So after long last, I have the Nook--er, I mean nook (I think Barnes and Noble wants it branded as a lowercase "n")--in hand.  While a few people have them already, especially professional tech bloggers, most people who have ordered them still have another month until the next batch ships.  It still amazes me that Barnes & Noble so botched the supply chain, under-predicted the demand... or more likely something more strategic, either wanted holiday orders knowing they wouldn't make the holidays or they know there are issues and are using us early movers as beta testers while more bugs are fixed for the masses.

Since a lot of people love to see unboxing, those photos are posted below.  The packaging was fine and presented well, possibly over the top in my book but it's the trend in tech to try to present the product like a work of art in the packaging rather than just packaging to ship it safely.  It was in a hardened plastic case like it was on display at a gallery or something.

Now for the review...

There are certainly some very good points about this and I think it will prove to be a great product (especially in a few months) for its primary task:  to read books!  The flaws should not surprise me since, having read the early reviews, I already expected them.  However, they are flaws none the less and they hopefully will be addressed.

The Upper Screen

The first thing that really impressed me was the "E-Ink" screen.  I heard it was good, but wow!  Keep in mind, I have never seen a Kindle face to face either (I heard it's the same manufacturer on both devices).  I literally thought there was there that was a sticker covering it when I first unpackaged it (like the was on the bottom color screen) .  It looked that real!  But, in fact, it was the display!

Later, it fooled me again when my wife changed the wallpaper on me to a tree.  I saw it out of the corner of my eye, not knowing what it was, and I thought for a minute there was something spilled on the screen and it had broken.  What I am saying is.... you would swear you are looking at something physical there rather than a digital screen!  It reads just like a sheet of paper, so easy on the eyes under any lighting.

There have been people who have suggested that tablets or an iPhone can replace these e-readers and I have always argued... NO!  The screen is easier to read and not backlit and hard on the eyes like a regular LCD screen.  Today I see it face-to-face and it's even better than I thought.

The Lower Screen

The bottom color screen is running a version of the Android operating system--the same software that runs my phone (and I hate half the time).  The screen is bright and a nice addition.  I think it's a much better use of space than having a physical keyboard on the Kindle (again I've never used a Kindle though).  It offers a lot of flexibility to navigate around, view things, and the cover flow is sweet.

This screen of course is a big drain on battery life, but it's worth the trade off I think and they turn this screen off very quickly after no activity to mitigate this.

I'm not sure if it's a screen issue, a hardware issue or a software issue (or a combination), but there is a definite lag between what you do on the touch screen and the response.  This is apparent whether you are swiping to navigate the cover flow, typing on the keyboard, or clicking ("tapping" as they call it) a link.  It's manageable--only a fraction of a second--but you have to slow yourself down a bit.  And the cover flow animation is a little bit jerky, but that might be fixed in a future software update.

General Use

One of the first things you have to get used to is NOT to touch the upper screen--it doesn't do anything!   I knew this going in also, but your entire instinct is to touch the option you want to select on the upper screen.  NOPE!  You must navigate the "clickable" items on the upper screen by using the bottom screen's arrows and "OK button" (which is unintuitively designed as a circle... which more resembles a power on/off to me).  Once you get used to it, it's okay.  I understand that the upper screen as a touch might not be an option and/or would kill battery life in an hour... but either that or physical up, down, and OK buttons would be nicer.

The other thing I had to get used to was there is an next/previous physical button on BOTH sides.  I guess this is to be suitable for left and right handed people.  My instinct is to want to click with my right hand for next page and left hand for previous page.  To me I'd like it to be one big button on either side for that function.  Instead, on both sides the lower button is next page, the upper button is previous page.  Again, just you have to train yourself to go against your initial instinct.

Speed

Some of the early reviews I read poo-pooed the nook for being slow.  I don't think it's slow.  It takes a little time to boot up, but so what... go get a drink of water before you read.  When you buy a new book and open it for the first time the screen says "formatting" takes long than ideal, but  I can definitely live with a 30-60 second wait for that in exchange for driving to a bookstore!   Finally, some people have complained about the lag between turning pages.  But come-on folks... it is fine. It is really just half a second... you can't turn a physical page and re-focus that fast!  So no worries here for me.

Content

When you first bring up the device, it has several useful articles pre-loaded.  You also find your library is populated with several free classic books.  Nice touch!   In my case, I had previous purchased a book on the Barnes & Noble Reader app on my iPod Touch... it was automatically there on my nook!  There was no wait for this, it was just there.  This is very nice and encouraging to know that no matter what device you're on (that supports the B&N store) your books will follow you.  So two years from now when you want the newer and shinier e-reader from B&N no worries with transferring.  Additionally, other companies are coming out with products that use the B&N store (like the new Que that just came out at CES)... I am assuming it would follow you there too!

The B&N Store is decent.  And it proudly proclaims that it has about 1.1 Million books you can shop through.  That is really really impressive!!  At the same time, I did not find a book my wife was looking for and found VERY few computer programming books available.  As far as magazines and newspapers go, you only have ten to choose from right now.  I'm sure this will improve over time as more publishers get on board... this is the future after all.

