If you follow me on Twitter, you know that yesterday I went to Best Buy to check out the Nook, which is now being sold in there stores. I thought this would give me a good opportunity to compare the functions of the eReader, which has recently piqued my interest due to the addition of a web browser and games to the nook software. Without a doubt, the Nook is light, sleek and slim. Out of all the eBook readers out there, this one takes the cake for form factor. Once I awoke the Nook from its sleep mode, however, I discovered something odd. When the screen changes (because of page turning or application switching etc), instead of a seamless pixel change, it looks like little Nook elves are drawing an Etch a Sketch of the page for you. The images and text slowly come together in a grainy mix until the page is fully loaded. Now, I wasn’t sure if this was normal, or some sort of error on this device, so I went over to the Sony eReader display and found the same issue over there. Now, I realize I am a little behind on this eReader thing and perhaps some of you knew that the page rendering on these devices is reminiscent of 1980’s displays, but I wasn’t, and furthermore I am a little shocked that these devices are doing so well when they look so low tech. I suppose it’s the eInk display that causes this. I know the displays use less energy and make it easier to read for long periods of time in any lighting but when you compare them to even a cellphone or iPod touch display, they seem soo outdated. I don’t mind that the display is black and white, although a touch of color wouldn’t be bad, but I am bothered that the rendering of the screen is so rough.
