Thank you for visiting our Kindle vs Nook review. It is our mission to bring you one of the most comprehensive and thorough Kindle vs Nook comparison guides on the net. The following Kindle vs Nook comparison is for the Kindle Touch and the Nook Simple Touch.
If you’re looking for a Kindle Fire vs Nook Tablet review then please check back shortly as I’m trying to get it finished as soon as I can. Whatever you decide to purchase just make absolutely sure you do so through the links on my site if you want to get the best possible price. Thanks and enjoy!
Kindle vs Nook Round 1 – Design
Looking at two devices side by side their is a clear difference in the look, shape and feel. The Nook Touch measures 6.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches and the Kindle Touch measures 6.8 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches and both devices are very light weighing only 7.5 ounces. The Nook feels much more comfortable to hold and grip than the Kindle due to it’s soft-touch texturized rubberized coating.
With the Nook Touch you can turn pages either with the touchscreen or the physical page turn buttons located on either side of the reader which are also customizable. This may make it a little more convenient as you doen’t have to lift your hand whenever you want to turn a page. The Kindle doesn’t have any physical page buttons so I think this is a plus for the Nook.
Winner of round 1 = Nook Simple Touch. Rubberized coating and physical page turn buttons.
Click Here For More Info On Kindle Touch!
Click Here For More Info On Nook Touch!
Kindle vs Nook Round 2 – Reading
The reading experience is definitely one of the most important factors you want to consider when chosing a reader. Both Kindle and Nook Touch have the latest E-ink Pearl technology that is as close to real life reading as you can get. The words look almost just like a printed page and It’s super easy on the eyes even in direct sunlight. The only negative thing about an E-ink screen is that they’re not backlit so you won’t be able to read in the dark.
However, they’re are reading lights available such as the lighted cover for Kindle and the lighted cover for Nook. Both devices also make your reading experience more enjoyable by allowing you to change your font size, font style and even add bookmarks or highlight passages as you read.
Winner of Round 2 = DRAW
Kindle vs Nook Round 3 -Book Selection
Both Amazon and B&N have an extensive plethora of books to chose from both free and paid. B&N however boasts to be the “worlds largest bookstore” with more than 2.5 million titles to chose from including magazines & newspapers. Amazon on the other hand boasts over 1 million. This may lead one to think that obviously B&N is the clear winner with over a million more books available to chose from but this simply is not the case.
B&N is counting their books a little differently than Amazon. B&N pulled in about a million free public domain books, research articles and reports in that are available pretty much anywhere for free just to make it look like they offer more books than Amazon. After conducting my own research I found that about half the time the book is available on Amazon and NOT on B&N.
When it comes to books that people really care about such as retail and independents they are both pretty much equal with Amazon having the slight advantage. When it comes to the more obscure titles chances are Amazon will have it and B&N won’t. It is also reported that Amazon has a bigger selection of free ebooks to chose from. As far as book pricing goes, I would say that they are 99% equal with a slight advantage going to Amazon as I have seen books on B&N that were slightly more expensive than on Amazon.
Winner of Round 3 = Amazon Kindle: More books available than Nook.
Click Here For More Info On Kindle Touch!
Click Here For More Info On Nook Touch!
Kindle vs Nook Round 4 – Lending
The Kindle Lending Library is available if you have Amazon Prime which costs $79 a year which will allow members to borrow books from over 5,000 titles. Users are allowed to borrow one book a month with no due date. Not only can you borrow books from Amazons own in house lending library but you can also borrow books from your local public library as well. And yes, you’ll be bound by the same rules as with physical books.
When downloading books from your library your Kindle must be using a Wi-Fi connection and not 3G. The Nook Touch is able to download library books as well BUT you’ll have to download them via USB cord as the Wi-Fi download option for library books is not available. B&N has stated that they will have the Wi-Fi available for early 2012.
Both Kindle and Nook users are also able lend books to other Kindle or Nook users. With Amazon this feature is known as Lendle and LendMe for B&N. Books can be lent to friends for 14 days, during which time the book’s owner can’t read them and you can only loan it to one person at a time.
One other thing, with Amazon Prime students can rent eligible Kindle textbooks for 30 to 360 days. The price of the rental depends on the end date you select. If you decide to buy the book later you’ll only have to pay the difference between the purchase price and rental cost. B&N has the same feature as well however, the textbooks cannot be read on the NOOK or mobile devices “because textbooks do not display well on small screens”.
Winner of round 4 = Kindle: More Free books, Rented textbooks can be read on Kindle.
Click Here For More Info On Kindle Touch!
Click Here For More Info On Nook Touch!
Kindle vs Nook Round 5 – Social
With the Kindle Touch you can connect to your favorite social networks and link to any passage in a book on the using the Kindle’s Share feature. With Facebook, the program will pull up a thumbnail pic of the books cover and on Twitter, it will automatically add the hashtag #Kindle to the message.
You can also connect with your fellow readers using the Public Notes feature. You can search for and follow other Kindle readers by going to kindle.amazon.com. When other users make a note the passage will be highlighted as well as their name. If users don’t have the Public Notes feature enable then you won’t be able to connect with them.
