with the latest batch of Kindles, made the “Special Offers” their standard. What most people, including me, would previously have thought of as the standard model is now being referred to as the “Kindle Without Special Offers”. It almost makes it sound as if you’re missing out on something by paying the extra to get the special offers removed.
Re the extra memory, I don’t say none because that is not the case. The cloud storage is, in my opinion, a rather neat workaround by Amazon to the whole SD slot debate. Most people don’t care much about this and it is, again my opinion, of limited value – at this time. Nevertheless, there are those who seem to value the option to have extra memory, and the Amazon solution will probably satisfy most consumers. B&N’s archive facility is also available, and I did not mention this.
I do not put too many external links in any post. Most are to other posts or pages in this blog. That is why – in this post at least – there is a Kindle link but not a Nook link. You may find links to B&N’s website and the Nook in other posts and pages.
Good point re the physical buttons on the Nook. I do suspect that this is a major advantage for the Nook, but until people have the opportunity to get their hands on the Kindle Touch we can’t know if this is something which consumers will consider to be important (my opinion – it is). Personally, I prefer page turns with buttons and (some) other functions with touch. Each to his own.
In fact, I do think that the Kindle is great. I also think that the Nook is great – feel free to check out some of the other posts on this blog. I believe that there is room in the market for both the Nook and the Kindle and that, when all’s said and done, they are both excellent pieces of kit which will satisfy the needs of most consumers.
Hence my parting comment –
“we are looking at two very good readers here. Which one you choose is entirely a matter of your own personal preferences“.
I enjoyed your review. I had been curious about the different specs of the devices between Kindle and Nook Touch. I am curious as to your opinion about how much the hardware plays a role in buyers’ decisions versus the software.
I also wanted to note that the Kindle Touch page on Amazon shows a picture of the home page of the device with ads. So it looks the the ad cotent is spreading beyond the screen saver. Amazon hasn’t made a big deal about this, but some users may have an unpleasant surprise. I agree with you, some folks will like the Special Offers and may see this ad placement as a bonus. It’s not as if the ads appear in the text of the books.
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Personally, I think that the hardware should be secondary. It should obviously be functional, but after you’ve been using your ebook reader for a couple of hours, you shouldn’t be aware that you’re using a reader rather than leafing through the pages of a paperback.
The ads are definitely mainstream now and are the default option I feel. It’s interesting the way Amazon now refer to the “Kindle With Special Offers” and the “Kindle Without Special Offers”. It almost makes it sound as if you’re missing out if you don’t go down the Special Offers route.
Anyone who buys a special offers Kindle can go into their Kindle account and turn off the ads later if they wish – but they will have to pay a few dollars more. It’s not such a big risk to take.
I agree, hardware should be secondary and I do find that when I’m immersed in a book I forget that I’m reading it on a Kindle.
That’s good to know you can decide to turn off the ads later. You’re right, why not buy the special offers Kindle to see if it bothers you? As you said, you may feel as if you’re missing out if you don’t get the special offers!
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I really like thr specs for Kindle Fire with the price of it is being offered. It should prove to be a good eReader and a tablet at the same time.
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It should be noted that your current e-book library (should you have one) will naturally factor into your decision in an e-reader upgrade. Nook and Kindle continue to use proprietary e-book formats, so your possession of any previously purchased NookBooks or Kindle books should be very influential on which e-reader your choose, especially considering just how comparable the devices are.
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Nook and Kindle continue to use proprietary e-book formats
Actually only the kindle uses a proprietary format, .azw
The nook however, while drm protected, uses .epub
According to wikipedia… “The EPUB format is rapidly gaining popularity and as of 2011 is the most widely supported vendor-independent XML-based e-book format.
And… “The only notable device lacking integrated support for the EPUB format is the Amazon Kindle
This is true – although whether you want to define the “industry standard” based upon the number of manufacturers who use a particular format, or whether you want to consider the number of books that are sold in any particular format is open to debate.
