Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet review

Hardware

Desire a fun solution to pass the time this weekend? Why not roll right down to your local Barnes & Noble for a round of “Nook Tablet or Nook Color?” It is the gadgety game that’s sweeping the nation. Yes, it has been said before, however it bears repeating: the Tablet is 2 nearly identical 2 to its predecessor. After we asked Barnes & Noble why it opted to compliment an identical form factor, an organization rep told us it was since the Nook Color was any such successful device with an immediately recognizable design. In other words, the Nook Color wasn’t broken, so B&N didn’t fix it — besides, the corporate surely desired to benefit from its Yves Behar investment.

The sole major changes to the body are a lighter color (a metallic silver to the Color’s dark gray), and a rather more textured back, which may also help with regards to keeping the item from slipping to the ground during an especially saucy D.H. Lawrence passage. Also, notwithstanding some revamped innards, the corporate managed to shed a touch greater than an oz. at the reader, knocking it all the way down to 14.1 ounces (400 grams) — half an oz. lower than the fireplace.

However, familiar it’s, the Nook Tablet has a particular design in a market full of 3 iPad 3 lookalikes. And yes, its chief competition, the Kindle Fire, looks an 4 awful lot 4 just like the BlackBerry PlayBook, as we’ve mentioned generally before. The main virtue, hands-down is the little carabiner loop that juts out from the base left corner of the reader, a design decision largely to set the device aside from other tablets in keeping with B&N — and to provide some protection for the slot that lies at the other side.

The Nook tablet measures 8.1 x 5.0 x 0.48 inches, making it slightly larger than the fireplace in every respect, particularly height. The Nook is tall for a seven-inch tablet. It’s thanks, partially, to its sizable plastic outer bezel, in addition to a bar below the screen that houses the house button, that is better defined here than at the Color. The black bar is flush with the display this trip and initially glance appears larger than the only at the Color. Still, when you activate the colour, you’ll notice a black bar lining the lowest of the screen, which effectively cancels out the advantage of having a narrower bezel

Two large volume buttons can be found at the top of the Tablet’s left side, with the facility button at the right side. The Nook has four physical buttons in all — three greater than the Fire’s solitary power button, a plus for simple access and people moments when the touchscreen acts up, which has certainly been known to happen on these budget tabets. Oh, and in contrast to the hearth, you can still adjust the amount without diving into the settings. Point Barnes & Noble. A headphone jack is found along the pinnacle of the slate, with a micro-USB port positioned on the center of the ground. Flip the device over, and you can see a small speaker grill. The speaker have been bumped up a section this day trip. It could achieve a audible volume, but just like the Kindle Fire, the standard is abysmal. You’ll more than likely end up reaching for the headphones (not included).

The back of the Tablet is convex (that’s why it is available in a tiny bit thicker than the fireplace), so it conforms to the hand a section better than the peerlessly flat Kindle Fire. a huge, indented lowercase “n” sits in the course of the non-removable back. At the bottom, next to the carabiner is a silver strip reading “nook.” Pry it open with a finger nail and you will find the microSD slot.

The Nook has a pleasant size and shape that turn out to be useful during long reading sessions — something B&N clearly took into consideration when building it. Your thumb grips comfortably across the plastic bezel, along with your fingers at the the other way up horseshoe at the rear, which brings to mind the 5 Nook Simple Touch’s 5 concave backing.This is able to have served as another avenue for cultured distinction here, though doubtless would have ultimately served to feature more girth to what’s already a largeish footprint for a seven-inch tablet.

The Nook ships with a micro-USB cable and AC adapter, which you’ll be able to ought to charge it up — no PC charging for this guy. The previous has the device’s “n” logo on one end, changing color with battery status: yellow for charging and green for full. Sure, you may simply unlock the device to determine, but it is a nice little extra touch.

Internals

Here’s where the Tablet shines, in comparison to its older brother. Here, B&N has given us a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, both upgrades from the Color’s 800MHz single-core CPU and 512 MB of RAM. The RAM is additionally double that of the hearth, though the processor clocks in on the same speed. As with the hearth, the Nook Tablet only is available in one flavor, spec-wise — B&N likely didn’t think it’d be ready to escape with offering another level for $50 more. In fact, it already chose to maintain the Nook Color around for $199.

