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Nook: An iPad Alternative?

• Posted by Peter Chapman on 2010-06-21 20:09:41
• 0 comments

So I had been eying an iPad since the much publicized launch. Really, I just wanted a device to browse the web on the couch while watching TV and hanging out with my friends. I have an Xbox for games and a real television for media so that's really all I'd use an iPad for.

 

Well it turned out that $500 was too much for an impulse buy for an iProduct, but $200 for a nook was not. Sunday afternoon I went down to the local Barnes & Noble and purchased one. The retail price, as of Sunday, was $259, but for Father's Day weekend they offered a $50 gift card. It's $50 I would have spent anyway so for me it was practically $200. As my luck would have it they officially dropped the price today to $200 and offer a Wi-Fi only version for $150. I'm not terribly upset, but I would have liked to have made an informed impulsive decision.

 

The nook is for reading and damn does it do reading. The screen is the same exact one on the Kindle 2, but the color touch screen makes the device much more navigable then the Kindle. The lower screen allows you to actually use the device (with color) without waiting for the agonizingly slow refresh rate of the primary screen. Although, I will be the first the say that the user-interface is one of the least intuitive around, amplified by the affect of using one screen to control another. It just throws you off and takes a while to get comfortable.

 

When I popped it out of the box, my friends continually asked me if it was an alternative to the iPad. I told them it wasn't and at the time I believed it. However, now that I've played around with the web browser, for me, it truly is. The nook is runs Android underneath so I guess they used a  simplified version of the mobile browser, but I was really impressed. Thanks to instapaper.com and a little work bookmarking the mobile/iPhone versions of websites, I get to do exactly what I would have with an iPad. During the day I save interesting articles with Instapaper, which I read on the couch while watching TV with my friends. I can check and write email. I browse my favorite blogs. And of course, I get to read books, an activity that feels much less forced than it used to. The screen doesn't put nearly as much stress on my computer-strained eyes. Oh, yeah, and the battery life is measured in days. It's hard to beat. So, at it's new price point, I seriously see the nook as a respectable iPad alternative.

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