Hi,

Some days ago I got a Nook Wifi eBook reader, so I’m going to make a review of it, for all of you who may be thinking of buying an eBook reader and still are not sure what to buy. So, click “continue reading” to see the complete review (it is a bit long )

First impression

I have to say that the product’s design is very useful for the device’s main objective that is to read books. The corners and the overall structure make it very easy to handle and use it for long periods of time. The reader as you may see has 4 buttons (that are used to go forward/backwards in the book), an e-ink screen and a touchscreen ink. The position of the buttons to move in the page is very useful and comfortable; makes it very natural to change the pages. The touchscreen is very responsive (I have seen some videos on YouTube where people need to tap several times to make the actions; this is a human mistake, really it moves and answers very fast to the commands and actions). And I need to say is my first time using a touchscreen device.

Also, it has a mini USB port, which is used to charge (with an adapter included, that works on 110V and 220V), and to transfer files to the nook. Also it has a headphone jack (don’t know what is the measure, I haven’t used it yet). Also have a SD slot where you can store books and files, which I really haven’t tested as I don’t have a spare SD card.

User experience

Here is where the real action starts, when you start to use the device. The nook runs a custom android version adapted for this device, so it doesn’t only have the eBook functions, but it also includes an MP3 player (that can run at background when you are reading a book), 2 games, Sudoku and Chess, that can be played using the touchscreen, a web browser (yes, you are reading that!). I am going to detail this extra functions later.

All the features and actions are fired using the touchscreen, as you see in the image, all are in big and nice buttons, and the UI is very intuitive and easy to use. In that menu you will see options as:

• Your Library: here you going to find a list of books that are loaded in your nook, ready to select and start reading
• My daily: i’m not sure about this option, seems to be basically free daily books and articles from barnes & noble.
• Shop: the word say it all, here you can access to the B&N online shop (of course a wifi connection need to available, i’ll detail on this later)
• Games: you can play sudoku and chess games
• Wifi: here you can manage your wifi connections
• Audio: the mp3 player
• Web: the web browser
• Settings: the device settings

Reading books: the experience

the experience of reading is very good; it is equal or at least in my experience even better than reading a normal book. The transitions from page to page (the time that the e-ink screen takes to load the page) is not more than what you take to make it manually in a book and focusing your sight in the page. The side buttons makes it very intuitive to manage so it takes no efforts to do it. The weight is ok, seems to be heavier than a book when you have it in your hands but if we compare with the quantity of books that you can load there, is a great advance.

Also, you have more useful functions than just moving the pages, you can search for a phrase in the book using the touchscreen (a complete keyboard pops up to write it) and the nook will search for the first appearance from the page where you are. Also you can continue searching for the same phrase in the following pages. You can jump to a specific page also indicating the number of page. The search and jump to page works on normal PDF. I didn’t have the chance to test an epub version, but I suppose it works also.

The nook also detects in the text phrases, as the titles of the chapters (as Chapter 6). So, it will highlight the phrase and tapping the action button in the touchscreen will take you automatically to that chapter.

The nook also lets you change the font size and the font type. In most PDF files medium size is enough, but I have to say that sometimes in some PDF you can’t change the font type.

In the same menu, while you are reading a book, you can fire the mp3 player to listen some music

The nook saves the last page that you read in each book you have stored, so when you open a book, it automatically opens in the last page you read. The “reading now” option in the start menu opens only the last book you’ve opened. It is a nice option when you are reading 1 book till you finish.

The images in the nook are displayed correctly, sometimes they appear too small, but changing the size fixes it. Anyway, taking in consideration that it is all black and white, images such as biology’s or with too much detail won’t look good in it (and maybe unusable). Things as pictures with too many tiny objects could appear even blurred. Another glitch that could be annoying is that in the PDF sometimes it cuts the word at half leaving the part a line below, this also cause that some pages (like the last of the chapter) are displayed with a few phrases and the rest blank (as the nook respect the number of page in the PDF but divide in X amount of page each one depending in the size of the font). At least for me it was not a problem, but it is more of a personal decision.

The e-ink screen really makes what I was looking for in a device like this: not tiring my sight more than a normal book and that isGREAT.

Wifi connection

the wifi adapter works whiteout problems, I tested it in 3 different places and could grab the signal whiteout problem and at the same strength like my laptop. I don’t know where the wifi adapter is located but I put the reader in different positions and grab it from different places and didn’t lose the signal. The wifi feature also supports authentication, so if the wifi connection needs a password, the keyboard will popup and you can write it (you can’t save the passwords that will be a good feature for future revisions).

The device takes a little time to find the networks but it is tolerable. By default you have configure the AT&T wifi networks, as I’m in Argentina this doesn’t work so I can’t say anything about this. The wifi has an airplane mode available, I have never been on a plane so I don’t know if this is useful or not.

Also, the wifi network is only useful to browse the web, and the B&N shop, you can’t send/receive email from the nook via wifi.

Shop: the experience.

