The largest U.S. bookstore chain's Nook has been a hit since its launch in 2009, but the retailer is under pressure from Amazon.com Inc, which in September introduced the Kindle Fire, its first tablet, to challenge the tablet-like Nook Color and slashed the price on its basic Kindle
Whatever the company presents on Monday, analysts said Barnes & Noble would need to show a new product or at least a significant upgrade with strong new features to keep Barnes & Noble competitive, justify any higher prices and win customers.
Barnes & Noble has faced years of shrinking book sales, so it has invested tens of millions of dollars to develop the Nook to reinvent itself as readers move to digital formats. Despite having modest financial means compared with Amazon, its Nook Color beat Kindle Fire to the market by a year, and its touchscreen reader was launched in May, months ahead of Amazon's.
Amazon's aggressive pricing will put pressure on Barnes & Noble to follow suit on the devices it does not upgrade. "Barnes & Noble doesn't want to be seen as a low-cost leader. If you're looking to snap up a Nook Color (review) following the impending price drop -- you know, now that the Nook Tablet is about to replace it on the company's hardware pedestal -- Best Buy would like you to know that it's dropping the price of said product already. W
It's hard to believe we're already writing a review of the Nook Color, considering Barnes & Noble's first foray into the e-reader world was revealed just over a year ago. In that time, the company has gone from no presence in e-books to owning 20 percent of the marketshare, and now has moved from a somewhat sluggish hybrid E-Ink / LCD device to a full color, tablet-like product. The Nook Color is definitely a major step forward, boasting a completely revamped, Android-based OS, and a big push into the children's book and periodical market (particularly full color magazines).
Beyond book reading, the Nook Color potentially offers a tablet alternative that can (or will be able to) do much of what is possible on an iPad or Galaxy Tab. In fact, the company plans to launch its own Android tablet app store in the first quarter of 2011, providing a consistent, compatible application experience that could get the jump on other Android tablet-makers' plans (hello Samsung). Of course, this is a fierce market, and with a $249 price tag, Barnes & Noble has to play to win on every front.
So, is the Nook Color the next logical step in e-readers? There's no mistaking his masterful touch here; the Nook Color is an elegantly, thoughtfully designed piece of technology. The edges and sides of the device are coated in a near-matte finish, charcoal-colored plastic, while the back of the unit is smooth, soft rubber. On the opposite sides near the top of the device there's a power / sleep button and volume rocker. At just 0.48-inches thick, the Nook Color feels svelte, though it weighs in at nearly a pound, making the device seem substantial in your hands.
The Nook Color is equipped with 802.11b/g/n WiFi, but you won't find any 3G here. Overall, both inside and out, the Nook Color is surprisingly well designed. Really, the Nook Color (and any device which relies solely on a touchscreen for input) is all about the software. The Color starts at a deficit (in our opinion) by running atop a custom Android build based off of version 2.1. When you first boot the device, you're greeted with the center screen of three homescreens where you can arrange books and periodicals you're currently reading, see recently downloaded content (presented as a scrollable list at the bottom of the display), and get quick access to a number of other features of the device, such as your most recent selections, and general settings. We like the idea of this landing page, and in execution it works really well, though there are some touch response and frame rate issues that make the experience a little uneven.
As far as general navigation goes, on every screen (not just your home base), you've got a small tab which pulls up a menu from the bottom of the page with familiar Nook selections: library, shop, search, extras, web, and settings. The library section is organized by books, magazines, and newspapers, but also gives options for creating your own sets of content ("my shelves"), working with PDFs and other docs, music, images, and video (M4V only) in "my files," and allows you to dive into the company's much-touted lending program.
The lending options have been expanded in the Nook Color, and the company now provides a social network of sorts for friends of yours with Nook devices wherein you see the selections they're lending out, showcase what you have to lend, and request titles. We had no trouble playing MP3s and AAC files, but we had some issues figuring out just how to get our music into the player. We could play a single file, but found no option to add albums or create playlists. Finally, we figured out that a restart is required once you've added music (we're guessing it gives the device a chance to scan the content). That's all well and good, but the Color should rescan your collection after a USB sync. Another issue was getting back to the player itself. Hopefully Barnes & Noble will have a quick fix for some of these minor issues early on.
The Nook Color also does Microsoft Office documents, and we were able to view DOCs and PPT files with a reasonable level of success. Just like most things on the device, it wasn't the fastest experience in the world, but it worked well. Really, the Nook Color (and any device which relies solely on a touchscreen for input) is all about the software. The Color starts at a deficit (in our opinion) by running atop a custom Android build based off of version 2.1. The lending options have been expanded in the Nook Color, and the company now provides a social network of sorts for friends of yours with Nook devices wherein you see the selections they're lending out, showcase what you have to lend, and request titles. We had no trouble playing MP3s and AAC files, but we had some issues figuring out just how to get our music into the player. Hopefully Barnes & Noble will have a quick fix for some of these minor issues early on.
The Nook Color also does Microsoft Office documents, and we were able to view DOCs and PPT files with a reasonable level of success. Just like most things on the device, it wasn't the fastest experience in the world, but it worked well. While the Nook Color is a fully capable Android tablet, it's not loaded with the kind of features you'll see in a Galaxy Tab. As far as the web browser goes, the experience is pretty standard Android 2.1 fare, though as with the homescreen and general navigation on the Nook Color, the fun of using the device is hampered by touch response and refresh rates that seem way behind the curve. So as far as screen tech goes, the Nook Color looks gorgeous as an e-reader for standard books and goes one step beyond, delivering magazines and children's books the way they were meant to be viewed. For standard e-book reading, there are tons of options for formatting, fonts, and coloring -- even those with poor eyesight should be able to find settings that make the reading experience enjoyable.
We really liked reading with the Color, and even though the device doesn't sport animated page turns (a la the iPad), it does offer great options for notation and word or phrase discovery (you can do dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia searches right from a contextual menu).--The Nook Color also offers newspapers delivered daily, but we're not quite as psyched on the layout of the traditional dailies. The premise is rather simple: a professional voice actor reads the copy out loud through the Nook Color's speaker, and a child can follow along.
Battery life
We didn't have much of a chance to gauge the Nook Color's long-term battery life (we've only had the device a few days), but in our testing, a full charge yielding more than a day of on and off use. This wasn't constant hammering, but an ebbing and flowing of reading, testing features, and keeping the device asleep. Well, we'll say this -- if you're a hardcore reader with an appetite that extends beyond books to magazines and newspapers, the Color is the first viable option we've seen that can support your habit. Not only does Barnes & Noble have an astoundingly good selection of e-book titles, the company seems to be aggressively pursuing the periodical business, which is a big deal. This is the first device we've seen that effectively and consistently presents a color magazine option.
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