After getting a chance to play with the device for a few minutes, I'm ready to render my "instant expert" opinion.
It's... OK.
As the review sites have noted, it's sluggish. There's a good deal of "touch screen then wait" in the interface. But the solution seems clear enough:
The interface should not use the eInk screen. There's plenty of room on the touch screen for the interface to operate entirely from there, and to only update the eInk screen when you're ready to do the thing it's designed for -- reading a full page. Most of what the eInk ends up doing when you're going through the interface is displaying a list of titles. Even though the touchscreen isn't all that spacious, it's perfectly adequate for that duty.
Overall, there are a few spots where the interface could be streamlined (read the book should be the default behavior, with rate, share, etc being options once the book is up for reading), and several spots where it takes too many taps to get to a simple item, but the biggest overall change that's needed is just to keep the eInk screen static until it's time to display a page of text. Otherwise, the touchscreen actually seems pretty responsive, and I think you'd zip right through selection and most functions if you weren't waiting on the eInk to constantly work through its slow refresh.
I'd even go so far as to shrink the on-screen keyboard size a bit, providing room for the display of typing above the keys. That tap-update-tap-update routine is one place where the eink gets frustrating in a hurry. If I had to do much searching through a document, this one feature alone might drive me to break the device over my knee. Give me slightly smaller keys and faster update. Please.
Please, B & N, at least consider providing an option that keeps the interface off the eink. Those who must have their lists completely written out with titles, authors, publishers... heck, give them the option of full display and slow. But as it stands the interface rarely takes advantage of the wide touchscreen. Other than the "cover flow" display, at most spots it's offering only a single word. There's no reason the touchscreen can't handle list and selection duty. Stop treating the touchscreen like a dumb menu and use it fully. Users will thank you for it.
