Media Behemoth Blasts B&N's Nook eBook Reader

Posted 12/10/2009 at 5:56am | by Paul Lilly

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Barnes & Noble has been criticized for seemingly rushing to market its Nook e-book reader before manufacturing could churn out enough units to satisfy demand, and already B&N has pushed back its anticipated preorder ship date several times. According to The New York Times, however, availability is the least of the Nook's problems.

The media behemoth posted a review of the Nook on Wednesday and summarily ripped it apart. Speaking of which, the review starts out by accusing the Nook of being "ripped right out of the Kindle's master playbook," noting the same price tag, same off-white plastic frame, the same screen saver, and other similarities. Given the popularity of Amazon's Kindle, this wouldn't be a bad thing, but NYT goes on to thrash the differences between the two units as pointed out by the Nook website.

"Unfortunately, we, the salivating public, might be afflicted with a little holiday disease of our own: Sucker Syndrome," NYT writes. "Every one of the Nook's vaunted distinctions comes fraught with buzz kill footnotes."

For example, NYT points out tht the color touchscreen is just a horizontal strip that, at times, "feels completely, awkwardly disconnected from what it's supposed to control on the big screen above." And of the over one million titles B&N advertises, NYT claims that "well over half of those are junky Google scans" of out of copyright books filled with typos. Then there's the slow performance, quirky Wi-Fi, and unfinished features. Ouch.

And all that's just part of what NYT had to say. Read the entire unflattering review here.

Is NYT's review being too harsh on the Nook, or will it make you think twice about which e-book reader to buy? Sound off in the comments section below!