So; I finally got my hands on a NOOKcolor. The wife and I bought nooks and they were delivered to our home last week. She got the original NOOK primarily because of the e-ink technology and I got the NOOKcolor because word-on-the-street labeled it as a great introduction into tablets. I certainly don’t have $600 to put down on a Samsung GALAXY Tab and Motorola’s Xoom is NOT living up to the snowball hype it generated during Superbowl XLV. So; here’s what I think of it.

While at work I was super excited to know it was at home waiting for me. My wife didn’t confirm the arrival because the previous day we missed the delivery. She ranted on about what we could have done differently to receive the devices and I said, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I purposely don’t get excited about things until it’s in my hands. That way I won’t be disappointed if I miss the delivery.” She probably took that as a hint not to tell me about it until I got home. It was too late though, I knew the devices would be home that day and was sweating it out at work. :)

Hardware

The hardware is nice and it has a very modern look and feel to it. The screen is 7 inches, just like the GALAXY Tab and all the pros advertised with having a tablet that fits into your hand is confirmed. The device feels sturdy. I don’t plan on using the ear jack so I don’t have anything to say about it. The power button is oddly placed to the upper left side of the device. I guess I’m used to that button being on the very top-right, but it’s not so bad. The volume buttons don’t seem to sit well with me. I rarely turn the volume up or down, but when I do, it just doesn’t feel right.

It’s got a 800MHz processor and I’m OK with that. My current Motorola Droid only has 550MHz which makes the NC the faster Android device.

I’m going to refer to the NOOKcolor as “NC” from here on out. You’ll notice the same verbiage being used on any of the Android-related forums.

The screen is very nicely lit. I haven’t tried reading in the outdoors yet, but based on how bright the screen gets I’m assuming I won’t have a problem.

I did order a Color Field Cover in Storm Gray for my NC. I was initially disappointed with it when I saw it. I expected it to be darker in color and I wasn’t too happy with the material. After using it that Friday during my regular commute to and from work I began to like it more. I feel that it really protects my NC, I’m beginning to like the material, but that gray needs to be darker.

Software

My NC came with version 1.0.1 software and it is VERY basic. As an eReader you really shouldn’t expect much more from it, but because I know Android lives at the very core of this thing, I WANT it to do more! I’m treating it like a tablet when it’s clearly packaged as an eBook reader. So; I’m giving myself about a week to play with the vanilla software and then I’m rooting the hell out of it!

Reading it’s bad, I’m becoming more familiar with the differences between EPUB and PDF formats. I would certainly prefer my PDFs in an EPUB format, but when I convert them using Calibre E-book management, I can see how it strips down the document to its bare essentials, thus removing the original formatting the author/publisher did. It’s like having a Rich Text document vs and HTML page. You can do a lot more with the HTML page, but then you lose some of the convenient software interaction, such as: bookmarking certain pages, being able to jump around using the table of contents, and highlighting and writing notes.

Rooting

There are tons of resources out there to help you figure out how to root the device. I’m looking at the various forums trying to completely understand where this device, it’s software, and the rooting-stage fits. Since it’s the Wi-Fi Only model I can’t take advantage of surfing the web or checking my email and social media platforms while on the go. I’d have to tether it to my Droid. I tried, but it didn’t work. I later found out that the NC can only hook-up via Ad-hoc Wi-Fi, which means that I’ll need to root the device in order to get it working with my phone. Even more incentive!

Overall; I’m really happy with it. I’ll be even more happy once I root it. Here are some resources that I’m familiarizing myself with:

  1. http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/nook/
  2. http://nookdevs.com/Portal:NookColor
  3. http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=860

If you have a NOOKcolor, I’d love hear about your adventures either making the best of the standard software or rooted.

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