Barnes & Noble unveils the Nook color. Is this the end of e-ink?

Barnes and Noble unveiled its new color Nook e-reader yesterday to much fanfare… but if it’s got a color screen, it means that it’s got an LCD screen, which seems to negate the advantages that an e-reader has over a tablet. So the color Nook is a mini tablet just for books? 

B&N is billing it as a hybrid of e-reader and tablet device, and has beefed up its software with a full-on tablet-style UI, along with Facebook and Twitter integration. There’s built-in WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and 8GB of storage, but no 3G at this point. Thankfully, the price stays aggressive as a result: $249. You might think that means the screen is going to be weak, but B&N has managed to put an impressive-sounding “VividView,” 16 million color, 1024 x 600 IPS display in this thing. Interestingly, there’s a “full lamination screen film” on top of the LCD to reduce glare, apparently from the backlight, not just from external light sources.

It sounds like they put a lot of thought into trying to make it as much like an e-ink e-reader as possible, but still, if I were to shell out the money for an e-reader, I’d still go for the black and white version. E-ink uses almost no power, for an incredibly long battery life and readability that’s as easy on the eyes as printed paper in all light conditions.

Via