I have had the 3g Nook, still have the color nook, 2 Nook tablets and now I have the Nook Samsung Galaxy Tablet, which I love. I 3G I had for around 8 yrs and I guess due to non use it finally bit the dust or maybe just needed a new battery. This yr Barnes and Noble offered a trade in on any other Nook devices for one of the tablets. I love all of the Nooks and they've only gotten better. The first two, you couldn't connect to any wireless, it depends on the firewall settings so even though here at the hospital we have free wireless, I couldn't connect because you can't change your settings. Last yr i bought the Tablet, it was alot cheaper than the Galaxy with more memory too. A few months later a co-worker who had bought one decided to buy one because we all had one and then 3 mo later he was going to sell it for less than 1/2 price, I bought it. When I went into the store to check to see if he'd bought the extended warranty because he couldn't remember, they said yes, switched it into my name and then gave it a new start up date for the warranty. My daughter got that one, and when I got my Nook Galaxy then I keep the other tablet at the house because the little ones love to play on it. They have lots of books, lots of free ones and I love the books that have the read to me feature because the 4yr old can now listen to the books until she learns to read. The great thing about Nook is that I can take it right into any Barnes and Noble store if I have a problem and they'll fix it or just give me a new one and I can ask any questions without being put on hold. I can read any book while in their store for free for an hour each day. They have thousands of freebee books and support many different formats. The first ereader I got was a sony and it would only take sony, it went back the first day. I love being able to watch videos, read books, play games, search the internet, have my contacts, calendar, bill ledger, etc all in one place and I can take it with me easily. I've never owned any of the others so the only thing I can say is that I wouldn't want one where I can't expand my memory. Now if he doesn't want it as portable, Barnes and Noble has free software that you can download to your phones or laptops so you can read books on them too. I'm sure others have the same feature. Barnes and Noble has this feature for androids, apple products, computers, etc. I know that Best buy and Target sells the nook products but like every thing else I'd check them all out to see what fits your needs. He might get buy with a free ereader on his laptop and be happy. Make sure you get the warranty, I know that Barnes and Noble has always stood by thier warranties with each one I've had and most time instead of dealing with sending to company for repair, they just give you a new one instead. Good luck and research.