B&N Unleashes A New Nook: Touchscreen E-Ink, 2 Month Battery, $139


Barnes & Noble just unveiled the latest and greatest Nook e-reader device at a special NYC event. It’s a simple device, really. In fact B&N stated that this revamped Nook is the easiest to use e-reading device on the market. The touchscreen enabled Nook, sorry Kobo, is said not to feature any page turning latency and has a battery that last up to two months, which is double the current Kindle’s battery life.

A 6-inch Pearl E Ink screen is front and center on the sleek device. It’s rather light at 7.5 ounces in a casing that’s just 5 x 6.5-inches. It’s tiny. Barnes & Noble is understandably proud of its latest creation and proudly stated on stage that the new Nook features 37 less buttons than the latest Kindle. (Not having a QWERTY keyboard would do that)

The new Nook hits at a very Kindle-like $139 price. The unit ships June 10 with pre-orders starting today on Nook.com. The original model is also still available for a new, lower price of $119 for the WiFi model and $169 for the 3G model — while supplies last, as the old device is essentially discontinued.

We got some hands-off impressions at the event, and the touchscreen appeared fairly snappy, but didn’t provide much instant feedback. The device really is small, but the screen is of course the same size as the competition.