I can resume this part of the review in 1 phrase: *The shop needs work and is not worldwide compatible

If you still want to read the reasons here they are:

Navigation needs work:

The shop is ok, but still needs work to make more user-friendly the search and the overall user experience. When you first enter you see a list of types of publications such as magazines, eBooks, top 100 etc., and some ads at the bottom. Then you can start searching by phrase or browse the shop. When you try to browse the shop it lacks of the function to browse by categories and also by price. You have a first option to see books under $5, but you should be able to set a top price (I think it is a big fail not to be able to search by categories or genres).

When you get a list of books from this option, you can see it as a list of the covers in colour in the touchscreen, this was nice.

So then, you can select a book and see its description. Here there’s another fail as you can’t see the user reviews (yes, the overall score you may see it but not the review itself). Of course that for all of these actions you need a B&N account that you can register at the site, and you can associate a credit card to buy the books from the store in the nook. I made all of that, and I first tried to download a free copy (some books are offered as free) so I tried and after a few seconds the nook told me that the free copy will be downloaded to my nook automatically. So I waited, with no progress bar or anything, I looked at my documents and I didn’t see the free copy there. A week later I checked the option in My Library of B&N library; there were some classic books but not my free copy. Then I saw an option to update, I clicked on it and then I saw it. This should be done automatically when a wifi connection is made (or at least ask the user to make it).

So after this, I tried to buy a book. Before, I set in my B&N account as default shipping address to my home in Argentine. When I tried it, it said that I needed a shipping address on Canada or US to buy a book. So I tried my work address in the US and it didn’t work. Then I tried to buy it from the B&N and even that it said that the payment was successful, later didn’t get the book, because the payment failed because the books can only be bought if you are physically located in the United States and Canada (the credit card was not charged as I could see, and I used the same card to pay other stuff in sites as steam, hostgator and even PayPal) so it seems that shopping for eBooks is not international. This is frustrating because it forces you to get the book from other “sources”.

Battery life

In mobile devices as this, it is one of most critical features. I have used it with wifi disabled for 2 hours and I wasted like 10% of the battery. I think without wifi and just using the book reader and not using too much the touchscreen, could last several hours whiteout problem. When it is off, the nook doesn’t waste battery but if you don’t use it like for a week, it loses like 30% of it. Charging takes like 1 hour, and it can be charged from a USB or with the adapter from an electrical source.

Extra features

Here I’ll try to detail some extra features that the nook has. As I said before I didn’t test the mp3 player. I’ll do it in the future and maybe update or write another post about it.

Browser

well, as you see in the picture above, the nook has a browser. Actually it is not too useful as it depends from the e-ink screen to show it and the touchscreen to navigate it (and the e-ink screen refresh in each movement of the focus in the touchscreen). It is a nice feature, not useful but nice. Maybe you can read some paper on the web or something like that. Maybe a rss would be a better option than a web browser. Also you can store bookmarks in the browser and see it as the books covers.

Games

the games are something to use when you are really bored, I just tested the chess game as I don’t know how to play Sudoku XD I have been beaten each time but anyway I’m bad at it

Keyboard

The keyboard popup when you need to insert any data to search or the B&N account or wifi password. It is ok, works, but if you have big fingers you are going to be in trouble. I do not have experience in touchscreen devices so I made some mistakes. Together with that each time you prompt something it refresh the e-ink page, it is a little hard and frustrating when you make too many mistakes.

Personalization

You have the screensaver as the image that the nook leaves when it is off; you have several options to choose among images of nature, authors, etc. Some of them look really cool on the e-ink screen. Also you have the background image that can be chosen from some default options. The back cover is exchangeable; I suppose that soon you will get new backs for the nook from B&N.

Conclusion

Now let’s detail the important things:

Can you read books in that stuff? and the answer is YES.

Can this replace a book? YES

And with the search functions I think in my experience is even better than a normal book

Can this replace any book? NO

It depends on the book, if it has too many images, is not a good idea

Can be used by anyone? YES AND NO

Actually, the eBook reader can be used by anyone, but if you are ok to read books that are not from “legal sources” as people outside of Canada or US cannot buy it (maybe a redirecting your connection with a VPN in the US could work, but I didn’t tested and it is a great deal for people that do not know about computers, and is the target of this device)

Things that could be improved:

Intern memory: from the 2GB you really have 1.23GB, if you put music on it, is not too much. I know that SD cards can be used but I like to have at least 2GB free for me (and if the android is running on the same memory I think could happen a memory corruption..)

Wifi transference of files: I always like to plug in the stuff, but in this particular device I think it will be nice to copy the files using wifi. Even I will tolerate if an application in the computer is necessary for this action.

Save wifi password: a MUST feature for the next revision.

Improvements in the shop search need to be done, and making the purchase of books available to buy anywhere.

Where the f*ck  is the micro SD slot?

I asked this when I received the nook, and I discovered that it is at the back, you need to remove the back cover (need long nails or your girlfriend to make this) and there you will find it (and also the battery that is removable )

I hope this review will be useful for you in some way, if you have any question, just leave a comment in the post and I’ll answer you

A special thanks to @mdelaspreguntas (blog) who take the time and effort to edit and correct my awful english

Regards,

Shadow.