I think that Amazon will need to, if not change to, at least cope with EPub at some point in future.
At this time, in my opinion, the DRM is a much more important issue. It is controlled by the publishers rather than Amazon, B&N etc. and, makes the formatting issues somewhat irrelevant – for the time being at least.
Sir Loyne – I know that you feel I am biased in favour of the Kindle, so I will provide an example of bad practice in regards to the Kindle only at this time – but it applies across the board pretty much.
Amazon has set up the Kindle and Kindle books so that you can lend books to your friends and family for a two week period (during which time you won’t be able to access it – just like a “real” book). However, this function can be turned off by the publisher of the book – and as far as I can see, it very often (usually?) is.
In short, it is very difficult (though not impossible) to transfer ebooks from one reader to another, even when the two readers are exactly the same. It’s something that will be addressed by standard formatting in future – but prior to that happening, there needs to be some common approach to DRM by publishers.
“…although whether you want to define the “industry standard” based upon the number of manufacturers who use a particular format, or whether you want to consider the number of books that are sold in any particular format is open to debate.”
I’m really going to have to go with door #1 here. The format that everybody but 1 supports would be the “industry standard”. I think most everyone would agree with that. Otherwise it would be like saying that since Apple sells more songs than any one single website, AAC would be digital musics “industry standard”, which is clearly NOT the case. I can’t see how that could even be considered “open for debate”.
Hey – love the site.
Starting to see Headway everywhere.
Good in-depth article.
I’m not looking to buy, I’m still a book man, but if I change my mind, I know where to come.
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Thanks for the comment Keith. You stick to “real” books if that’s what you prefer. You can’t beat a good read either way.
Nook Touch for sure. Personal point of view: 1) Although NT is fully IR touch screen, I always use page-turn buttons on both side rather than tapping the screen. I do really love those buttons. 2) It’s an ANDROID !!!
Hey Ari – glad to hear that you’re pleased with your Nook. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Personally, I think that the omission of physical page turn buttons on the new Kindle might be something of an oversight by Amazon.
I think that the ability to root the nook touch and sideload applications, including the kindle app, is amazing and make it the reader of choice for a person looking for books in libraries other than Amazon.
I own a rooted nook and can also read mobi books, epub, prc and also bought a couple of applications to read PDF. So far I have had a great experience.
Should I examine a reader who locks me only to my Amazon’s library? No, thanks.
this Nook sounds brilliant, i hate it when i have to go through loads of adverts, i can actually get stuck in the novel without adverts popping up especially when i am at at a really interesting bit.
The adverts on the Kindle with Special Offers are only on the screen saver pages and the menu – so they shouldn’t pop up when you’re at an interesting bit. However, some people won’t like them even on the screen savers for sure.
Excellent comparison, thank you – I’ve been tabbing back and forth between two pages trying to commit to one Touch purchase or the other.
Out of curiosity, when it comes to supported file formats, the Kindle Touch specs list support for “HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.”
Any clue what this means? What would they be converted to? I know the unsupported EPub format can be easily converted to a supported MOBI format, but I don’t think it’s referring to that sort of conversion.
Hi!
I really enjoyed reading your blog, especially the comments that follows.
I do feel that Kindle touch will do better on the market than Nook touch with features like the x-ray and EasyReach. Free cloud storage is also definitely a striker.
Come November 21, and we should be able share more of our experiences.
Hey Joel,
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Kindle Touch doesn’t do better on the market than the Nook. Both readers seem to be very good – the Nook may even have a slight edge – but with Amazon’s content library, brand recognition and marketing machine at its back, the Kindle seems certain to succeed.
It will be very interesting to get feed back from user’s hands-on experience once it starts shipping.
My concern is not so much about the specs (since they are so close) but that as an Amazon user (Have a few books purchased for Kindle, Cloud Music user, Amazon Digital Movie watcher, and big Amazon Purchaser, oh yes, Prime member), is my decision already made for me and I should not consider Nook?
