Now that I’ve gotten some hard-core time in with my Nook, I thought I would share my experience. I should preface this all by saying, this is my first dedicated eReader. I’ve always just read my eBooks on my computer or my BlackBerry. Needless to say, even with a tablet PC, it always got cumbersome. I’ve been waffling back and forth on dedicated eReaders for several years and I liked the overall specs & look of this one over the other on the market I’d been flirting with – Kindle and Sony eReader.
Packaging: First off, I loved the packaging for Nook – at least to look at. It’s sleek and overall spiffy with it’s heavy clear plastic and simplicity. What I did not like however was getting it out of said sleek and spiffy packaging. You get a sheet of instructions on how to get the Nook out of the plastic box, if that’s any indication on how it goes. That aside, it’s pretty straightforward right out of the gate. Nook, USB cord & charger to plug said USB into a wall socket. That’s it – and all you need. The Nook is what you came for really, right? So there doesn’t need to be anything else.
Set Up: Setting it up was easy, you just have to have a B&N account, which is free and ten to one you signed up for it when you bought Nook in the first place. Once you’re logged in, that’s it.
Touch Screen: The lower screen is the touch screen and at first, I kept getting frustrated with the keyboard interface, but that’s only because I type faster than the Nook could keep up. It’s not as if it’s a full computer keyboard in the first place, so that was just an adjustment on my part. I like the coverflow with it’s swiping back and forth, if you are so inclined. I haven’t loaded it up beyond about five books, so the swiping is only so functional for me at the moment.
Functionality: I’ve heard some people saying it’s taking forever to load up a book – called “formatting”. I’ve not noticed that personally. I think I timed one just to see and it took 11 seconds. Personally, I’m wondering how that’s “forever”. The flicker when you turn a page is there, but after a few minutes of reading on it and getting used to the e-ink, I don’t notice it at all. It’s no more distracting than physically turning a page in a book would be to be honest.
Service: I’ve also heard some people worried about the cell service being AT&T (a notorious “call dropper”). I purposefully took Nook to my office at work, which is notoriously a “dead zone” for any cell phone, regardless of provider. Tapped right into the B&N store and browsed for a good thirty minutes just to make sure I wasn’t having an problems.
Lending: This is one feature I’ve not made use of yet – either the lend to another person or the lend inside of the B&N store. I haven’t had opportunity to take it into a B&N store yet, but I’ve made it a point to do this week just to see how it behaves inside of the store.
My Documents: Nook has a PC interface, but I’ve got a 64-bit version of Windows 7 and it’s not compatible. However, that’s easily remedied by just simply dragging what you want into the correct folders that pop up when you do connect the USB to your computer. I loaded up a PDF file eBook to test it out and had no problem loading it. It, however, does not show up in your cover flow – as it’s a PDF file and not a ePub – which would have been nice, but overall, that doesn’t bother me too much. This is also the same way to add any personal backgrounds or screensavers that you want to gaze upon – tho I’m overly fond of the Cityscape screensaver that was already pre-loaded.
Power: I purposefully did not charge Nook and left the WiFi connection going. It was seven days before Nook froze completely, which was because it needed to be charged. An overnight charge and all was well again (yours will too if you’ve reached this page to learn how to rectify that problem – plug it in and let it fully charge).
I had one gripe about Nook, but the software update that happened last week took care of the complaint. While you were reading a book, you could not see the clock or battery indicator in the upper right hand corner, which is the location when you are browsing your library. As I said, the software update took care of this and now they’re there while reading a book.
When I purchased my Nook shortly after it went on sale in October, I also bought a cover for it. Love, love, love the cover I selected. It securely holds Nook inside and the outside has been crafted to resemble a book – so for those that need the feel of a book in their hands, this would probably help with that. The outside is like a hardcover book and mine has a page out of Alice in Wonderland printed on the front.
Overall: Totally worth the wait/money if you’re a hard-core reader like me. It’s really easy to curl up with because it’s light weight and has simple functionality and I don’t miss actually holding the physical book in my hands. Turning the pages it easy, as is purchasing eBooks – which is a bad thing itself simply because for a die-hard book reader, it can get dangerous!
