Help: Nook Simple Touch -vs- Kindle -vs- Kindle Touch

[Laya Maheshwari]

Hello.

First of all, a few details to help explain my situation. I live in India and will be sending whichever device I end up buying to my cousin sister's place in Virginia (who'll then bring it over for me). This rules out in-store purchases, no matter how attractive the Black Friday deal (if the Nook Simple Touch had been $79 online too, there would have been no debate).

Now, I don't know whether Amazon will have any Black Friday deals for the Kindle(s) so right now I'm just going to compare these devices at their MSRPs. I don't want the Kindles which have ads in them, so I guess it comes down to this:

The Nook Simple Touch ($99) OR The Kindle ($109) OR The Kindle Touch [non-3G] ($139)

I won't be buying very many books from the Marketplace. I will generally use the device for reading PDFs (and ePubs, sometimes) I have on my hard disk. I haven't spent much time with either device (just glanced at a friend's Kindle for 30sec) so I can't comment on my own feelings for them. I only want the device for reading - no surfing or streaming or movie-watching or other such stuff.

But still, I'm hoping you people are more knowledgeable in this and can help me out. Which of the three devices is better for reading, carrying around and will support the formats I mentioned up above?

Please help me out!

PS - In the two Kindles, I'd prefer the Touch. So what exactly does it have that makes it worth the $40 premium over the Nook Touch?

[+LogicalApex MVC]

I have the last generation "Kindle Keyboard" and I love the device for a variety of reasons that I'm sure are covered in the numerous reviews on Amazon. I have never owned the NOOK so I can't offer any good comparison between the two.

The being said, if you get a Kindle it doesn't natively support EPUB so you'll have to use a program call Calibre to convert EPUB files into MOBI for use on the Kindle. This only works for non-DRM titles, just an FYI.

The Kindle also has a nice "email" feature that will allow you to send any compatible file to your device via E-Mail. This will also be added to your Amazon Cloud Storage and get treated like a regular book (can be loaded onto any Kindle or in Kindle Reading Apps and will remember your bookmarks, highlights, and last page read).

But yea there are a lot of possible advantages to each I'm sure.

[The Dark Knight]

I am in a very similar situation! Some friends are bringing a Kindle Touch for me next week! :)

I would say go for the Kindle. Not that the Nook is a bad device, but the selection of books is far better on Amazon. With Amazon, you can also sync your reading across multiple devices. Although the Kindle does not support ePub, converting it is trivial as mentioned by Frazell Thomas.

You could also save yourself $40 and buy the base Kindle Touch for $99 which will display advertisements. The ads are only displayed on the screensaver and in a small banner at the bottom of the homepage which lists your book collection. Absolutely no ads are displayed when you are reading.

[still1]

Kindle touch for sure!!! No questions asked... its one of the best ereader out there..

Touch is better since the other kindle is button based.

[Laya Maheshwari]

Hey guys,

Cyber Monday happened. I saw the offer on Barnes & Noble's website about a $25 coupon on a purchase of more than $100. I was waiting for Amazon or any other retailer to have some kind of incentive for buying a Kindle that day. Nothing visible.

I ended up buying the Nook Simple Touch for $99 with a 2yr protection plan for $20. I also found a cheap but good-looking black leather carrying case for the Nook on Overstock.com and ordered that.

Counting in taxes, my total expenditure came to around $130. For this, I get the Nook, a 2yr protection plan, a black leather carrying case AND a $25 Barnes & Noble coupon.

Thanks for all the help and the opinions :)