Torn between what ereader to get my wife?

[KayKay]

I'd like to not spend a lot of money, but I also want the one that performs the best, and one that delivers books immediately. I'm looking at the kindle 3 nook/ nook color or maybe a sony reader. Which one in your opinion is best, and why. Which ones do you have to wait for a book after buying it?

I'm also looking at getting an Itouch for myself for ereading and all the other things it does. Any opinions on that?

[Fatal Kiss]

personally I like plain old books are better. There isn't much of a difference between them. Maybe a function or two. If you want to know which is best go ask an employee, that's what I do when I'm buying something expensive. good luck!

[Jdog the Great]

I got a kindle for christmas and i love it! it has a special screen that simulated a piece of paper. its only like a 2 minute process for downloading a book. its also a lot lighter than the nook. the only downside is that you cant get books from the library like you can on the nook.
Good luck!

[JaKi]

Hi, kaykay, Nook from Barnes & Noble is the best combination of price and features of the eReaders market. When choosing an eReader, you need to consider not only the physical properties of the device, but also compare eBook stores behind it. Sony has never been a contender for any comparison by anyone as they only have like 5 books in their Ebook store and their devices are way overpriced for what they offer. Borders is behind Kobo/Cruz devices in US and as you might of heard, Borders is on a brink of bankruptcy. Kindle and Nook are the only devices to be considered as their eBook stores have over a million of free public ebooks as well as over a million of ebooks that you need to pay for available.
Having that out of the way, you should then decide which screen you want: e-Ink or LCD. It depends on what you're reading. If just black & white novels then the better one would be Kindle or e-Ink Nook from Barnes & Noble. If you read electronic magazines or college text books with a lot of color graphs and charts or children’s' books with a lot of pictures then the better would be Nook Color LCD from Barnes & Noble. Then, you should understand the limitations of e-Ink eReaders - they are limited to be black & white for now they "blink" at each ebook’s page turn, they're not too good for web browsing, they need external light source for reading when dark, and they cannot handle videos.
Whichever device you choose, here's the advantages of the Nook’s (both e-Ink black & white and Nook Color) over Kindle:
- Any Barnes & Noble store provides free Wi-Fi to Nook's
- Nook allows to lend Nook books for two weeks to friends and family or share with your other devices that run B&N app (PC, MAC, Android phones, Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad, etc.) Barnes & Noble allows (when you walk in with the Nook to B&N store) to read any available eBook for free while in the store via free provided in the store Wi-Fi. With Nook, while in BN store you get exclusive articles from top authors, and great offers including cafe treats and unique deals.
- Nook (unlike Kindle) can be used for library ebooks.
- Nook (unlike Kindle) can be used for renting text-ebooks.
Nook Color is worth mentioning separately as this is a hybrid Android eReader/tablet device, something between Kindle and iPad. Even though Nook Color has LCD touchscreen, it's a new generation screen which is anti-glare coated and is better performing in sunlight and produces less glare all of which are dooming reading on iPad. Also, the screen is amazing and readable/viewable at wide angles.
Overall, Nook Color is more than e-Reader as you can also watch video and use Android applications on it. It's a hybrid device, much more than just an e-Reader but not a full tablet as it doesn't have a camera. If all you want is to read novels, the original e-Ink Nook might be better for you. If you want something more from your device (color graphs and charts of college text books, childrens books, photos and videos, web sites in full color) at half of the price of iPad or Galaxy tab, then Nook Color is your best bet.
Nook Color has several apps that already come with the device (Pandora Internet radio, QuickOffice, etc.) Also, Barnes & Noble recently released Nook SDK and Nook Developer platform that will allow most of the existing 100,000 Android apps be ported to it. Also, you can use the Social Settings screen to link your NOOK Color to your Facebook account and your Twitter account. You can also import all your contacts from your Google Gmail account. Once you have linked to Facebook and Twitter and set up email contacts, you can lend and borrow books, recommend books, and share favorite quotes with your friends.

[good e-reader]

Well here are the best ones you can get that are pure e-readers

Kindle WI FI
Kobo Wireless
Barnes and Noble Nook WIFI

these are the best low cost e-readers, less then $150.00

If your wife wants something that can access the internet, play games and in color, take a look at the Nook Color

I recommend doing your ressearch a bit before you just buy something, but you can't go wrong as an entry level e-reader then Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Amazon, they directly allow you to buy books from the unit and some show magazines, newspapers etc.

[Lora]

Honestly, although I would not choose either of them for myself, I would recommend either Kindle or Nook. Both have access to huge e-bookstores and unless your wife has very unusual taste in books (specialized subjects, small publishers, unknown authors) she will never have to worry about finding something she likes in their stores.
Kindle has been making e-readers longer and their units are easy to use for beginners and are fairly high quality in construction and software. The display is easy to read and they are inexpensive. They use a proprietary format, however and that can make it difficult to purchase books from any other source than Amazon and currently eliminates public library access.
Nook has more format choices available and makes library access possible (although it is still painfully difficult to use) also, they can get books from multiple sources. Nook also offers free reading (there is a time limit) while you use your Nook inside a Barnes & Noble store. They use an older version of the screen technology and the machines are larger, heavier and have less battery life than other machines available on the market (due to an unnecessary LCD touchscreen below the reading pane) The Nook design has only been available for a little over a year so durability is unknown.

I myself prefer the Sony Readers, but they are higher priced than most other e-readers in their size range and they don't have wireless capability until you get to the highest priced model. Durability is top-notch, however, due to an aluminum body. My own Sony is over 2 years old, used daily for several hours a day and has been dropped more times than I can count--it still works like a dream. The Sony bookstore is smaller than either Amazon or B&N, but the software interface makes it no trouble to purchase books from other sources and public library access is essentially "one-click"

If you live near a Best Buy store you can see all these brands and the Pandigital in-store (I've had friends return the Pandigital because it was difficult to use) and decide what best fits your needs and your budget.

[Max Twelve]

Read the reviews from actual owners, there are over 13,000:

Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M/?tag=7357-20

Kindle DX (larger screen - good if you have trouble reading smaller text like me):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GYWHSQ/?tag=7357-20

[Lilly J]

You need to go read the reviews of actual owners of each devices. For the Sony Reader, you can read reviews and get more information on the Sony Reader Forums located here: http://www.sonyreaderboards.com

[Micheal Shwan]

In short, I won't choose iPad or Nook Color, because they're using backlight screen like computer screen, and is difficult to our eyes. Just not suitable for reading purpose. For other ebook readers including the B&N Nook, Sony Reader, and Amazon Kindle, I'll go for the Kindle. For the Sony Reader, many books (especially new releases) cannot be easily find on it. For the Nook, it is good but it is slower and less user friendly compared to the new version of Kindle.

There is also quite a good comparison between the ebook readers here:

http://bit.ly/whichebookreader

[asailorman]

If you value Customer opinions about these devices, go to http://tinyurl.com/aaidemo, enter the product name or model (like "Nook Color") and click on "Submit" button. The system will aggregate and analyze customer reviews to calculate the reputation metrics for you and will let you read the reviews if you want to.