Amazon Kindle vs Nook

Kindle versus Nook comparison

Amazon's Kindle eReader has been the leader, at least in the US, of the eReader market since the introduction of Kindle 1 in 2007. Sony has held 2nd place with 30 - 35% of the market. But now there is a new kid on the block. In October '09 Barnes & Noble announced its nook eReader that sold out on pre-order within a few weeks.

The nook is revolutionary primarily in its looks. It will be hard for your average gadget boy/girl to see one and not develop a serious craving. But does this mean that the nook is the best thing since the printing press for bookish boys and girls?


Let's look at and compare some of the features of the nook and the Kindle eReaders.

kindle and Nook features

For the most part reading on the nook's e-ink screen is very similar to reading on the Kindle eReader's e-ink screen. Both eRreaders use the same or a very similar reading screen.

What is dramatically different, and what in fact attracts many people to the nook eReader is the small LCD touchscreen under the e-ink screen. On the Kindle, navigation is accomplished by using the chicklet keyboard and the 5-way controller. The controls for the nook are mostly accessed through using the LCD touchscreen.

The nook's touchscreen is also used for browsing books in your library or for selecting books to purchase from Barnes & Noble over the wireless connection. A virtual keyboard is available on the LCD screen for typing.

The nook's color LCD screen looks really nice and would seem to be a very desirable feature, but there are problems with the software implementation, which we will get to in a bit.

Kindle Connectivity

The Kindle eReader has a 3G wireless connection through AT&T for the Kindle Global, and Sprint for the Kindle 2. Amazon calls its wireless service "Whispernet". Using Whispernet, you can usually purchase and download a book within a minute or less. You also can use the somewhat clunky but functional browser to access the internet, check email, research your reading on Wikipedia, even access another online ebook store than Amazon to purchase and download books, etc. With Kindle Global you also have access to the Kindle store in many other countries besides the US, though you have to pay a surcharge for downloading a book on the Whispernet outside of the US.

The nook eReader has both a WiFi connection and a 3G AT&T wireless connection. The difference is that the nook's connection can only be used for purchasing and downloading books from Barnes & Noble. No internet, no Wikipedia, you cannot use it to connect to another online ebook store and purchase books.

The nook's WiFi connection will be useful if you carry your nook eReader into a B&N store as it will download coupons and special offers to your eReader. You can also use the WiFi to browse ebooks while in a B&N store, but you can only read each book for a maximum of one hour in a 24-hour period. These in-store features are not yet fully implemented so we don't yet know how useful they will prove to be.

Kindle and Nook Sharing

One of the nook eReader's features that received a lot of press coverage is the ability to lend your ebooks to friends. Unfortunately, this feature is not as great as first thought. For one thing, publishers must opt in to let their books be loaned. Some have said they will not allow this. Also there are restrictions: you can only loan a particular book once ever, and only for 14 days. While a book is loaned out you cannot access it on your own nook.

The Kindle does not at this time allow this type of lending. However, you can share ebooks with up to 6 (it can vary by title) Kindles that are registered to the same account. This works well for multi-Kindle families. It is even possible to set up a reading club with your Kindle owning friends if you feel comfortable sharing a single credit card to register your Kindle eReaders to.

More about Kindle and Nook

One nice feature that the nook eReader has is a user replaceable battery. The Kindle's battery is hardwired in and therefore will need to be sent back to Amazon for replacement ($60). Amazon says that even after 500 charges (ten years or so) these batteries will still hold 80% charge, so this may not be an issue for most people.

The nook also accepts an SD card for additional storage. The Kindle only has its internal storage, but that is enough to hold around 1,500 books, so this may also not be an issue for you.

A nook feature that has not received any official Barnes & Noble acknowledgment is the ability to borrow ebooks from your local library if they use Overdrive's digital distribution service. To do this you need to install Adobe Digital Editions on your computer and use that to sideload the ebook onto your nook. You can borrow an ebook from the library for 14 days, after which it will be automatically deleted. You cannot renew library ebook checkouts. To find out how useful this feature will be in your case you should check your local library website. Most libraries do not have a large catalogue of ebooks yet. Kindle does not support borrowing library ebooks at this time