Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet hands-on

Not everybody wants to fork over their hard earned cash for a fully featured tablet, but for those who prefer an eReader of some sort, with a sprinkling of some tablet functionality, the recently announced Nook Tablet might simply be what the doctor has ordered. Barnes & Noble unveiled its latest product in the Nook Tablet, which handsomely retains the Nook Color’s appearance, but is upgraded to meet some of the recent competition – namely, the Amazon Kindle Fire and the horde of other 7” tablets out there.

First and foremost, we really needed to rub our eyes because we thought for a moment we were looking at the original Nook Color from last year. Design-wise, it’s an exact facsimile, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, taking into account that it was one solid feeling tablet already. At the same time, it manages to be lighter as well at 14.1 ounces. However, the biggest attraction is its immaculate looking 7” VividView Color display with a resolution of 1024 x 600, which is of the IPS variety. Not only does it shine brilliantly, but it sports a wide-viewing angle to perfectly complement the reading experience. Clarity is achieved because it’s fully laminated with no air gaps, thus, enabling it to maintain remarkable clarity with minimal glare.




Under the hood, a 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP4 processor with 1GB of RAM is providing all the horsepower for this Android based tablet, but as we know, it’s heavily customized to offer users an experience that’s more focused on reading above all others. Still, there are some multimedia centric aspects to this tablet – like its ability to play 1080p high-definition videos without much fluff. Moreover, we were given a demo on reading an eBook, looking through a Marvel comic book, and even the new AliveTouch technology that allows you to record your voice in a children’s book.

Some of its other features include 11.5 hours of battery life with reading, 9 hours of video, 3.5mm headset jack, 16GB of internal storage, expandable microSD card slot, and Wi-Fi. All in all, it’s undoubtedly attractive when you look at its $249 price, which is actually $50 more than the Kindle Fire. However, after taking a closer look at some of its superior offerings, the difference in price might simply be warranted.