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| Image courtesy of Barnes & Noble |
Obviously intended to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet appears to have quite a lot going for it and really only loses out to the Kindle Fire on price. The announcement included a release date of 18 November 2011; just 3 days after the Kindle Fire is released.
Unfortunately there is no word on when this is coming to New Zealand, if at all (much like the Kindle Fire in that regard).
Here's a quick run down of the specs in comparison:
Device Name
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Kindle Fire
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Who makes it?
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Barnes & Noble
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Amazon
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Connectivity
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Wi-Fi Only (Wireless N)
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Wi-Fi Only (Wireless N)
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OS
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Android 2.3
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Android based (2.1 or earlier)
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Dimensions (HxWxD)
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206 mm x 127 mm x 12 mm
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190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm
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Weight
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400g
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414g
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Processor
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1GHz OMAP 4
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1GHz OMAP4
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RAM
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1GB
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1GB
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Storage
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16GB
|
8GB
|
Android Market?
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No – proprietary app store
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No – proprietary app store
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Expandable
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Yes – Micro SD
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No
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Screen
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7” multi-touch IPS Display
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7” multi-touch IPS Display
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Resolution
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1024x600
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1024x600
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Cameras?
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None
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None
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Microphone
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Yes
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No
|
USB
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Yes – probably Micro USB
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USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
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Quoted Battery Life
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11.5hrs reading
9hrs watching video
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8hrs reading
7.5hrs watching video
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File Formats Supported
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Document Formats
EPUB ,PDF ,XLS, DOC, PPT, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, PPSM, DOCX, XLX, PPTX
Audio Formats
MP3, MP4, AAC, AMR, WAV, OGG (Audio Codecs MP3, AAC, AMR, LPCM, OGG Vorbis)
Image Formats
JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Video Formats
MP4, or Adobe Flash Player format, 3GP, 3G2 MKV, WEBM (Video Codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, VP8)
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Document Formats
Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively,), DOC, DOCX
Audio Formats
non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)
Image Formats
JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Video Formats
MP4, VP8.
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Charging Time
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3hrs
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4hrs
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Price
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$249 USD (~$313 NZD)
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$199 USD (~$250 NZD)
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So, will the Nook Tablet be able to compete with the Kindle Fire? - let us know what you think in the comments.
Depends. If the Kindle gets Cyanogenmodded, there's no question that's the better tablet. However, whether intentional or not (I'd wager the latter) Barnes and Noble has been rather hack friendly, as my time with a Nook Color and Nook Touch have told me. Still, my Nook has an unsightly crack that Gorilla Glass would have prevented, and I think the Fire is much better hardware wise. It just depends on if someone can collect the 1000 dollar bounty on rooting the Fire.
ReplyDeleteHow is the Kindle Fire better hardware wise? they have nearly identical specs but the Kindle is crippled in the storage department with no Micro SD.
ReplyDeleteMostly lower price and Gorilla Glass. Which is a huge deal for me on tablets after I got the crack on my Nook Color. I'm assuming the Nook Tablet is just a change in internals, since they haven't advertised the glass one way or another.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'll admit I don't really consider either an upgrade. I'll go for one of Asus's offerings if I need an upgrade.
Also, if neither gets Cyanogenmodded, I have a ton of apps from the Amazon Appstore that I don't have from Barnes and Noble (My NC was stock for about 10 minutes).
ReplyDeleteTrue, all serious tablet users should get the Transformer Prime.
ReplyDeleteDoes Nook tablet or Kindle Fire can buy in new zealand?
ReplyDelete