Barnes & Noble wins one over Amazon with Nook

Tech Lab

June 23, 2011|By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Columnist

Amazon.com is one of the most successful retailers on Earth. Old-school bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. is bleeding cash.

In most respects, it’s hardly a fair fight.

But when it comes to electronic books, B&N has begun to level the playing field. The company’s newest Nook reader is a delight — compact, responsive, and blessed with a really good touchscreen.

I didn’t have much use for the original Nook, with its gimmicky combination of a black-and-white E Ink screen for reading and a little color screen for displaying book titles. But since then, B&N has delivered the Nook Color, a sharp little $249 e-reader that’s also the best low-priced tablet computer you can buy. Now comes the new entry-level Nook for $139, a worthy rival for the low-cost Amazon Kindle, which can cost as little as $114. After a head-to-head comparison, I could be happy with either, but it was the Nook that usually found its way into my hands.

It’s the feel of it, for one thing. While slightly thicker than the Kindle, the Nook is about an inch shorter because there’s no physical keyboard. As with the Apple Inc. iPad, virtually everything is controlled by touching the screen. Sony Corp. introduced a touchscreen E Ink reader in 2008, but it was mediocre. B&N got it right.

There is a set of rubber-coated buttons on either side of the device that can be used for turning pages. Press and hold them, and you can fast- forward or rewind your book. But I found the buttons stiff and uncomfortable; luckily, you don’t need them. Swipe the screen from side to side to turn pages. Press and hold any spot on the screen for other features, such as a dictionary or the ability to add notes by pecking them into the Nook’s very responsive virtual keyboard. Touch a book-shaped icon atop the screen to go directly to the last page you were reading.

The Nook’s screen is less flashy than that of the Kindle, but that’s a good thing. The E Ink technology, which creates an easy-to-read display that works in sunlight, has an annoying quirk that makes the screen blink to black when you turn pages. It’s very distracting. The newest Nook hasn’t eliminated the problem, but it’s gotten pretty close. Flashing only happens every four or five page turns.

The Nook’s home screen is more welcoming and practical than the Kindle’s. Instead of bland and unattractive menus, you get well-designed visual cues that guide you to your current reading choice, as well as the rest of your library, and suggestions on what to buy next.

Still, the new Nook has its limitations. It doesn’t offer a 3G option to let you buy books anywhere via a cellular data connection.