Color Nook one-ups Kindle

This isn't supposed to be the year of the color-screen e-reader. Led by Amazon's Kindle, monochrome readers have just burst into the mainstream. Color? Not until at least 2011, unless you're willing to pay a lot more for a full-fledged tablet computer such as Apple's iPad or Samsung's Galaxy Tab.

Well, Barnes & Noble didn't get the memo. Its new $249, Wi-Fi-enabled Nook Color reader is on sale now, and provides a satisfying reading experience for half the cost of a tablet.

That's surprising, because the original Nook still hasn't caught up to the Kindle. But the Nook Color, with its bright backlit screen and touch interface, has beaten Amazon to the punch. Not to mention Sony, which pioneered the e-reader but remains mired with a line of handsome yet overpriced monochrome devices.

Given the tradeoffs that the Nook Color requires in terms of price -- the Kindle starts at $139 -- weight and battery life, the first question has to be: Is color really worth it? It depends on what type of books you read. If it's mostly fiction -- just words on a page -- then either color or the E Ink monochrome display used in the Kindle, Sony Reader and original Nook will do the job.

Color, though, is far more satisfying for nonfiction, art and children's books, whose photos and other illustrations lose their punch when rendered on monochrome screens. It's better for magazines, too.

Barnes & Noble has done a good job revamping the Nook's interface to take advantage of the color version's touch capabilities, from accessing your library to turning pages.

Oh, and add the Internet to the list of things the Nook Color does better than monochrome e-readers. Its built-in browser makes the Web look like the Web, while the touch screen makes it much easier to navigate than on most digital-ink readers.

Besides weight and cost, the Nook's biggest drawback compared with digital-ink readers is battery life. It claims eight hours, which is good for a color LCD tablet, but far less than the Kindle, which can go a month between charges.

All backlit screens, the Nook Color's among them, are harder to read in direct sunlight than are digital-ink devices. On the other hand, they are easier to read at night, since they don't require an external light source.