The Nook Tablet is an update of the Nook Color, which was B&N's entry into the android tablet market.
The Color did well, so B&N doubled down with an update aptly called the Nook Tablet.
++ I may do a more detailed unboxing of the Tablet / a comparison to the Nook Color later on.
But in terms of first impressions, i came away impressed. The price point is the first thing you notice, it is only $249. This puts its as a square competitor to Amazon's Kindle Fire (and both are going to be a real challenger to iPad 2 this christmas, since the iPad comes in about $300 more for the lowest model).
Some highlights:
- The Tablets screen was real sharp. I streamed lord of the rings via netflix in HD, and it was crystal clear and sharp as a tack.
- The interface was friendly and easy to explore. There was a very detailed "how-to" / getting started guide that you can launch from the home screen.
- The android interface was redone with B&N's take on it, to really really focus on media consumption : Books and Movies. Both books and movies got spots on the home screen tray, and the main home screen real estate was dedicated to the most recent media.
- Inside the Books themselves, there was a number of slic features like: bookmarking, highlighting, and sharing your highlights. This is definitely the future of ebooks : social sharing and connections around content directly inside ebooks. Could evolve into a game changer .
- The nook had a newstand, and it seemed like it had a better title selection that the iOS news stand.
Some cons:
- No cameras. But then again the Nook Tablet never claims to be an all purpose tablet like the iPad. So it stays true to its mission of being 110% focussed on media consumption: books, movies, and apps.
- If you want to get your android app into the Nook, you have to redo some parts of your app to play by Nook's specific rules for apps. So its a little bit of a Porting investment.
- No 3G option. So you need wifi.
Overall i was impressed. It really is a great device for a great price. Check out the slideshow above.
Typo in price of $2499: "The price point is the first thing you notice, it is only $2499"...
ReplyDeleteThanks Tharwat, corrected !
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