As tablets have grown in popularity as do-everything devices, ebook reader vendors are focusing on making the best possible reading device and forgoing everything else. If you want to browse the Web and check your email, buy an iPad or a Nook Color, but if you want the best, most immersive reading experience possible, you can't beat E Ink-based ebook readers. E Ink provides battery life measured in months, readability in direct sunlight, and a distraction-free way to just read. Among dedicated ebook readers, the Amazon Kindle ($189, 4 stars) has long been king, but no longer. The new Barnes & Noble Nook Touch Reader ($139 direct) is smaller than its predecessor, less expensive, more responsive, lighter, and longer-lasting. It also adds an excellent touch-based navigation experience. If you don't already have an ebook reader, the latest Nook is the one to buy, so it's our new Editors' Choice.
A quick note before we dig in: After reading this review, you might want to switch from the Kindle you already bought, or the Kobo Wireless eReader (3.5 stars), or a Sony Reader. Unfortunately, the way Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others structure things, that's very difficult. If you own Kindle books and magazines, or subscribe to a newspaper through Amazon, you're stuck with Amazon unless you want to re-purchase everything from Barnes & Noble. Until that changes, you essentially have to choose an ecosystem and buy your device and content that works together. If you're just beginning your foray into digital books, though, Barnes & Noble is the one to choose—at least for now.
Design
The Nook is significantly smaller than its predecessor, and the Kindle, thanks to the removal of everything but the screen and the bezel. There's no keyboard, no LCD screen on the bottom—just the 6-inch E Ink screen, a small "n" button below the screen, and buttons on either side for flipping pages. Even the page-turners are just strips of raised plastic. The device weighs 7.5 ounces, and measures 6.5 by 5.0 by 0.5 inches (HWD), which is smaller in every measure than any Kindle or Nook before it, and is, like the Sony Reader Pocket Edition ($179.95, 3 stars), easy to slip into a bag or jacket pocket. When you first pick it up, you'll think the Nook's screen is smaller than other ebook readers because it feels so small in your hand, but it's actually the same size; it just feels smaller because everything else is gone. The matte black back is sculpted, with a taper designed specifically for being held in one hand. The power button is at the top of the back, and the USB port is on the bottom for charging the Nook or loading outside content. On the right side, there's a micro-SD slot for adding up to 32GB more storage to the 2GB that's built in, which is enough for 1,000 books.
The new Nook technically runs Android 2.1, but that doesn't mean much—everything you see is all Barnes & Noble, and feels nothing like Android as we know it on cell phones and tablets. For a more complete Android experience, albeit a heavily customized one, check out the Nook Color. This reader is all about reading, so there's no browser, games, or apps to be found.
The Nook's E Ink Pearl display's resolution is 800 by 600, and text and images alike are very crisp and clear. Everything is still in shades of gray (16 of them, to be exact), so this isn't much of a photo viewer, but the screen is plenty crisp. In return for the grayscale, you get a screen that isn't prone to fingerprints (my Nook hardly showed a smudge after an hour of use), can be read in direct sunlight, and won't hurt your eyes. Touch interaction was reliable and responsive, though the responsiveness is limited slightly by E Ink's refresh rate, so there was always a beat between pressing a button and the screen changing. I got used to the lag quickly, but make sure you wait about a half-second before mashing a button again, thinking it didn't work.
When the Nook is off, it shows a rotation of pictures of authors and other literary things, much like the Kindle does. One small but nice addition is the ability to add your own photo as a screensaver, which both personalizes your device and makes it immediately recognizable as yours. Turning it back on and unlocking it, oddly, was the most annoying part of using the Nook; it frequently took me a few tries to drag the necessary line for the device to unlock.
There's no 3G modem built into the Nook anymore, just Wi-Fi. If you're out and about and need a new book, though, Barnes & Noble's partnership with AT&T means that you can step into a Starbucks or many other stores (like, of course, the 700 B&N stores) and download a book. When you're in a Barnes & Noble store, you can read entire books for free, and anywhere else there's Wi-Fi you'll only need to duck in for a minute: I downloaded the 731-page "These Guys Have all the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN," and from home screen to purchase to reading took about 30 seconds. Though there's no Web browser on the Nook, if it's necessary to connect to a Wi-Fi network a browser page will pop up, so you can accept terms of service or log in.
