Barnes & Noble Nook (3G/Wi-Fi)

Pros: 1.Android based 2.Memory expansion,removable battery 3.wifi 4.Touch screen 5.Freindlier interface 6.Epub capabale 7.mp3 player, pdf support (+zoom), wallpapers 8.In store promotions 9.Ebook lending 10.Automatically shuts wireless on & off for battery

Cons: Slightly shorter battery life, in actuality the kindle gets roughly 7 days of battery vs. 5 days of the nook.

Summary: As of December 21st, nook has been upgraded to firmware 1.1.1 (wirelessly delivered to your nook), this firmware has dealt with most of the glitches and minor bugs that were present in the original version of the firmware (1.0.0). My major concerns prior to the update were loading time, page turning time, and general speed while cruising through all your nooks features, B&N did a great job with correcting all of these issues (way ahead of schedule too). While torn between a kindle and a nook (most people don?t go to Sony with good reason...) here are some facts that might make your decision easier: 1. The nook is the first and so far only ereader running on android operating system (look up the benefits of android including future apps to the nook and great variety of firmware updates). 2. Offers an expansion micro sd slot. 3. Removable battery. 4. Wifi capability (much faster than 3G and works on any wifi, not just B&N).
5. As the touch screen is really a nice visual add on in terms of seeing the covers, the greatest benefit of that would be the greater variety of menu options vs. the kindle, and an easier and smoother navigation interface. 6. Since the launch of nook, B&N's pricing for ebooks went way down and now is pretty much identical to amazons kindle. 7. One of the most important things to consider is the launch of the epub universal file format. As the entire industry is moving towards a universal file format allowing consumers to be able to take their ebooks to which ever device they want, and purchase ebooks from whom ever they want for the device, Kindle is refusing to do so (in my opinion one of the greatest setbacks to the Amazon kindle). 8. Some additional nice features are a built in: mp3 player, built in pdf (with zoom options!), personalizes wallpapers, a friendlier user interface than the kindle, and the back of the nook is made of softer material than the kindle (high quality silicone based) which feels much better than the kindle as you hold your nook in your hands for a while. 9. Another Great feature is although it doesn?t support international wireless like the amazons kindle, you can download anything by connecting to wifi (and also avoiding any kind of international fees that Amazon collects from it's costumers, also i'd like to note that Amazon charges fee's for sending your pdf files to your kindle, -although not much still kind of irritating, this is not the case with the nook).
10. The nook offers a in store unlimited reading option of ebooks through their wifi, many promotional free download of ebooks and subscriptions (in store), and a cute ebook lending option to friends, however you are limited in reading each ebook in store for one hour per ebook for each 24 hours (unless you purchase it), and the lending option is only for participating titles and is limited for 14 days and only one time capable.
11. And finally the only set back to the nook vs. the kindle is the battery life (14 days of kindle vs. 10 days of nook, please note that both estimates are given by the manufactures and are not all that true, in actuality the kindle gets roughly 7 days of battery vs. 5 days of the nook). Another bonus to the nook is that it automatically shuts wireless on and off for battery life purposes, so it uses wireless only when needed and saves you the hassle of turning it on and off all the time.
I've heard a lot of silly compressions on the nook judging it on non- important factors (such as the nook is more grayish white as the kindle is more white white, nook is almost an ounce heavier, kindle is 0.1 inch thinner, I find those facts useless). I was worried prior to getting the nook and prior to the update of firmware, but I do think kindles current ereader (kindle 2) is no match for the nook and it's growing ability (as I said the fact that it's android based renders it's potential immense), Amazon is going to have to improve their kindle 3 by much to stay in the competition, with a dominant key factor of adopting epub (and dropping the kindle version file, and dropping their fees, free 3G just doesn?t cut it anymore). Hope this review was helpful for you.