I received my new Nook Touch a few days ago and I wanted to share a few first impressions. The reasons for choosing the Nook over other options in the market were numerous. First and foremost, it’s my inherent objection to the closed garden approach, an approach that made Apple products non granta in our household In the book reader market, the bullying leader is of course the Kindle from Amazon. There are many other players in the market with Sony among the first and leaders, but when it comes to specs and price, none of them have any advantage over the Nook.

Looking at the Nook, it’s obvious that Barnes & Noble are trying to encourage customers to purchase books through their own service, but the big advantage of the Nook over the Kindle in that regard is the support for the ePub format – EPUB (Electronic Publication) is an open, free and standard format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Books in ePub format can be purchased from multiple electronic booksellers and content providers and the user is not looked into a single vendor to supply all their content, like in the case of Apple and Amazon.

The Nook is smaller than its predecessor and the Kindle, thanks to the removal of everything other than the screen and 5 buttons on the sides and bottom of the device. It’s the smallest book reader with a manageable 6-inch Pearl e-ink touch screen. The device weighs less than 210 grams (7.5 ounces), and measures 6.5 by 5.0 by 0.47 inches (H,W,D), which is smaller in every measure than any Kindle or Nook before it. When holding it in the hands, it feels like the Nook’s screen is smaller than other ebook readers because it feels so small, but it’s actually the same size as most others. The matte black back is sculpted, with a taper designed specifically for being held in one hand. The power button is at the top of the back, and the USB port is on the bottom. On the right side, there’s a micro-SD slot for adding up to 32GB more storage to the 2GB that’s built in.

The E Ink Pearl display’s resolution is 800 by 600, text and images are very crisp and clear in 16 shades of gray. The matte screen isn’t prone to fingerprints, can be read in direct sunlight, and doesn’t hurt the eyes. Touch interaction is very responsive (much better than most other E ink screens). When the Nook is turned off, it shows one of various images of authors on the screen. If you wish, you can add/replace your own photo as a “screensaver”, which adds a touch of personalization. Turning it back on and unlocking it, will bring you back to the same page you were reading.

The new Nook is stripped off the built-in 3G modem, and only features Wi-Fi. If you need a new book while out and about, Barnes & Noble’s partnership with AT&T means that you can step into any B&N store, Starbucks or many other stores and download a book. When in a Barnes & Noble store, you can read entire books for free. The Nook also supports e-book lending and EPUB loans from libraries. If you are out of the US, you can get books only where there is available Wi-Fi. Though officially there’s no Web browser in the Nook, if you type a url into the search bar, a browser will show up and display the website.

More impressions to come.