Tablet Nook Tablet Pros-Cons

[CyberSmoke53]

Originally Posted by livramax

FWIW, BN just reduced the price of their Nooks -- e.g., the NT 16GB is now $199.

That's a good deal. Do you think BN is getting ready to announce something new?? One of the sales folks at my local BN made some hints of things to come later in the year a month or so ago when I was at the store looking into the possibility of getting a NT to replace my NC. I also went to BestBuy and tried out the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. I got the Galaxy Tab for toting around in the purse because it has full google apps and such and my cellphone can make a wifi hotspot, but I still like the NC stock reader for sitting down to read a book.

[livramax]

I have both the Nook Tablet (running CM9 off an SD card) and the Nexus 7 (running stock ROM) and I find them functionally comparable & interchangeable for my use (mostly email and web-surfing, some reading, occasionally watching movies). Side-loading content are equally easy on both devices. I sinstalled and use identical sets of apps on both devices (Opera Mobile browser, Mantano ereader, MX video player, etc.).

The NT with CM9 (or CM7) functions just like any full-fledged Android device. Although CM9 has been wonderfully reliable its developers has not advanced it beyond alpha release, so having to update it once a month is a bit of a pain.

I bought the N7 in part because of the prospect of having a Tablet running full Android with stock ROM out of the box. But it does not have an SD card slot, and it turns out that support of USB-attached storage media (to compensate for lack of SD-based storage) requires the N7 to be rooted (and re-rooted following each firmware update)!!!

Hardware wise the N7 is more powerful -- graphic/video is noticeably sharper and rendering is smoother, yet it seems to last longer on a battery charge (purportedly because of Tegra 3's "low-power companion CPU core" feature).

Overall, it's hard for the NT to stay competitive at its original price.

[tarzanphan60]

I have Nook Color, Nook Tablet (16 GB), Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7. I find that the Nook Tablet and Google Nexus 7 are much faster than the Nook Color and Kindle Fire.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the new devices coming out this fall. My guess is we will see new Nook Tablets, Kindle Fire 2 and the mini iPad all trying to compete against each other.

The bonus is - we are the winners in this war.

[lionel47]

Originally Posted by tarzanphan60

I have Nook Color, Nook Tablet (16 GB), Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7. I find that the Nook Tablet and Google Nexus 7 are much faster than the Nook Color and Kindle Fire.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the new devices coming out this fall. My guess is we will see new Nook Tablets, Kindle Fire 2 and the mini iPad all trying to compete against each other.

The bonus is - we are the winners in this war.

Is there any hope that the new Nook Tablets will allow you to access the regular Google Play store? Or is that just a pipe dream?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by lionel47

Is there any hope that the new Nook Tablets will allow you to access the regular Google Play store? Or is that just a pipe dream?

I highly doubt it. B&N seems bound and determined to keep folks locked into their app store (they killed the sideloading of apps on the Nook Tab with an update). I haven't looked at it in quite a while, but last time I did their app store was pretty crappy. The only way to get the Play store would be to Root or use a custome ROM (either in main memory or run from an SD card).

[lionel47]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I highly doubt it. B&N seems bound and determined to keep folks locked into their app store (they killed the sideloading of apps on the Nook Tab with an update). I haven't looked at it in quite a while, but last time I did their app store was pretty crappy. The only way to get the Play store would be to Root or use a custome ROM (either in main memory or run from an SD card).

Yeah...sort of figured that. I think I will be going to a Nexus 7 or Galaxy Tab.

[livramax]

B&N, Google (and likewise Apple, Amazon) .. they all want to lock us into their their app & content stores ("clouds") -- B&N by taking away the app side-loading, Google by not supporting SD-based storage.