Last September when I reviewed the original iPad, I was surprised to discover that backlit, color tablets actually make darn good ereaders.

No, they didn’t toast my eyeballs as I’d expected, plus I could read them in the dark. Sure, the glare-prone, glass-covered screens of color tablets like the iPad and Nook Color make reading in full sunlight a bit challenging, and yeah, they require much more frequent recharges than their power- stingy eInk counterparts. But their delicious, full-color, multi-touch screens are more than reasonable trade-offs for those relative shortcomings—especially for those who want to enjoy enhanced interactive periodicals and vibrant picture books, two things conventional eInk devices fail miserably at delivering.

So there, I’ve gone and done it: I’ve begun my Nook Color review by immediately comparing it to an iPad—and part of me knows that’s just plain wrong.

But everyone else seems to be doing it, probably because those comparisons are inevitable in consumers’ minds. Even though the Android 2.2-based Nook Color might not be a full-blown tablet designed to compete head-to-head with an iPad, the fact is—strictly from a reader’s perspective—the two devices really do offer very similar benefits. So let’s go there:

The Nook Color features a seven-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel multi-touch screen that’s bright, crisp, and nimbly responsive. While the iPad offers a bigger, 9.2-inch display, the Nook Color actually packs in more pixels per inch. And, while the iPad’s extra screen real estate is undeniably a plus, the Nook Color’s display/interface compares favorably, especially at half the price of even the cheapest iPad.

Appraising the apps

While size matters, the biggest difference between the two devices is that the iPad is designed to have most of the functionality one would expect from a conventional computer. The Nook Color—though it’s Android-based—isn’t really meant to be an all-purpose tablet. Instead, it runs Barnes & Noble’s simple and elegant interface over the OS, meaning that users are limited to running the apps the company approves—currently over 380 of them.

While that pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of apps available for the iPad and in the Android Marketplace, give me an ereader on which I can browse the Web complete with Flash support, check my email, listen to streaming music on Pandora as I read—and play Angry Birds—and, well, I’m a pretty happy man.

Speaking of apps, the model I was shipped to review came preloaded with a cool-for-kids app called Tikatok that empowers young scribblers by letting children create and publish their own colorful ebooks and enjoy those written and illustrated by their pint-sized peers.

Tablet capabilities aside, the Nook Color is still an ereader at heart, providing app-based access exclusively to the content in the Barnes & Noble store. That currently includes some two million ebook titles, subscriptions to 26 newspapers and 150 magazines and access to more than 570 interactive picture books designed for the infant-through-age-12 crowd. All of those children’s book titles include the option to have professional narrators read them, and many have “read and play” interactivity so children can touch portions of the illustrations and enjoy fun animation and kid-friendly explication. Because the Nook Color’s display is viewable from virtually any angle, parents and children can easily enjoy these selections together during their precious snuggle-time.

One thing that’s disappointing is that the Nook Color doesn’t make apps available to purchase ebooks from other vendors. Ideally I’d want, for instance, Kobo and Kindle apps available so I could conveniently comparison shop. They’re not and I can’t. While that proprietary trend is troubling, Barnes & Noble isn’t the only company that wants to make their econtent easiest to buy on their own devices. Apple has been essentially doing the same thing, forcing ebook vendors to either pony up a healthy share of their per-sale profits or say goodbye to their Apple app-based sales. Happily, there are still plenty of relatively easy ways for those who want to purchase or borrow econtent from anywhere and enjoy it on their multi-format friendly Nook Color.

So, about that rooting

Tech tinkerers will inevitably wonder: Since this ereader is basically an Android tablet, can’t I just hack it to convert it into an all-purpose Android device? Being that my Nook Color was a loaner, and that doing so might void the warranty or actually “brick” the device, that wasn’t really an option for me. But yeah, you could. And instructions for “rooting” the Nook Color or installing an alternative OS to run from the device’s memory card slot are widely available.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. Nothing is worse than a glitchy Android tablet—I’ve been there and it’s way painful. Plus, the Nook Color does what it does well and is what it is. Why mess with that?

The Nook Color is an elegantly-designed, intuitive device that melds multipurpose tablet functionality and multi-touch capability with the lightweight, compact form factor of a conventional ereader. Provided you don’t mind charging it after a full day’s use, it’s the best choice for those who want to enjoy full-color, interactive picture books, newspapers, and magazines along with standard ebooks—all without paying at least twice as much for... well, you know... that other tablet thingy.

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