Disturbing Cracks Starting to Appear in the nook’s Facade no comments
There are a few disturbing reports on the Barnes & Noble nook related forums of nook ereaders which are already developing stress related cracks on the page turning buttons. There are also reported sightings of cracked nook demos in B&N stores.
Unlike most other ereaders which have a page turning button presented through a cutout in the bezel, the nook uses a flexible plastic bezel that when depressed activates the page turning mechanism. This repeated flexing is apparently causing fatigue in the plastic which is then cracking.
The picture above shows the page turning buttons on the Kindle and the nook, and a close-up shot of a cracked nook bezel submitted to the B&N forum by icebike.
This is a worrisome development as the nook ereader has only been on the street for less than two months. Hopefully this will prove to be a production problem that only affects a certain percentage of nooks, though I really doubt it. B & N should have known better than to expect a strip of plastic like this to withstand thousands and thousands of flexes as users advance pages. As the nook ages this could blow up into a major headache for both owners of the nook ereader and Barnes & Noble.
Barnes & Noble appears to be replacing nooks with cracks; but from what I have read I would advise that when you call their customer service you stress that the crack is interfering with your use of the ereader rather than just being a cosmetic problem. Even if it seems to you to be only a cosmetic problem at first, it will interfere with your ereader’s operation as the crack gets worse.
It might also be a good idea to use the LCD touchscreen for page turns as much as possible.
Update: It seems a reasonable assumption that this problem is exacerbated by cold. If you are out and about in the winter wonderland with your nook, you might want to let it warm up a bit before using the page turning buttons.
