A lot of people are interested to see which ebook reader would take top honors in a Nook vs Kindle matchup. The big question mark is — which one? While Amazon's Kindle is clearly the dominant ereader out there today, some are saying that the Nook has the goods to give the Kindle some serious competition. Is it a close call? It's time to put the two devices side by side.

Size, Weight and Design

Measuring 7.7 inches long and 4.9 inches wide, Barnes and Noble's Nook is a bit smaller than the Amazon Kindle which is 8 inches long and 5.3 inches wide. But then again, at 0.3-inch thick, the Kindle is thinner than the Nook which is 0.5-inch thick. The Barnes & Noble device also weighs a bit heavier at 11.2 ounces matched against the Kindle's 10.2-oz weight.

Unlike the Kindle, the Nook's back cover can be opened, allowing quick access to its replaceable lithium ion battery pack. But what really sets the Nook on a wholly different level is its 3.5-inch LCD color touchscreen which takes the place of a standard keyboard for navigation. The distinction between the color LCD and the grayscale e-ink display provides an interesting dynamics to the gadget that few other ereaders can lay claim to.

Other Features

The two ebook readers are equipped with 2GB of internal memory, but while that's about it for the Kindle, the Nook offers you the option of adding more storage space via its microSD memory expansion slot. The two devices are also connected through AT&T's 3G wireless network but only the Nook offers WiFi connectivity. Visit a Barnes & Noble shop and you get instant free access to WiFi.

Unique Features of Each

Now here are the more exciting Nook vs Kindle details. So what features are present on the Nook but are absent on the Kindle and vice versa? For starters, the Barnes and Noble ereader has two novel services - book lending (being able to loan your ebook to another Nook owner) and in-store browsing (being able to browse full ebooks at no cost within Barnes and Noble shops).

For its part, Kindle does come with text-to-speech feature which lets the reader become just a hearer and listen to the book read to him. Also, the Kindle permits web browsing, while the Nook doesn't. Finally, the Nook's battery life of 7 to 10 days (more like 4-5 days according to users) is way behind the Kindle's about 14 days battery power (more like 10 days in actual use). For both devices, the battery life estimated here is with the WiFi turned off. 

The Decision

Like I've mentioned earlier, choosing a clear winner between the Nook vs Kindle is just not that simple. But while both have exciting features, Amazon's device takes the upper hand in overall use as it has practically perfected the technology, having o up with several Kindle versions. On the other hand, the Nook's numerous issues, like slow page turns and sluggish startup will likely be improved in succeeding versions, and then it can really give the Kindle a good fight.