When it comes to e-readers there are a lot of choices out there. Choices that will let you get your read on, but which one should you choose? Let’s start by getting rid of all of the drug store options. They usually have poor displays, no support and you get exactly what you paid for, an inferior product with a candy coating thin shell.

That leaves us with three choices: the Kindle by Amazon, the Nook by Barnes and Noble and the iBooks app on Apple’s iPad. Today, we will take a look at the originals and compare which one you want.

iBooks vs. Kindle vs. Nook – A Three-Way Battle for Your Eyes

Why the Originals?

Budget honestly. We’re living in a worldwide economic downturn and most of us cannot afford to be extravagant. Wanting an e-reader is one thing, paying more than you have to is another. Yes, the Kindle and the Nook both have a tablet version, but they are more costly than their previous incarnations.

So in the name of frugality, a virtue that is often ignored in the world of tech, we will talk about the cheapest models of each, while also providing information about the higher priced models.

The Kindle

 

Current Cost: $79 to $199

Pros:

• The Kindle is light and lightweight.
• A long battery life, about 8 -10 hours of active use or a few weeks on standby.
• An easy to read a screen.
• Amazon gift cards can be used for a lot of different things. Buy that $15 book and still have $10 left over to get a TV show or music you love.

Con’s:
• Media is stored on the cloud. No Wi-Fi means no media.
• The ‘Web Browser’ and ‘Text to speech’ features are a joke. There is a reason they’re called experimental.

The Nook

 

Current Cost: $99

Pros:
• You can pick one up in store, no waiting, and no shipping costs.
• Support is also in store. Issues will be looked at right away. No hold music and no shipping it in.

Con’s:
• Nook tech support can be notoriously dumb. Many users have reported problems with a support that is prolific.
• The screen does have a little bit of a sheen that can be a problem in very high light

The iPad (iBooks)

 

Current Cost: $299.99 (refurbished)

Pros:

• It does a lot more than the original Nook or Kindle, without relying on Cloud storage or streaming media.
• Apps galore, as long as you watch your hardware and iOS requirements.
• Touchscreen ebooks allow you to interact with your media. Good news for textbooks, children’s books and other things that require you to get personal with the text.

Con’s:

• Its only available as a refurbished model. You can’t get it new.
• You pay for tech support, also known as Apple Care at a rate of $99 for three years.
• You will pay more, and not by a little.

And The Winner Is…

As much as I love my iPad the cost makes it too much to really compete as an e-reader alone. The price is right on the Nook, but the support issues that have been encountered by enough users that there actually hate sites devoted to them, keep it’s from being first place. It looks like the first popular commercial model, the Kindle, in our opinion,  is the current champ.