The Nook Tablet steps things up at the storage front, too, with 16GB — double that of the Kindle Fire. Things get 2 somewhat tricky 2 here, however. As with the fireplace, around 2 to 3GB are monopolized by OS-related content. a whole 12GB of the Nook’s storage, meanwhile, are dedicated to content downloaded from B&N, like books and magazines. That leaves a paltry 1GB of storage for non-B&N content — i.e. each of the stuff you’re side-loading onto the device. That won’t sound like a crazy proposition in case you are only planning to store some documents at the thing, but when you were planning on storing a host of music and flicks out of your own collection, you’re form of out of luck. And, indeed, the power to easily drag and drop content from a computer and feature it show at the device is definitely a selling point for the Nook Tablet.

Barnes & Noble assures us that, because the company moves forward with multimedia deals within the year ahead, more third-party content would be storable in that 12GB section. There are some things to notice here on top of that promise. First, like Amazon, B&N is actually eager about streaming multimedia content here through apps like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora, all of which come preloaded at the Tablet. Also, there’s the aforementioned expandable memory, a feature that Amazon has roundly eschewed in its Kindle line. Pick up a microSD card, and you’ll rock as much as an extra 32GB of storage.

Connectivity-wise, we’re talking WiFi. As with the hearth, there is no 3G option here, and if the colour is any indication, don’t expect to look one any time soon. The Nook maintained a WiFi connection fairly well, even managing in some places where the hearth failed. The corporate is additionally profiting from its brick and mortar presence to provide up free in-store WiFi at the Tablet, as with its other Nook brethren. So far as Bluetooth goes, however, you’re gonna should look elsewhere.

Display

Pick up an SD card, and you may rock as much as one other 32GB of storage.

As with the remainder of the skin of the Tablet, Barnes & Noble left the Nook Color’s screen intact. Just like the Fire, we have now a 1024 x 600 seven-inch IPS LCD. Placed against Amazon’s device, the Nook Tablet seems a dash brighter. B&N is talking up the diplay’s lamination, which helps reduce glare, helping improve the Tablet’s viewing angles. The glare does seem to have been reduced just a little, but again, we were hard pressed to detect any major differences between the Nook and the Kindle in that department.

Again, the perpetual e-reader vs. tablet disclaimer is in place here: if you are just out there for a tool to read long chunks of prose on, put money into a 3 Nook Simple Touch 3 or 4 Kindle Touch 4 . E-ink is less complicated at the eyes than backlighting for long stretches and is way more easily read in sunlight. That said, you’re able to read the Nook Tablet in a gloomy room, without assistance from a booklight, and there is surely something to be said for that, right?

Battery

Performance

As mentioned earlier, the internals are the main distinction between the Nook Tablet and its still greatly alive predecessor. This day trip, the Nook is rocking a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, and yes, there is a noticeable difference in speed, inspite of something so simple as loading an app like Angry Birds. The honor is a piece less pronounced between the Kindle Fire and the Nook, though it is there, with the Nook just beating the hearth when loading apps. The Tablet was ready to take virtually everything we threw at it with minimal hiccups.

Probably the most clear performance distinction between the hearth and the Tablet may be seen when playing video.

There isn’t any ton of distinction between the Nook and the hearth, with regards to browsing. The Kindle seems a little more equipped to address text and the Nook does a greater job with images when loading pages. Both devices do pinch-to-zoom, scrolling etc capably. SunSpider 9.1 told a little bit yet another story, with the Book racking up a 4,135 — that’s low, especially in comparison with the Fire’s score of two,440. The adaptation in results can have something to do with the Kindle’s Silk Browser, which utilizes Kindle’s massive server resources, to do the heavy lifting for page rending — a device that the corporate promises will continue to enhance over the years.

The main clear performance distinction between the hearth and the Tablet may be seen when playing video. We streamed Shutter Island on Netflix and were blown away by the variation. The Nook’s video playback handles motion way more gracefully than the choppy Fire. And it picks up on subtle details that bleed and blur when played back at the Kindle. The Nook Tablet definitely wins that round.

