Barnes and Noble has a new NOOK tablet coming on November 25th. Most recently, B & N has had a line of tablets co-branded with Samsung, but now is getting back into the tablet game again with this new budget friendly device. It’s priced at $50, clearly competing with Amazon’s 7 inch Fire tablet.
Here’s a comparison table of the specs for the two devices:
| Fire 7” | NOOK | |
| Price | Starting at $49.99 | $49.99 |
| Screen Size | 7″ IPS Display | 7″ IPS Display |
| Resolution | 1024 x 600 (171 ppi) | 1024 x 600 (171 ppi) |
| Colors | Black, Magenta, Blue, Tangerine | Black |
| Processor | Quad-core 1.3 GHz | Unknown |
| Alexa Enabled | Yes | No |
| Google Play | No | Yes |
| Content | Access to millions of movies, TV episodes, songs, books, apps, games, and more via AMAZON | Audio: M4A, 3GA, AAC, MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, AAC
Video: MP4, 3GP, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM Gallery (pictures): JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP Reader/Other: PDF, ePUB, DRP, ePIB, HWP, HWT, HML, HWPX, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, DOT, DOTX, HWDT, XLSX, XLSB, XLS, XLSM,XLTX, XLTM, XLT, CELL, HCDT, PRN, TXT, CSV, TSV, HTML, HTM, PPTX, PPT, POTX, THMX, SHOW, HSDT, HTHEME |
| Audio | Mono speaker,
Built-in microphone |
Unknown (website specs only list headphone jack) |
| Storage | 8 or 16 GB
(expandable by up to 200 GB microSD card) Free unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content |
8GB on-board memory
Add up to 128GB with an optional microSD card and store eligible eBooks (NOOK Books® with Digital Rights Management enabled only) to make more room. All of your NOOK® purchases are stored for free in the NOOK Cloud. |
| Cameras | VGA Front-facing camera +
2 MP rear-facing camera with 720p HD video recording |
Front: VGA
Rear: 2 MP |
| Connectivity | Single-band Wi-Fi b/g/n | Dual-Band (2.4GHz/5GHz) Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
|
| Battery Life* | Up to 7 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching video, and listening to music | Up to 7 hours of reading, watching videos and web browsing |
| Weight** | 11.0 oz (313 g) | 8.80 oz |
| Dimensions** | 7.5” x 4.5” x 0.4”
(191 x 115 x 10.6 mm) |
7.40” x 4.2” x 0.39”
|
| Customer Support | Screen Sharing + email, web, and phone | In-store support provides assistance for setup, connectivity, and basic troubleshooting when you visit Barnes & Noble bookstores |
The specs on the new NOOK tablet seem pretty comparable with the 7″ Fire. There are a few pluses for the Nook. Unlike the Fire, the new Nook doesn’t have the special advertising offers on the lock screens. It also runs a straight version of Android (6.0) and has the Google Play store installed on the tablet. (You can install the Play store on the Fire, but it involves work and whether it continues to function is at the mercy of software updates.) The new NOOK tablet also features dual band WiFi rather than the single band sported by the Fire.
The Fire, of course, now has voice integration with digital assistant Alexa installed on the device.
The tablet is available for pre-order now with free shipping on the Barnes and Noble website. Tablets begin shipping on Friday, November 25, 2016. It will also will be available in stores on Black Friday.
I ordered one of the these new NOOK tablets and will be posting a review after I have played with it for a while. 🙂
And PS: If you are interested in one, at least for the time being, the Samsung-branded NOOK tablets are still available (and at sale prices!).
The eBook Evangelist 