Yep, we had a feeling this one was coming. As expected, bookstore mega-chain Barnes & Noble has launched its answer to Amazon’s Kindle Fire (and to a lesser extent, Kobo’s multimedia Vox slate ) — also as expected, the article looks a lot like its predecessor, the recently discounted Nook Color , all the way down to the metal bar at the bottom corner. Granted, B&N did already take the plunge into the tablet space, when the Nook Color was upgraded earlier this year — however the Nook Tablet brings greater than only a new name, needless to say.
The tablet offers up a seven-inch IPS display with full lamination, videos as much as 1080p and 11.5 hours of battery life. The Nook has 16GB of built-in memory, that is further expandable through a microSD slot. The tablet is all about multimedia content, naturally, offering up from Netflix and Hulu Plus pre-loaded at the device. It gives users access to 250 magazines and periodicals, in addition to comics from publishers like Marvel. Barnes & Noble is obviously going directly after the Kindle Fire with this device. So, why pick the Nook over the fireplace? Double the storage (that is further expandable), a neater display, more RAM, free in-store device support and a lighter weight body at under a pound, says Barnes and Noble.
As expected, the Tablet will cost you $249 ($50 greater than the contest from Amazon). Pre-orders begin now, and the slate will start shipping next week.
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