I think my decision is really whether I want the black and white version that reads better outside, or I want the color version that can do more stuff, but does not work outside.
I value your thoughts on this.
Hey Jon,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I would suspect that, as you say, your decision is already made for you. If you’re a big Amazon user, and a Prime member into the bargain, then you are probably going with a Kindle of some description.
If you are wanting a device mainly to read, I recommend the monochrome reader. It really is like reading text on paper – and I actually prefer it to reading a real book these days – but that’s just my opinion. It’s obviously not good for surfing the web or watching video – but if you have other means to do that then the reader is a good choice. It’s also a lot cheaper!
On the other hand, if you want to surf the web or watch video when you’re out and about, the Fire would be the one for you.
Whichever one you go for, I hope that you enjoy your purchase. Maybe if you hang on for a few weeks someone will treat you for Christmas!
Best Regards
This is a great post for me. With the great review and all the comments after it, it’s really helpful. I’ve been considering buying my husband the kindle for Christmas – probably the monochrome one, as he is a real booky book man – not one for video and the like.
I did want to check it against the Nook but this has pretty much convinced me- Kindle it is.
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Hello Debbie,
Thanks for the comment and the kind words.
If your hubby is a real booky book man, he will probably like the e-ink display of the monochrome readers a lot better. They are much better for reading on over long periods of time.
I just hope that he’s getting you something equally nice for Christmas!
One thing people always forget: It doesn’t matter if we love the Nook, you can’t buy it outside the USA.
Hey Fred,
Good point – but, just at the moment, you can’t get the Kindle Touch outside the USA either.
However, the fact that the Kindle, in some forms at least, is available worldwide, is a huge advantage for Amazon.
People are building up their libraries of Kindle books. When/If B&N go global, there will be a lot of people who won’t consider their reader as it would either lose their content or just be too much trouble to have it converted.
Hey Thamisgith,
I love electronics and gadgets and even though I never owned an e-Reader before, it looks very interesting, I especially love the wi-fi feature.
I think I’m going to go for Nook Touch though, I love controlling the size using SD cards.
Thanks for sharing Thamisgith.
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Hey Sayed,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Have fun with your Nook!
please describe how to turn a text document into a pdf document and how to transfer to to either device
Great review. One quick question. In terms of books available for the nook and kindle, which has more?
Hi Ted,
Thanks for the comment. I think B&N claim about 2 million books for the Nook and Amazon claim “over a million” with a further 1.8 million out-of-copyright books available as free downloads.
To be honest, whether you opt for Amazon or B&N, I think you’ll have plenty to read!
Good review, and I have been partial to the Nook, although I own a Sony reader. This was mostly because of the limited formats on the Kindle, and their previous inability to borrow from the library, which I do often. Now that the Kindle has that capability, nobody talks about this benefit, nor the fact that users can do this on the Kindle via wireless, without having to hook up to their pc via usb, and use the cumbersome ADE software. This is a HUGE benefit for me, and has swayed me to buy the Kindle, as BN has no idea when they will have this available. Get with the times BN!
Hey KLC – thanks for the comment. Whatever happened to Sony eh? They had the PRS on the market way before the Kindle, and it was a great reader, but they just seem to have lost the will to compete in the market as a serious player. Anyway – have fun with your Kindle!
Love the reviews. I have had the Kindle 2 for a couple years and I really enjoy it. I just received the Kindle Touch and wow what a difference. As far as the Nook debate… I’m an author and most of my friends have published more with Kindle than BN. I love BN but my hand has been forced with Kindle for two reasons: I bought my Kindle before BN entered the market and they pretty much have a bulk of the market with new authors.
Hi Chris,
Glad you liked the review. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
B&N have lagged behind Amazon a little it’s true – but at least they’re still in the game. I do kind of like the way that, when other booksellers and publishers were wringing their hands and announcing that “the sky is falling”, B&N just got on with it and went after Amazon they way they did. In truth, I think B&N will continue to lag Amazon, but not by such a long way, in future. I think that ebooks and ebook readers are going to develop into a market not dissimilar to Coke and Pepsi at some point in future.