The other "bummer" (that again is no surprise because I knew going in) is that you can't read blogs, browse web pages, or email from your nook.  I completely understand why they don't want you to use their free 3G bandwidth for these purposes (since they have to pay AT&T).  What they should do, however, is detect whether you're on WiFi or 3G.  If I am connected to my WiFi it should let me download whatever I want.  It just doesn't make sense... you've got the software, internet connection, and a great reader... why not let me read some news, blogs, and email from the internet?  Maybe it's hard to format a web browser on the E-Ink screen, but then at least give us an RSS reader to subscribe to blogs... they could obviously render the text in a compatible way by doing that.

I hope they will wise up in a software update soon.

Connection

The AT&T 3G connection was pretty fast for us here in Orlando.  I bought a book and pretty much by the time it took me to navigate back to the home screen and into my library it was there.  Nice!  This is where it will be really great when you want a book NOW and don't want to drive to the bookstore.  My wife is going to LOVE that because she goes through books so fast and is always at a loss of what to read because she's re-read all of her books 20 times!

My local WiFi connection was obviously also a fast alternative.  I haven't been down to the B&N store yet to use theirs.  This of course would all be much more important if they had more "live" stuff to view/download.  For now it's pretty much for browsing the bookstore and downloading books.. the rest is pretty much offline use anyway.

Just a note... I did run into one problem.  It actually turned out to be a software bug apparently, but I wanted to mention it here since it appeared to be connection related...

After running a few searches for books, I was looking for a book for my wife.  I typed in one word from the title, "softly".  It told me no network connection was available!  I tried again.  And again.  Nothing.  I disconnected from WiFi (which told me it had full bars) and re-connected.  Nothing.  I restarted the entire device... NOTHING!  So, frustrated, I turned to Googling the problem on my computer.  I finally found someone with the answer... it's apparently a software bug on CERTAIN keywords. Huh??

So I tried a different search.  BINGO.  It came up.  So for SOME REASON if you search for certain keywords it tells you there is no connection, when there actually is.  I have no idea.  And I found no way around it, other than to change your search term.  I found another search term (on accident) with similar results, but all of the rest worked fine.  Obviously this needs to be fixed, B&N are you listening????

Software

Continuing my complaints about the software... Barnes & Noble flat out rushed this thing to market.  It is just not finished.  This is the price you pay for being an early adopter and fortunately, they WILL update it and fix some of this in the coming weeks or months.

There is an option to open the Audio Player under EVERY menu, no matter where you are.  It's totally not in context and there is no other way to access it.  It is really silly.

It should have an RSS reader, email reader, and other software... again even if just able to use it via WiFi.  Because there is no web browser, they make it clear in the instructions that most hotel WiFi connections WILL NOT work for you because on most of those you need a web browser to accept terms or payment options.  This would also be the case for airports.  Given the 3G, you probably won't need it in most places... but in a place with spotty 3G coverage you would.  ...Or if they open up those other blasted features that I keep harping on, then the WiFi connection becomes really important.

There are other usability holes.  When you are ordering a subscription to a magazine or newspaper it is unclear exactly what you are getting.  Is the price per issue?  Is the price per month?  Per week?  At first I was confused how a subscription was $1.25 and a single issue of a magazine was $1.95.  After some time, I finally realized that the $1.25 was a recurring fee they'd charge you every month... NOT for an annual fee, which is the usual way you subscribe to magazines.  They did NOT make this clear.  For newspapers it was similarly confusing... on the Financial Times the subscription rate is $9.95 and I think that is pure month, but it never says.  The Wall Street Journal is $14.95 and  the only way I know that was monthly was it said somewhere in the description.  They need to identify this in the purchase information.  It would also be nice to be able to preview an article first.

I subscribed to PC Magazine and then was confused when I found that, despite the fact that the cover now appeared in my library, there is nothing for me to read!  I am guessing that it only delivers on certain days, so I will get (and be charged for it) the NEXT issue when it comes out next month.  That is really confusing and if I subscribe to a magazine I think it should give me the current issue right away.  It's a little stupid the way it works.. and again it is not made clear.

I may unsubscribe to PC Magazine now that I understand it's a recurring monthly charge (I haven't been charged yet since my first issue is not yet delivered).  But there is no interface to UNSUBSCRIBE on the nook!!!!  I guess I have to go on Barnes and Noble's web site to do it...?

Similarly, I requested to sample a book.  I decided I did not want that book.  But there is no "put back" option!  So now there is this book that I don't want in my library and I can't get rid of it!  I'm assuming after a certain period of time it will disappear, but again it's silly there is no option to get rid of it.  (Maybe on their B&N web site again??)

Overview

So as you can see..... the device is fine and I am sure I'll be very happy with it, especially for its primary purpose:  reading books!  But... it could be SOOOOOO much more.

Fortunately for us and for Barnes & Noble, pretty much all of my issues are software and content issues.  Both of those can be fixed!!!!!!!!  And I am almost positive they will be addressed soon!

Until then, my wife will get a lot of good use out of it!  She is the big book reader.  Me?  I read about two novels a year. And when I do get that rare itch, you better believe I will turn to this rather than taking up more space in our house with another book.  The main reason I wanted it is for travel... and this will be with me on every trip for sure.  It is so nice for that.  And once they update their software, get more content to get more magazines/blogs and such, and hopefully add features like reading RSS feeds and emails then I'll use it a lot more (until then I'll have to stick to reading on the small screen on my phone or iPod).

Unboxing Photos