Not one to be outdone by Amazon and its new super-cheap $199 Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble today announced its option in the growing tablet computing market, the Nook Tablet.
Unlike previous Nook e-readers, which featured black and white e-ink screens, this new device is more in line with the company’s older tablet, the Nook Color. It features a full color touch screen, like Apple’s iPad. However, unlike Apple’s tablet, this one has a seven-inch screen. Compared to the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen, the Nook Tablet is more portable, but, obviously, doesn’t have as large a screen. Imagine a mix between a Evo 4G and a iPad, and you’ve basically got the screen size.
This tablet also has a focus on media, too, with Hulu and Netflix apps you can download on the preloaded app store. Speaking of which, this new device will allow you to purchase books and apps right on the device. The bookstore is the same one you have on previous Nooks, and, thanks to Barnes and Nobles connections, is pretty vast, B&N claims that the store has over 2.5 million books and magazines. The device has also been demoed running the wildly popular Angry Birds because apparently every device needs that game now. You can store all these apps and books on the device’s 16 gigabytes of storage.
Much like other tablets, the new Nook will support web browsing as well, and have a dedicated email client.
Comparing this new Nook to Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire is exciting. The comparisons are obvious, they have the same screen size and pretty much the same specs (1 GHz processor, under a pound in weight), however, the Nook will be slightly faster, thanks to its increased RAM. The catch, however, is that the Nook will retail in early November for $250, $50 more than Amazon’s tablet.
So, come November, there will be hard choice for consumers. Should they go with Amazon’s cheaper and more established Kindle Fire, or go with the Nook Tablet, which while being more expensive is a tiny bit more powerful? Tell us in the comments, which one of the two, if any, you will buy!