Nook takes on Kindle and Kobo in UK: Pricing and timing revealed
Barnes & Noble is about to bring out the Nook range, which includes competitors to Amazon Kindles and Kobo's devices, in the UK.
The US bookseller said back in August that the Nooks would be coming to the UK, but now it has announced pricing and release dates for the specific devices — pre-orders begin in late October, and in-store availability in late November.
The company has also revealed a strong range of retailers through which the e-readers and tablets will be sold, including Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets, Currys and PC World electronics stores, Blackwell's and Foyles bookshops, and John Lewis.
The new high-definition Nook tablets, pictured above, will go up against high-end Amazon devices such as the Kindle Fire HD.
The Nook HD (right) has a seven-inch screen and a 1440 x 900-pixel resolution. It is priced at £159, the same amount that Amazon is asking for the Kindle Fire HD, which has a 1280 x 800-pixel resolution and the same screen size (the Kobo Arc has the same resolution and size as well).
The 315g Nook HD is around 20 percent lighter than Amazon's rival, and slightly faster with a 1.3GHz dual-core processor to the Kindle Fire HD's 1.2GHz dual-core affair.
The Nook HD+ (left) has a nine-inch screen with a 1920x1280-pixel resolution. Priced at £229, it would be going head-to-head with the Kindle Fire 2 HD, which has an 8.9-inch screen and a near-identical resolution of 1920x1200 pixels — if Amazon were bringing out the Kindle Fire 2 HD in the UK, which it is not.
Barnes & Noble's e-readers can be pre-ordered now and will go on sale in early October, somewhat ahead of the Nook tablets.
The Nook Simple Touch (right) costs £79 and Simple Touch with GlowLight (left) £109. Both will be available through the same retailers as the HD tablets, as well as through Argos.
Comparing the e-readers directly with the Amazon Kindles currently on sale in the UK is tricky, at least in terms of price, as the entry-level Kindle (£69) does not have touch functionality and the Kindle Touch (£109) has no built-in light. Amazon is about to release the Kindle Paperwhite in the US, which lacks touch but does have a built-in light.
It is far easier to compare the new Nook e-readers with those from Kobo, which are sold through WH Smith in the UK.
The Kobo Glo offers both touch and a light, and costs £99.99 — notably cheaper than the B&N alternative. The Kobo eReader Touch Edition, which lacks the light and would therefore go up against the basic Simple Touch, costs £79.99 — almost the same as its rival.