Interface

Amazon seemingly went out it its method to mask all traces of the Android interface it was running on top of. Barnes & Noble made some big adjustments to the operating system to boot, but anyone who’s used Android for any length or time will likely recognize the operating system. Where the hearth is locked right into a bookshelf-like UI, the Nook offers up a lovely standard mobile desktop — one with a default wallpaper this is thankfully less busy that the only offered up at the Color.

The Color’s top bar is basically intact here, however, deferring to the Tablet’s reader roots by offering up the name of the book you have been reading. Barnes & Noble is having it both ways, however, pushing the device’s multimedia functionality collectively. Click “More,” and also you get a listing of your books, periodicals and Netflix picks, if you are online and logged into the service. A row of icons offers up apps you’ve used and books you’ve recently read — these may be dragged and dropped onto the desktop, if you are so inclined. Below that row are icons for including movies (via Netflix and Hulu Plus), music (via the built-in music player and Pandora), and a listing of apps. Barnes & Noble is actually driving home the indisputable fact that it has got a real multimedia device, this time around.

Still below that row is a battery-level indicator, the time, and an open-book icon, that is visible across some of the Tablet’s features, a gradual reminder that, even inside the face of streaming movies and music, this device is a reader at heart. Clicking the “n” button brings up a different menu, offering up options ways of accessing home, library, the store, search, apps, the internet, and settings. Clicking the library icon will increase an interface more just like the Fire’s default screen, complete with shelves. It doesn’t look nearly as good because the Kindle’s classy wood design, bit does the trick. There are shelves for apps, books, magazines, newspapers, kids books and extra customizable options.

As with the fireplace, the app selection is proscribed to these Barnes & Noble wants at the device. Obviously, there are 1 workarounds 1 — a lot of them, if truth be told. We were feeling a chunk saucy and managed to load the Amazon Appstore at the slate (here’s where that microSD card turns out to be useful) with little effort. Or, you would always just root the 2 Tablet 2 . Barnes & Noble would favor you score your content through officially sanctioned channels, needless to say, however the company hasn’t exactly made it difficult to locate other avenues.

Browser

Where the Silk browser was considered one of Amazon’s major selling points for the hearth, browsing speeds are less of a focal point at the Nook Tablet. In fact, Barnes & Noble doesn’t have its servers doing all the work for the device. The Nook browser doesn’t offer plenty of bells and whistles, though unlike some seven-inch Gingerbread tablets just like the 3 Kobo Vox 3 , the item actually renders pages of their desktop form, instead of as mobile sites.

Layout-wise there is not a complete heck of various differences between the browsers at the Nook Tablet and Color. At top is an address bar, a back button, a celebrity icon for bookmarks and an icon for extra options like opening up new windows, viewing bookmarks, refreshing, and paging forward. Hold down on a page, and you will get options for searching on it, getting page info, adjusting settings, viewing your downloads and bookmarking.

Zooming and scrolling are zippy at the reader. You accomplish the previous by either pinching, double-tapping or clicking plus and minus buttons that pop up as you scroll. And, yes, unlike 4 every other tablets 4 , this one is fully in a position to playing Flash video, and it does so quite smoothly.

Magazines

The concept of reading a picture-heavy magazine on, say, the Nook Simple Touch, appears like a downright nightmare — the grayscale images, the clunky zooming, the endless scrolling. When compared with its e-reader predecessors, the Nook Tablet’s full-color multitouch screen is a delight. Given the true estate limitations of the seven-inch screen, however, there is a still good buy of pinching to zooming and scrolling happening here to correctly soak up all the text and photographs.

As we suggested inside the Fire review, a ten-inch display is a much more ideal size for reading standard format magazines. Many magazines not formatted specifically for the device will show a black bar at the bottom to format them to the page — obviously, it will depart as you zoom in.

As with other texts, the Nook Tablet will provide you with the choice of picking up where you’ve left off, if you have been reading a duplicate of a given magazine on another device. The pages have animation the image of that at the iPad, simulating the experience of flipping through a physical magazine. Tapping a page inside the center will raise buttons for the table of contents, brightness adjustment and a handy gallery of thumbnail pages that you’ll be able to quickly swipe through find a niche within the periodical that you would desire to investigate. Along the head of the page is a black bar offering up the magazine’s name in a single corner and a plus within the other you could tap to bookmark a page, dog ear-style.

