Noknok

Nokia Reading is the latest app to bring a huge degree of personalisation to the Windows Phone platform. Announced last week, we’ve found that the new service has already struck our Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 900 smartphones. Read on to find out more about Nokia Reading.

Nokia Reading was first announced back in February at Mobile World Congress 2012 and more recently Nokia Conversations stated that it would start to roll out. The great news is that it’s now hit Windows Phone-powered Lumia’s – as you can see from our photos, we’ve got it on our Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 900 smartphones.

How Nokia Reading will knock Kindle for six

Nokia Reading is a free and quick download from the Nokia Collection of your Lumia Windows Phone and once installed all you need to do is log into your Nokia account, not your Xbox account which tends to be the default setting for Marketplace, and you’re in.

As with any Windows Phone app you can choose to pin Nokia Reading to your homescreen, so you’re always a single tap away from your latest reading experience. The app itself looks and feels a lot like Nokia Music, so you’ll find My Books, Bookstore and Settings on a single page.

Swipe to the right and you can start to drill down into these services, with the books you’ve downloaded and how much you’ve read If them highlighted by a blue line beneath them.

Bookstore offers up the latest offerings, including the chance to tap into a More section, swipe again and you’re into the Booklists section, which is broken up into three sections: Top eBooks, Ebooks for Less and Free eBooks, which as the names suggest offer something suited to your needs and budget.

The free books tend to be offerings from the Guttenberg Press initiative, which has been running for years and is a way to keep books in print that have long since passed out of copyright control.

We’re impressed with how clear and legible the reader experience is with Nokia Reading. You can choose to read in Portrait or Landscape mode, depending solely on your preference and switching between the two is quick and easy. Once you come out of the app it even remembers where you were up to.

Naturally, it’s an easier read on the bigger screen of the Nokia Lumia 900 than the Nokia Lumia 800 but that said, we still found it more than pleasantly enjoyable on the 3.7-inch screen. So, if you don’t want to take a book next time you travel, or simply like the idea of having a book with you at all times, Nokia Reading is the way to go!

Nokia Reader will only get better in the months to come. Forthcoming updates will let Nokia Reader fans create a personalised page that updates with new web content according to your own preferences. The idea is that you’re never left without something to tickle your literary taste buds

Already downloaded and using Nokia Reading what do you think of it? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.