Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook?

Amazon’s wireless Kindle reader has become extremely popular with book lovers who do not have the time or energy to lug around piles of books. Across the country — and even the world — it is now commonplace to see people reading on their Kindle on public transportation, in waiting rooms, or simply sitting at home.

Now, there is competition on the way. Barnes and Noble has released their own wireless reading device, called the Nook. The name is attractive and brings to mind a cozy reading nook where you curl up with coffee and a good newspaper or bestseller novel, but will the actual device hold up to the image it creates?

Both the Nook and all of Amazon’s Kindle models come with completely free 3G wireless connection which allows users to instantly download from extensive libraries featured on their respective websites. Yet, there is a major difference in how available this free network actually is.

Amazon’s wireless network can be accessed in all areas of the U.S. as well in 100 other countries. The Nook, on the other hand, has some small print in relation to network availability. The site notes that at this time “most” major metropolitan areas will be covered, but service is not available in all areas of the U.S., and there is no overseas connection available. This means readers who do not live in covered areas will find the Nook completely useless.

Given that you have verified that your area of the country is covered by the provided network, you may find yourself comparing the original Kindle model to the Nook, since they are around the same price. For the most part, Barnes and Noble has created a rather competitive model which matches most of the features found on Amazon’s original Kindle reader, with the exception of a couple added features.

For starters, there will be over a million book and periodical titles available on the Nook, while Amazon is currently listing their book selections in the 350,000 range plus periodicals and blogs. However, B&N is claiming a larger books store than Amazon based primarily on a deal with Google Books to make available out of print books. These Google books can also be downloaded to your Kindle, but Amazon doesn’t count them as part of their library (as they shouldn’t) because they can’t be accessed through the standard Amazon wireless link.

Both readers also come with 2GB storage capacity, which will hold about 1,500 titles at once. The Nook takes this a step further and allows for the separate purchase of a memory card which will expand the storage area. When the storage area is expanded, over 17,000 titles can be stored at once. Readers can also use this extra space to hold personal photos and documents as well as PDF files transferred from their computer. For many people, this is a huge advantage of the Nook.

Amazon customers could purchase the Kindle DX which has extra storage space, but that model is also much larger sized and heavier, which is a downer for many customers. The Nook allows for a lot more extra space with the memory card and is still only a half inch thick and 11.2 ounces total.

The Nook also allows users to loan their purchased titles to friends. This allows multiple users to save money by sharing files rather than purchasing them all themselves, although this feature may conjure up images of something more convenient than what the Nook is really offering. You’re allowed to lend a book for 14 days one time. Ever. Of course that’s still more times than the number of times (none) that Kindle allows you to loan a book, but it really doesn’t bear much resemblance to the loaning of physical books, even though that’s what the Nook marketing compares it to.

While that may sound as if the Nook has an advantage over Kindle, there are some features of the Kindle that Barnes and Noble was not able to top. For starters, the Kindle is just slightly smaller and lighter weight than the Nook, but has a larger viewing screen. It weighs just slightly over 10 ounces and is a mere 1/3 inch thick. The viewing window is 6 inches, compared to the 3.5 inch viewing screen on the Nook.

Both readers allow the user to enlarge the font for better viewing and both have specially designed screens that are like reading on paper, but the smaller screen on the Nook will be a down side for many readers. The Nook does have touch screen operations as compared to the side button operations of the Kindle, but this will not make up for the smaller screen in most cases.

There are also some small features of the Kindle which give it the final edge on the Nook. The Text-to-Speech feature allows the device to automatically read out loud through built-in speakers and the wireless Internet access extends to many popular websites, including Google and Wikipedia. There is even an app which allows Kindle files to be read on the user’s iPhone.

When push comes to shove, the choice between the Kindle and the Nook really comes down to buying and reading books, the kinds of books that you as a reader believe you’re most likely to want. If you have been buying most of your hardcopy books at B&N instead of Amazon because for some reason their selection better meets your needs, then there may be a chance that the Nook is a better choice for you. However, if you, like me, buy the majority of your books from Amazon, in large part because you find the Amazon prices to be better … you may want to investigate whether that same thing seems to be true for their electronic books.

For me, it does. When I search for a series of books that I’ve recently purchased or considered purchasing on Amazon and on B&N, and I compare the prices of these books in electronic format, the Amazon prices are routinely lower. Given that initial the price of the Kindle and the Nook are fairly similar, the costs over the life of your ereader are going to come down to the price of the books. For me, that makes the Kindle the clear winner.