Nook Color eReader

EditThere’s a lot of buzz this holiday season about eReaders. Having researched them all, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Nook Color best suits my needs:

Pros

• Smaller than an iPad at 7″,  hold it in one hand like a book.
• Backlit LCD, works in low light. (Kindle and the first Nook, better outdoors.)
• Gorgeous 1024*600 screen, the same as a netbook, but more portable.
• Responsive, load books quickly, immediate page turns. Full color magazines.
• Full web browser, except flash, you can see full pages, and they load quickly.
• Plays most eBook formats, you don’t have to buy from Barnes and Noble.
• Lend books to Nook users, and borrow them. Borrow from libraries.
• Plays music, and supports 32GB Micro SD card, so you can store all of it!
• It’s been rooted, you can load Android on it if you’re a tech savvy risk taker.
• Because it’s been rooted, lots of pressure on Barnes and Noble to roll out more apps to its own store.

Cons

• No Flash video, yet! An Android update is expected to fix that in January.
• No 3G support, so you have to get to a wifi network to download books or browse the web.
• $100 more than a monochrome eReader (I think it’s worth it, you may not).
• Video quality is poor, I expect that to improve with the Android update also.
• Very limited apps, no calendar, contacts, email. No access to the Android market.
• There is a Nook appstore, but there’s almost nothing in it as yet.
• Check out at Barnes and Noble