That grainy black and white picture to the left is the first glimpse at the new Nook Tablet that Barnes and Noble is going to unveil on November 7th. It looks just like the Nook Color, but it comes with substantial upgrades.
Some of the shiny new features include a dual-core processor, 16GB of onboard storage (that’s twice as much as the Nook Color), 1GB of RAM, a 1.7 ounce lighter build, and if you take a closer look at the picture you’ll see apps for NetFlix and Hulu Plus.
A number of things remain the same as the Nook Color, which is getting a price-drop and firmware update: the 7-inch VividView IPS screen with 1024 x 600 resolution, the microSD card slot, eight hour battery life, and access to B&N’s ebookstore and Android appstore.
The Nook Color has been so popular that it’s not surprising that Barnes and Noble essentially duplicated it with the Nook Tablet, just adding some hardware upgrades and continuing to build on content selection.
Nook Tablet Specs
- 7″ LG VividView IPS display
- 1024 x 600 pixel resolution (169 ppi)
- 16GB storage memory
- 1GB RAM
- MicroSD cards up to 32GB
- Dual-core processor 1.2 GHz OMAP4
- Movies and TV from Netflix and Hulu Plus
- 2 million ebooks from B&N, plus magazines, newspapers, kids books
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- Battery: up to 8 hours
- Size: 8.1″ x 5″ x .48″
- Weight: 14.1 ounces (400 grams)
- Format support: Adobe DRM, EPUB, PDF, XLS, DOC, PPT, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, DOCX, XLX, PPTX, Adobe Flash, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, MP4, and AAC
B&N will be announcing the Nook Tablet officially the morning of November 7th, at which point it will go up for pre-order from B&N.com for $249. It releases on November 16th, one day after the Kindle Fire, of which just got some major competition. Stay tuned for a review and hacking tutorials (it’ll probably be rooted by the 18th).
To the ‘average’ consumer, the price advantage of the Kindle Fire will be a huge incentive. Most people will not be sophisticated enough to key in on ‘specs,’ and rightly so; because both devices off a similar experience: books, web browsing and other media.
For those who are more discerning, the Kindle offers a custom, high-speed browser and a far more extensive app store (unless one roots the Nook–something the ‘average’ user is not likely to pursue).
In short, to the majority, the Kindle Fire will be the compelling choice, due to its lower price and comparable (if not better) selection of media and apps.
Frank may be correct in his assessment, but you have to recognize B&N’s tactics with announcing last. They are launching multiple products on multiple fronts (amp up readers both mono and color, reduce prices and roll out a tablet).
At the same time, the popularity of the Nook Color could cause the more expensive Nook tablet to give the Kindle Fire a run for it’s money and possibly cause Apple to rethink that maybe they are missing lucrative marketshare by not having a 7 inch iPad at a lower price point.
Shall we name this only a tablet then and take the ereader name away or will it be an ereader with tablet capabilties? In my opinion this extra stuff just raises the price and will diminish actual book reading.