The Nook Simple Touch can share information to Facebook and Twitter as well. Some features include posting quotes and excerpts from a book or sharing your progress in the book. The Nook Touch has a share feature called Nook Friends which connects users with B&N accounts to Nook-based social reading.
You’ll be able to see which of your friends books are lendable and make a request. You can also see updates and news feeds from your Nook Friends such as their book progress and books they’ve reviewed. One of the highlight sharing features of the Nook that Kindle doesn’t offer is the ability to sync your Nook Touch with your Google account which will allow you to share things through Google+.
Winner: Nook Simple Touch. Nook has Google+ support.
Click Here For More Info On Kindle Touch!
Click Here For More Info On Nook Touch!
Kindle vs Nook Round 6 – Documents
The Nook Simple Touch supports ePub5, PDF, JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP formats only. However, there is software available such as Calibre that will be able to convert most files to the appropriate format so that you can read them on your e-reader.
The Kindle Touch on the other hand supports PDF, unprotected MOBI, and PRC ebook formats and as well as PDF, DocX/Doc, RTF, TXT, HTML, JPEG, PNG, and GIF formats. Since the Nook Touch supports ePUB which is more of an open standard in book formats you’ll be able to buy books from a variety of stores including Google Books, the Sony Reader Store and KoboBooks and transfer them to your e-reader later.
The Kindle supports Amazon and mobi only so you’re pretty much locked into Amazon. However, with Calibre you can convert ePub files to mobi which Amazons supports, but you won’t be able to convert Amazon ebook format (.amz) to ePub.
Winner: Kindle Touch. Kindle supports more file types.
Kindle vs Nook Round 7 – Storage
Both Amazon and B&N offer free cloud storage for your library. The Kindle Touch has 4GB of built in memory which can approximately 3,000 books. You cannot expand your memory either as there is no SD slot.
The Nook Simple Touch comes with only 2GB of internal storage (1GB for content; 750 MB reserved for B&N content), which should hold about 1,000 books. However, since the Nook does have an SD slot you are able to expand your memory up to 32GB.
Winner: Nook Simple Touch – Has less internal RAM but can be expanded.
Click Here For More Info On Kindle Touch!
Click Here For More Info On Nook Touch!
Kindle vs Nook Round 8 – Customer Support
There’s a dedicated Nook desk at every B&N store. If you live near a Barnes and Noble store, you can take your Nook in and get technical support from a friendly and sometimes knowledgable person. Hands on support can sometimes be faster and easier to deal with than over the phone. If you don’t have a B&N near, there is always phone support available as with Amazon.
I’ve read in many forums that Barnes and Nobles phone support is inferior to Amazons and judging from the amount of Nook related emails I get compared to the Kindle’s I have to agree. Amazon also has a 7 day return policy. If you buy a book by mistake or whatever you can return it for a refund. No so with B&N.
Winner = Amazon: Superior phone support, 7 day return policy
Kindle vs Nook Round 9 – Battery
Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble claim to have battery life that lasts for 2 months based on one hour per day usage and no Wi-Fi usage. Tests have shown that the battery life between the 2 devices are indeed pretty much equal.
Winner of Round = DRAW
Kindle vs Nook Round 10 – Connectivity
The Kindle and Nook Touch both have Wi-Fi but it is Amazon who provides 3G service. If you occasionally get a spontaneous urge to read a certain book and can’t wait til you get to a Wi-Fi hotspot, then for an extra one time fee of $50 you can have the option to download books anytime, anywhere with the Kindle Touch 3G. Barnes & Noble used offer 3G but for some reason they stopped providing it.
Winner of Round = Kindle: 3G support
Kindle vs Nook Round 11 – Price
The Kindle Touch has two price points, one with ads and one without. The price for the Kindle Touch without ads is $139. The price with ads is $99. Most people do not have a problem with the ads as they don’t show while you’re reading so they’re really non-intrusive. The Nook Simple Touch is $99.
Winner = DRAW
Click Here For More Info On Kindle Touch!
Click Here For More Info On Nook Touch!
Conclusion
After 11 exciting rounds of action we finally have a winner! Let’s tally up the points and see what we got.
| Kindle | Nook | |
| Design |  |
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| Reading | |
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| Selection | |
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| Lending | |
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| Social | |
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| Documents | |
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| Storage | |
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| Support | |
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| Battery | |
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| Connectivity | |
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| Price | |
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| Total: | 8 | 6 |
Winner = Kindle Touch!
It was a close battle but on paper the Kindle Touch scored more points and gets the win. You can’t go wrong with a Kindle. After seeing both e-readers in action and testing both I can strongly say that the Nook Touch is not crap and doesn’t suck. The Nook Touch is a game competitor and a very worthy opponent.
One of the main reasons a person would chose a Nook over the Kindle I think, is because it supports ePub and Amazon doesn’t. If you have alot of ebooks saved up in ePub format and you don’t want to hassle with converting them with Calibre everytime you get ready to read then you might want to consider the Nook Simple Touch.
Other than that, I’d say roll with the Kindle.
Click Here For More Info On Kindle Touch!
Click Here For More Info On Nook Touch!
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