Comics

Comixology at the iPad remains the most suitable for digital comics reading. That said, the Nook Tablet’s built-in comics reader certainly does an admirable job recreating the experience. The screen offers up vibrant screens for brightly color books. The blues and reds of Spider-man’s costume really pop at the seven-inch screen.

Unlike the fireplace, the Nook Tablet can pinch to zoom in those spots of artwork that require closer inspection or pieces of text which are simply too small to read with the page at full-size. However, the Fire’s panel-by-panel reading method is de facto the best solution to experience a comic book on a screen with limited screen space. With the Nook, you often end up pinching to get a better look and scrolling around like mad to make it round the page. While you flip the page, the entire thing pops back into place.

Children’s books

The whole-color screen can be great for youngsters books, and because of their relatively limited text, they sometimes scale better than magazines or comics. Given the Nook Tablet’s smaller size and less expensive price point, it actually can be a be a better choice for young readers. If you happen to click open a compatible title, you’re greated with three options. Read On my own provides the quality reading experience, Read and Play offers narration that reads for you as you flip through, And due to a built-in mic, Read and Record lets parents record narration on a ramification of youngsters titles, so children have someone to read to them when they don’t seem to be around.

somewhat arrow icon at the bottom of a page offers up the same thumbnail gallery with large images of the book’s pages. One of the most titles, just like the Michael Chabon-penned The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man offer up activities on each page. Clicking the star icon at the top lets kids now how they have interaction with the book, inclusive of touching characters to peer animations.

Books

This wouldn’t be a Nook without the reading, right? Regardless of all of its flashy multimedia capabilities present, Barnes & Noble clearly considers the Nook Tablet a reading device at heart. The reading experience doesn’t stray too faraway from the only offered up by the Nook Color. The pages are monopolized almost entirely by text, save for the ever-present bar on the bottom offering up WiFi strength and battery level and pages numbers, with both your present page and the full number within the book, a feature curiously absent from the Kindle’s default layout. Clicking at the numbers brings up a slider for adjusting your house within the book. It’s also possible to just enter number manually by clicking Visit Page.

As with the fireplace, you may navigate during the text by swiping forward or back or tapping a margin. Tapping at the center, meanwhile, brings up a menu offering up the table of contents, a search function, sharing, text, brightness adjustments and a Discover feature, which offers up texts equivalent to the only you’re reading. Interestingly, both Barnes & Noble opted to not feature a pinch-to-zoom option within the standard reading interface, an easy method for adjusting text size.

Within the menu, you may have a healthy choice of options for staring at the page, however, including eight text sizes, six fonts, six color themes from black on yellow to white on brown (for when the white LCD gets to be an excessive amount of), three margins and 3 line spacing layouts. Barnes & Noble does an outstanding job leveraging the colour screen here by providing you with a ton of viewing options for the reasonably certainty of plain text on a page.

Wrap-up

The market was already crowded well before Barnes & Noble announced the Nook Tablet, a situation that certainly didn’t improve for the corporate with the announcement of the Kindle Fire. Anyone eyeing the Nook Tablet either as a present or for themselves will most probably be cross checking it with Amazon’s new much discussed slate. After which there’s the truth that the Nook’s predecessor didn’t actually depart with the announcement of the brand new device — rather, it got cheaper and higher.

At $249, the Nook Tablet also costs an entire $50 greater than those products, a difference that isn’t negligible when we’re talking about budget devices. The words “under $200″ mean a great deal to shoppers. Without a doubt , you get some decided advantages in addition to that premium, including more RAM, great video, a microSD slot and a focus paid to smaller things, like the built-in mic, which lets users do such things as recording narration for youngsters books.

Amazon, however, offers up a smaller form factor, price and higher proprietary media options. There’s really no clear winner here, but with the addition of 2 now solid products to the ever-expanding world of tablets, there’s an excellent greater chance that the patron gets precisely what they’re searching for.

Source

This post is tagged: backdoor approach, content selection, honest to goodness, metallic silver, sweeping the nation