Flash! New NOOK: “Simple Touch”
Just time for a quick note. The new NOOK has been revealed:
It’s $139, only has one-button (it’s touchscreen), two month battery life, e-ink, wi-fi, due June 10th.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
May 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm |
Looks like the K3 sans keyboard, which would make it smaller and lighter. Not sure how they get 2 months use w/ wifi off vs K3′s 1 month w/ wifi/3G off. Larger battery, I’d guess, unless the circuitry uses less power.
The travel stand is a total rip-off, however. $15 for a simple piece of plastic? I’d wager they could sell it for $1.50 and still make a profit. Or at least I would not pay more than $1.50 for it.
May 24, 2011 at 6:32 pm |
Thanks for writing, Mickey!
It is smaller and lighter than a K3. A K3 is 8.5 ounces (depending on which one…the 3G & wi-fi is heavier, presumably because there is a second modem): the NOOK Touch is 7.48 (although they also have that asterisked).
The K3 is
7.5″ x 4.8″ x 0.335″ (190 mm x 123 mm x 8.5 mm)
The NOOK Touch is
6.5 inches 5.0 inches 0.47
It’s an inch shorter….that matters for things like purses and pockets. It’s a tad wider and thicker.
My guess is that there may be something different with the battery or the draw…if it was just calculated differently, they wouldn’t put it on the comparison page here:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/compare/index.asp?PID=38254
May 24, 2011 at 9:21 pm
from the Teleread article
http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/barnes-noble-nook-announcement-of-new-ereader/
in the Q&A section at the bottom of the article.
May 24, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Thanks for writing, becca!
Very interesting article! The NOOK Classic being discontinued wasn’t trumpeted in the coverage…
May 24, 2011 at 5:02 pm |
I’ve got mine on order. Hopefully, it will ship earlier than June 10.
May 24, 2011 at 6:32 pm |
Thanks for writing, Rick!
If you get a chance, write back about how it is after you have it.
May 24, 2011 at 6:12 pm |
well, the two month battery life is based on half an hour reading per day, with no wi-fi turned on. That’s roughly 30 hours per charge. Put that way, how does it compare with Amazon?
the touch screen does sound simple to use.
May 24, 2011 at 6:36 pm |
Thanks for writing, becca!
I haven’t noticed that “half an hour reading per day” stat…do you remember where you saw that?
I figure a K3 is generally good for about sixty hours of reading on a charge, barring all other uses. That’s just a guess, though.
They are using an infrared touchscreen, I believe. It will be interesting to get the feedback on how responsive people find it to be.
May 25, 2011 at 4:28 am
It is ironic that B&N is trumpeting battery life when it is half of K3′s. Hey, my iPod Touch will go for two months too if I only run it 3 minutes per day!
May 25, 2011 at 4:49 am |
Actually I just noticed the Kindle says two months between charging (always thought it was a month).
“Battery Life of Up to Two Months
A single charge lasts up to two months with wireless off based upon a half-hour of daily reading time. If you read for one hour a day, you will get battery life of up to one month.”
So did Amazon do a software tweak or were they always going by an hour a day, but decided to do the 30 minutes to compete with the Nook’s two-month claim?
May 25, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Thanks for writing, Bob!
It’s interesting, because Amazon’s comparison chart on the Kindle DX page still says one month…but they have changed it on the individual product page.
I think they just changed the calculation, not the technology.
May 24, 2011 at 6:21 pm |
Just a quick correction. It actually has physical page turn buttons on the sides and a “quick navigation” button on the bottom front.
May 24, 2011 at 7:34 pm |
Thanks for writing, Lexi!
One of the first things I saw was that it just had one button, but that was just as it was being released. I’ll look more thoroughly later, although I don’t see the physical page turn buttons at this point. That would make a difference for use with assistive devices.
May 24, 2011 at 7:42 pm
You can see in this video.
Hope that helps.
May 24, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Thanks for writing, Lexi!
I hadn’t been in a place to watch a video earlier…they are labeled in the video.
May 25, 2011 at 4:15 am
Right, and holding the side buttons down invokes ‘Fast Page (TM)’. I’d like to see that in action: a big complaint about eink devices has been that they don’t do this well, making them unsuitable for reference books and the like.
May 25, 2011 at 11:55 am
Thanks for writing, Tom!
Yes, I’d like to see that feature as well. It’s never bothered me that it goes to black during a “page turn”…that’s much less obtrusive than turning a paper page. However, it did bother some people. I haven’t particularly heard about the concern in conjunction with reference works (the desire to keep flowing from point to point seems less important there than in a novel…one often wants to linger over the information in a reference book to process it better).
Edited to add: if there is a battery advantage (which isn’t clear), not going to black on a screen change could contribute significantly to that, I think.
May 24, 2011 at 11:19 pm |
I think you could have won a pretty good bet wagering that the “hot new” Nook would be black and white, eh? That’s pretty surprising to me.
Not sure how I feel about a touch screen reader. I know on the rare occasions when I read an actual book on my phone I find myself changing pages by accident quite often.
Definitely not a Kindle Killer in my opinion.
May 25, 2011 at 3:45 am |
Thanks for writing, Dave!
I kind of feel like you do…meh.
It just doesn’t seem that different, and it’s not any cheaper than the Kindle wi-fi (and not as cheap as the most popular model, the Kindle with Special Offers).
Is a touchscreen a big appeal? Not for me, but maybe for some people. I think the lack of a screen flash may appeal, but that’s somewhat esoteric. A two-month battery charge? Okay, but is plugging it in once a month that much of a burden?
The memory is also pretty small…but they remedy that with the expansion slot…that drives up the price, though.
I wasn’t expecting E Ink color, but they may not be that far away. I thought it might be a cheap model…maybe $89 or so.
As to killers…the NOOK Simple Touch did kill two EBRs….the earlier E Ink nooks.
May 25, 2011 at 4:18 am
Calvin, B&N is still selling new Nook 1ed’s: $119 for wifi, $169 for wify/3G. And you can get refurbished Nook 1ed’s on B&N’s eBay storefront for $99/$139 respectively.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook1-overview/379002696
May 25, 2011 at 11:59 am
Thanks for writing, Tom!
That’s true for now…they have said they are discontinuing the earlier E Ink nooks…they will basically sell them until they are out of them.
By the way, my first name is Bufo, my last name is Calvin…don’t worry about it, that happens a lot.