eReader-ReviewsOn.com

Barnes & Noble is the main competitor of Amazon at the US market of e-book readers. Recently the company released Nook Simple Touch Reader as the response on the latest Amazon Kindle. The company aimed to make a gadget more attractive than Kindle, but not drastically different, with similar features.

Nook has the same colour as Kindle, but has touchscreen and no physical keyboard. Soon the customers will define, whether these improvements are worthy and Nook indeed will surpass Kindle in popularity.

Barnes & Noble is the biggest book sale network in the USA that also offers journals, newspapers, comics, music, games and other media content. Since 2009 the company produces Nook e-readers. Simple Touch Reader model is the third one in Nook line. It runs on Android OS that makes Nook Touch practically fully functional tablet. Let’s study this unique and interesting device in details.

Design

If Nook Simple Touch Reader is called common or simple, this is not because it is somehow limited in features. This is because it is very easy in work and looks perfectly laconic. It was developed as a budget reader, however its functionality pack is enough to consider it as mid-class e-reader.

Nook Touch looks similar to compact Internet-tablet. Its body is made of plastic with fine-dispersed rubbish sputtering. Such sputtering helps to avoid glaring of the body that usually distract from reading. On the both sides from the display there are buttons for turning pages. There is one more hardware button below the screen. It has a form of reverse “U” that is read as “N” (Nook). The back panel has a special dent for comfortable holding in hands. Power button is located on the top. There are only two slots: USB is located on the bottom edge and memory card slot is on the side.

Nook Touch has unique design and high quality assembly. It has comfortable shape and body cover. Lightweight, compact and attractive in look, Nook is different from any other device offered on the market. It is simple, has no extras, but each details has its functional meaning. Nook was created for reading and nothing more. But it has everything for this main function.

Display

Nook Touch features high-quality E-Ink Pearl with high contrast and very comfortable, light-grey bottom layer. In this device developers used infra-red type of touch screen. Sensors are located on the sides of the screen, they are hidden under the screen frame. The screen diagonal is 6 inches, it has 600×800 resolution, 16 greyscale palette. The new gen E-Ink display works quickly, doesn’t ‘think over’ users actions, reacting on touches immediately. The delays are possible only when showing graphics, when turning text pages, there is no delay at all.

The viewing angle is 180 degrees.

Software

Nook Touch runs on Google Android 2.1 covered in brand Nook shell. This shell was developed to simplify the work with the reader and limit Android functions only for reading. There are no other features, except the ability to view images in JPG, BMP, PNG or GIF format.

The home screen displays the last read book, while the rest of its content serves for Barnes & Noble book catalogues. The ‘bookshelf’ displays 6 books with covers or in a list form. When a lot of books are downloaded to the reader, they are do not displayed with covers.

The settings menu can be enabled at any moment by simple touch to “U” button. Here you will find such options as: device info, network settings, screen and screensaver settings, time and date, store settings, etc. Moreover, user is able to share books in LendMeTM service with contacts from Google, Facebook, Twitter and Nook.

The device supports only two formats by default, ePUB and PDF. ePUB is a format of books sold in Barnes & Noble. A lot of other book sellers offer books in this format. It is possible to use FB2 books converting them to ePUB or PDF. Suitable converters already exist.

When reading books in ePUB format, the only lacking feature is word hyphenation in some languages. User is able to view the book table of contents, make search in the book, go to specific page. In text settings there are 7 different font sizes, 3 text window views, 3 types of line spacing and 6 font types. Also user can return initial book text settings using ‘Publisher Defaults’ option.

The menu is enabled by a simple finger touch to the screen centre.

If needed, a user can add more applications to Noot Touch with the help of rooting, i.e. root access to Android system. New software can be installed manually or via Google Market. This can turn the e-reader to a tablet with limited functionality due to E-Ink display. The limitation is only in inability to view video content.

In such a way Nook Touch can be all-in-one mobile gadget for e-book reading and web browsing. Its charge is enough for one month of active usage. It is very convenient for users who prefer long travelling. By adding games, RSS support, email client, programs for reading another formats, Nook Touch can be turned into a functional tablet. 800 MHz processor is quite enough to handle all this functionality. The gadget starts new era in devices with E-Ink screen.

General Impressions

NOOK Simple Touch Reader is a simple e-reader that can be turned into an interesting Internet-tablet with big functionality package. It has some advantages compared with readers of the same class. They include compact and functional design, excellent touch screen, easy and precise touch control and clear software. The price for American market is more than affordable for such kind of device: $139 + 8 – 12% tax depending on the US state.

From the other hand, there are little shortcomings in software in turning pages with hardware buttons. Excluding this fact that will definitely be corrected by firmware updates, NOOK Simple Touch Reader is practically perfect device with simplicity in use and affordable price. User is able to extend the functionality of Nook Touch, turning it to a tablet with E-Ink screen instead of one-purpose e-reader. This is a gadget that the market was waiting for.