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Barnes & Noble Nook (Wi-Fi) E-Book reader review
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Price points are very important when it comes to consumer electronics products, and $50 here or $100 there can mean a lot in terms of sales--especially at price points below $300. And that's precisely why Barnes & Noble brought out the Wi-Fi-only version of its Android-powered Nook e-reader for $149. At that price, you start to get into impulse-buy territory and attract folks who've been sitting on the e-reader fence, waiting for prices to drop. And the fact that you're reading this means you may well be one of those people.Price cuts aside, what's nice about this model is that the only difference between it and the $199 Nook 3G is that it's had the cellular radio removed, shaving off half an ounce to bring the unit's total weight to slightly more than 10.7 ounces. And--oh, yeah--its removable back cover is white instead of gray. But in all other respects, the two devices are identical.Currently, there are a handful of other e-readers in this price class, including the $149 Borders-backed Kobo E-reader and the Sony Reader Pocket Edition; both have smaller 5-inch screens and lack Wi-Fi (though the Kobo does offer some limited Bluetooth functionality).In releasing the Wi-Fi-only Nook, Barnes & Noble upgraded its Nook firmware to 1.4, adding "seamless" support for free AT&T hot spots around the country, an extra jumbo font size for those with poorer vision (you can now choose among seven font sizes), and some performance tweaks that allow books to load slightly faster.For the first few months of its existence, the Nook was plagued by nagging bugs, as well as sluggish performance, but a series of four software upgrades has helped eliminate many of the problems, making the device feel zippier and easier to navigate. It's still not perfect, but we've seen significant improvement, and Barnes & Noble continues to make adjustments to both the user interface and feature set, which now includes a couple of basic games and a Web browser. (For a full rundown of all the Nook's features, see our review of the Nook 3G).On the surface, there aren't huge differences between this Nook and the Amazon Kindle, which retails for just $40 more and has built-in "free" 3G service but no Wi-Fi connectivity. Both devices feature large e-book selections, including many free public-domain titles, in their integrated stores, along with periodicals such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers and magazines. And both feature 6-inch e-ink screens that are easy to read in a well-lit environment and don't get washed out in direct sunlight like the iPad's screen does. The Nook and Kindle screens aren't backlit, so you can't read in the dark like you can with an LCD-based e-reader that arguably puts more strain on your eyes.Barnes & Noble likes to point out that its e-readers are more "open" and support the EPUB file format, which has become something of an industry standard and is backed by libraries (some limited lending of e-books is available at local libraries, and the Nook supports this feature). Both e-readers can display PDF files, though the much more expensive iPad is much better suited for this purpose.The reality is that the differences between the two devices are relatively subtle. Some like the Nook's integrated color screen and touch-screen interface, whereas others don't think it's really necessary and prefer the Kindle's button navigation.
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