Kindle vs Nook

We have discovered many similarities between these two examples of great modern technology and also a few differences that helped us to determine which one we think is a better value product.

For the benefit of our readers we have investigated several key features of the products and will now present a comparison of them based on our research.

CPU

The Kindle Fire has a slight edge over the Nook Color in this category. It has a newer dual-core TI OMAP 4 processor. It is likely to be more powerful and will offer better performance than the Nook’s 800 MHz single core CPU.

The difference between the two processors might only be noticeable when watching video or playing games. If you are reading a book or listening to music there probably won’t be a substantial difference between the two devices.

Storage Space

The Kindle Fire has 8 GB of internal memory, which should be enough for 80 apps, plus 10 movies or 800 songs or 600 books. However, the Kindle Fire also offers free Cloud Storage for all of your Amazon digital content. This means that you can have unlimited space for your music, apps, books, and movies purchased through Amazon and you can stream this data whenever you have Wi-Fi access.

The Nook Color also comes with 8 GB of storage. If you require more storage space than this then an SD card can be purchased in addition to the Nook.

If you always have wireless Internet access available to you then the Kindle Fire is the obvious choice here in terms of storage space. If, on the other hand, you plan on needing to store more than 8 GB of data and you need to access it in places where there will be no Wi-Fi then you may wish to opt for the Nook, but keep in mind that you will have to pay more for the extra space.

Display

It is hard to distinguish between the two products in terms of display in order to determine which is the better product. Both of them have a 7-inch color touch screen that displays 16 million different colors through a resolution of 1024 × 600 pixels.

We think that our readers will be very impressed with the quality of the screen of either product.

Battery Life

The Kindle Fire has a battery life of 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video playback while the wireless is switched off. It takes 4 hours to charge.

The Nook Color also has an 8-hour reading battery life but can charge in 3.5 hours so it is slightly better than the Kindle in this regard.

Usability

This is another criterion in which both products appear to be on equal footing.

The Kindle fire has been designed with an intuitive interface that is easy to use and navigate with your fingers – everything can be done at the touch of your screen.

For the nook, the ‘user-friendliness’ factor has been rated 4.1/5 stars at Amazon.com and reviewers have found that the product is very simple to use. Like the Kindle, the Nook is very intuitive and you can start enjoying it right away.

Design

Measurements and Weights

Kindle Fire – measures 7.5” x 4.7” x 0.45” and weighs 14.6 ounces.

Nook Color – measures 8.1” x 5.0” x 0.48” and weighs 15.6 ounces.

Although both products have the same size screen, the Kindle Fire is the smaller of the two. It’s slightly lighter too. Both can be held with one hand.

Reviewers for the Nook have said that they find it very comfortable to hold and that it works well switching between portrait and landscape modes. They generally appreciate its sleek design.

The products look quite similar in design. You can see pictures of the Kindle Fire HERE and of the Nook Color HERE.

Web Browsing

The Kindle Fire purports to be able to provide ultra-fast web browsing. The revolutionary cloud-accelerated browser known as Amazon Silk is supposed to provide this speed using its ‘split browser’ architecture.

The Nook also has the ability to surf the Internet quickly at many Wi-Fi locations.

Both products use Wi-Fi to access the Internet and do not have 3G capabilities.

Books

The Kindle can be used to read over one million different books in the kindle library. This includes bestsellers, children’s books, comic books and cook books in vibrant color. You can get 800,000 titles for less than $10 and two million books for free, which we find very impressive. The free books are those books that are past their copyright but there are still some great titles in this selection. For example, you can get free copies of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Nook Color supports over two million books. Most are less than $10, some are under $5 and there are over one million free books available.

A handy benefit of owning a Nook is that you can read any Barnes & Noble books for free for one hour per day while using their Wi-Fi connection. Also, its exclusive LendMeTM app enables you to lend and borrow books between friends quickly and easily.

Magazines

Both products offer the ability for the user to read magazines. The choice of hundreds of titles of popular magazines are available on both units with interactive features.

Movies and TV shows

This is a category in which the Kindle is far more superior to the Nook.

The Kindle Fire supports over 100,000 movies and TV shows including new releases and old classics that can be purchased or are available to be streamed on the unit.

The Nook Color seems to be less focused on video and this highlights a key difference between the products, that the Nook is more of an eReader than a tablet. You can put your own media on both units; however, the Nook does have limitations on the size and format of videos that it can play.

The Kindle, with its ability to play Amazon-purchased movies and TV episodes as well as its ability to stream video rentals or free offerings available to Amazon prime members is obviously the better choice if being able to watch TV and movies is an important feature to you.

Apps and Games

The Kindle Fire offers the user a vast selection of apps across all categories, which can be found in the Amazon App Store.

The apps available to be used with the Nook amount to only a few hundred and, while there a few games and productivity apps available, the majority are related to books or reading.

You are more likely to find your favorite apps on the Kindle than the Nook because although the Kindle doesn’t support access to every app store, its range is greater than that of the Nook’s.

Other

We also hope that our readers can understand that both of the products have other beneficial features, such as the use of email, that we haven’t had time to discuss in detail.

Conclusion

Which of the two products do we recommend?

We think that the Kindle Fire is the better product and here is why:

Firstly, a big deciding factor in our decision is to do with the Kindle Fire’s ability to stream and play movies and TV shows. We think that the benefit of being able to purchase video media is a significant advantage over the Nook.

Secondly, we think that the free cloud storage offered by the Kindle is a great benefit. We think is a terrific feature because it basically allows you unlimited storage space as long as you can access the Internet.

Thirdly, we think that the wider range of apps that are supported by the Kindle offers a lot of value and has helped shape our decision.