I read something in this conversation that gave me the impression that Kindle and Nook will not operate outside the US. That doesn’t seem possible to me, but, as I’m considering a purchase chiefly for traveling outside the US, it’s a very important consideration. If I have an e-reader will I be able to access my books while in another hemisphere?
Hello EBB,
The Kindle will work fine outside of the US. You can get more details at this page …
The Nook will also work outside the US – but you may find it difficult to make new purchase. See B&N’s advice here…
I have a Kindle 3 wifi, that probably I will give to my mother, so I’m thinking to buy a new reader. Just back from a store where I played with both. My impressions: from reading point of view the two readers are almost identical. I don’t care too much about user interface, only the provided services. So text-to-speech doesn’t count. Browser – almost never use. I can reach the books on both, seeing only the screen I probably wouldn’t be able to find out which reader I am looking at.
But. No one talks about pdf reflow. I know, Amazon offers “the cloud” to convert the pdf files, but it is not the same thing as Nook’s reflow. On Nook you really can read pdf. At least on Kindle 3 there is some kind of zoom possibility, but on Kindle touch – nothing. And believe me, it could be a serious issue, just take a look on this: http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php?topic=38792.0
Up until now I was sure I want Kindle, but that changed to not sure…
Hi Geri,
Thanks for the comment.
I think that some people do talk about pdf reflow – hence your link to the Kindleboards forum.
I’m not convinced that everyone a) is very excited about it or b) thinks that it’s necessarily a good thing. I suppose it’s a matter of personal choice and one that you should take into account when choosing a reader.
I just got a nook touch for my girlfriend. I based my decision on the fact that the nook seems more open. From what I gather the kindle only works with books bought from amazon. The nook supports e books from anywhere I believe, including google books, (which I have uses on my android phone. With the sd slot you could load up all your books that you have aquired from vatious sources and read them on the nook, not possible on kindle. Let me know If I am wrong on this.
The ads popping up, even on a screensaver doesn’t sit well with me, I bought the device, I pay for my internet connection so I feel the ads are intrusive on principle. I see the sound support of the kindle as a plus, but do I really need audio when I’m reading a book? No, I don’t. Just thought I’d share what helped me decide on one.
Hello Sean,
Thanks for commenting. The Nook will support a variety of different formats – but you do need to be careful that the publisher hasn’t applied DRM which might stop you accessing your books as easily as you might wish.
Some people definitely don’t like the thought of ads on their reader – each to his own as far as I’m concerned.
As far as the sound on the Kindle goes, I must confess, I’ve never used that facility – so I think you’re right and you won’t miss it when you’re reading a book.
I hope your girlfriend enjoys her Nook.
Thanks for the tip on the DRM. It really was a hard choice, both devices are very good, I think it would be hard to go wrong with either. I guess a lot comes down to where you prefer buy your books. Thanks again for the informative review.
Hi Sean,
Glad you found it helpful. Do watch out for that DRM though – it’s usually set by the publisher rather than B&N or Amazon, so it can be a bit of an unpleasant surprise.
I think you’re dead right – most people will choose between the Nook and the Kindle based upon where they prefer to buy their books from (assuming that they have a preference that is).
Hopefully, at some point in future, it will be a lot easier to transfer ebooks between readers and then the market will be truly open.
Ok so I have read all comments and I guess I still am not sure which way to swing. I want to be able to get books from my local library. Is there a way to find out which ereader is supported by my library? Or does it matter at all? Also do I need a certain device or light to read at night with no lights on? Or will it not be bright enough? I know these sound like silly questions, but I’m new to the idea of an ereader…. Like 4 hours new lol. HELP ME!
I was planning to buy Kindle Fire already, now it has been confirmed that my choice was right. I know it will surpass all of the devices in it competition.
My friends will envy me now.
Thanks!
Aaron
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