I am going to give my opinions on these two devices. Please keep in mind I am not the most tech savvy person. I also have not figured out all the ins and outs of the Nook, but I think I have the general idea. My mom has a Nook so we have been playing with them together :)
*another disclaimer-I wasn't sure the best way to organize my comments. Sorry!
I have a second generation Kindle. I enjoy the versatility of it a lot. I have the scriptures and the gospel principles manual on it which I love. It is so much nicer to just pack it than to deal with bringing my quad and the gospel principles manual along with all of the things for kids and callings. However, the scriptures are not as user friendly as the traditional ones. Flipping between references can be tricky because you have to exit out and go to the scripture menu and scroll to find what you need. To help with this though, I try to look at the lesson before hand (a good thing to do any way) and book mark the scriptures in the study guide. This way I just click on the bookmark feature and pull it up faster.
A couple of the features I love most about the Kindle are the collections feature and the dictionary (don't laugh!). The Nook is organized using bookshelves. I like the collections better because you can condense them down so the name of the collection shows up on the home page. The Nook has them listed on the same page all the time so you do more scrolling.
The dictionary is great. On the Kindle you move the cursor to the front of the word and the definition pops up at the bottom.
Case in point-I have tried to read Jesus the Christ many times. I have trouble getting past the first ten pages. I bought the book for 99 cents. I am finally half way through the book :) The dictionary has been the difference for me.
Reading progress on the Nook is measure in pages. The Kindle uses percentages. I give the gold star to Nook on this one. The percentage thing is a little weird to me.
When my dad was researching the two one thing he liked better about the Nook is the customer can replace the battery on their own. With the Kindle you will have to mail it back to get it replaced. However, the life on the battery is crazy long so I don't know when or if ever you would need to mail it in.
Kindle has a read to me feature which I have used a few times and have liked. Not all books are available with this option, but a lot of them are.
The Nook is a little big smaller. I can hold it in one hand, with the Kindle I feel more comfortable with two.
Keyboard vs touch screen-
To be honest I feel the keyboard on the Kindle is wasted space. I do use it, but if I could trade a smaller keyboard for a bigger screen I would.
I really wanted the touch screen to be awesome. It is more user friendly, but it is slow to respond and uses the battery faster.
In an ideal world I would cut and paste a slightly better touch screen onto my Kindle :)
The Nook does come with a color version which would be fun for children's books. I haven't looked into the price difference.
There is an MP3 feature on the Nook, but I'm not sure how well it works (mom doesn't have any music on hers).
The Kindle doesn't ever turn off; it just sleeps. The Nook actually powers down. I was a little surprised at how long it took to start up. I'm not sure if one way is better than the other.
There are lending features on both devices. Here is a link for how the Kindle works. Here is a link for how the Nook works. They are very similar.
I believe book prices are comparable on both. The Nook does have specials that come out on Fridays and has a section on the Nook for finding cheap books. I think searching for books on the Kindle is easier to do on the computer, especially if you are just browsing. I do like the Kindle/Amazon thing of making suggestions of things you might like.
You can go to a Barnes and Noble and read any book you want for one hour.
So bottom line . . . . I don't think there is one. There are things I like better about the Nook, things I like better about the Kindle.
If you have any questions let me know and I will do my best to answer them.
Happy reading!
2 comments:
Katrina, you rock! I am so happy that you did this today! Thanks for the input. I am definitely not very tech savvy either, that's why I asked for opinions. I'm just doing research and dreaming for now! ;) I have heard great things from people who have Kindles. How did you get the scriptures on yours? Do you have to pay for them? Also, my one hang up about the Kindle is, if I understand correctly, that I can't borrow books from the library on it. Is that true? I am such a cheapskate and I read so much, I don't want to have to pay for every book I read. Any thoughts on that? You're the best, and we miss you!!
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