On Tuesday, October 26th, Barnes & Noble released their first major brand color e-book reader. In the past few months, other companies like Literati and Pandigital have released their own color e-book reader devices, but Barnes & Noble is the company that really got things right.The device has been dubbed the Nook Color. The classy e-book reader features a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 LCD screen from LG surrounded by a black bevel that offers customers over 16 million different colors. The device weighs under a pound, runs Android 2.1, features built-in Wi-Fi, 8GB of memory, and a microSD card slot that allows users to add even more memory to the device. The battery life of the device comes in at about eight hours, which is a lot less than many of the other e-book readers available as of now.
At the time of the launching of the device, Barnes & Noble’s bookstore will have more than two million books available and over a hundred periodicals. These periodicals can either be subscribed to or purchased as single issues, which is a nice touch.
There are several new things featured in the Nook Color that have not been included with the previous devices in the Nook line. One of these fantastic features is the “Nook Kids” section that offers a variety of different children’s books. Children are given the option to either read the book to themselves or have the book read to them out loud by the e-book itself.
Other great features include the social integration option. It allows users to easily send a quote or status to Facebook or Twitter while reading a book. Also included with the Nook Color is the LendMe feature. This allows users to lend a book to a friend and see the books that your friends have that you might like to borrow. Obviously there are restrictions put into place by the publishers, but no matter what, this is still a really cool feature.
You can expect to have a wonderful reading experience with the Nook Color. The screen is bright and extremely responsive, and navigation is incredibly simple with the device. There is one single button at the bottom of the device that works as the home button. It allows you to go to the home screen or to help navigate books and apps.
The bugs are still being worked out of the Nook Color, but it really does give you a pretty darn good experience. The software found on the Nook Color is definitely much better than the software found on the original Nook. Right now, loading books and apps is rather slow, but flipping through the pages of the books or swiping across the screen is very quick and responsive.
Barnes & Noble says that they will continue to sell the original Nook, which has had a large firmware update that worked out many of the kinks that had been the complaints of many customers. The Nook Color will be available on Friday, November 19th. It will be sold at Best Buy, Walmart, Books a Million, and online for $249. If you’re looking for an e-book reader, the Nook Color is definitely one to keep on your list of possibilities.
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