Both use the same Neonode infrared touch technology for their touch screens along with E Ink's latest Pearl display that's also found in the Kindle and Sony readers. If you're looking to compare this with the Kobo Wi-Fi Touch Edition, Kobo's new touch-screen e-reader that retails for $10 less ($129.99), they offer some distinct similarities. In short, Barnes & Noble has come a long way from its first-edition Nook, which was buggy and felt sluggish at launch, though firmware upgrades helped improve its performance. Holding those buttons down allows you to fast forward-or rewind-through a book's pages, which is a nice feature. There are also four very slim 'hard' buttons along the side of the screen that you can use to turn pages (in the settings menu, you can change whether to page forward with the top or bottom buttons). The device isn't as zippy as an iPad 2, but books open quickly and pages turn in a fraction of a second with a swipe of the screen (or just touch the right margin to page forward and the left margin to page back).

However, it should be noted that in our side-by-side comparison with the Kindle, the two e-readers turned pages at essentially the same speed. Instead of the screen flashing every page turn as it does with the Kindle, the screen flashes about every fifth page turn. Barnes & Noble has made a big effort to reduce the flashing effect of e-ink when a page is refreshed. Availability: Demo units will be in Barnes & Noble stores on June 2 device is now shipping for online orders product will be in-stock in stores beginning June 6Īll in all, the touch screen is responsive and the second-generation Nook is zippy for an e-ink device.Reads JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP graphic files (for custom screensavers).Supports EPUB, PDF, Adobe DRM (supports e-book borrowing from your local library).Runs on modified version of Android 2.1 (no Android apps available, however).Battery charge lasts up to two months (battery is not user replaceable).

MicroSD card expansion slot (add up to 32GB card).

800MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3 processor.

Wi-Fi wireless connectivity (802.11 b/g/n).

6-inch Pearl e-ink screen (same screen as Kindle's e-ink screen).

Touch screen with Neonode 'responsive' zForce infrared touch technology.

Barnes and noble nook reader