Color or Tablet?

[yankgirl]

I'm dying to get a nook (just to add to the collection)

Is there a big difference between the color and the tablet? Also can I upload my own videos on them from a sdCard? If so what format?

I'm probably leaning towards the Tablet - I see there is a 8GB and 16GB - It really should not make a difference which I get, since I can use a SDcard right?

Sorry for the babbling....it's Friday, my boss is on vacation and worst of all the Coffee machine is broken!

Thanks!

Kat

[azazel1024]

Micro SD card slot, and I'd assume like 99% of the other tablets and phones out there it supports H.264 format (.mp4/.m4v). AFAIK with both you can play your own videos on them.

As for which to get, the 8GB tablet has half of the RAM of the 16GB tablet as well, which might impact things. I don't know how badly it may "slow things down". The kindle fire is generally recognized as being slower than the 16GB Nook Tablet even though they have basically the same processor, but has 512MB of memory where as the 16GB Nook Tablet has 1GB of memory. They both run on customized Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but the customizations differ.

The memory might have little impact on the day to day performance of the 8GB Nook Tablet compared to the 16GB Nook tablet. I'd personally wait a week or two until someone has done a comparison/review of the 8GB Nook Tablet to see if there is a noticable difference between the two flavors.

As for color or tablet, the tablet has a locked down app loader, so you can ONLY run apps from the B&N app store. I don't believe that is the case with the color, though I may be wrong about that. However, I believe the tablet has at this point been rooted, so if you care about that, you could just root it and then problem solved with being able to load other app stores and side load apps.

For the few extra bucks, the 8GB tablet would almost deffinitely be noticably faster than the color, as well as having longer battery life and a better screen. Now the ~$50 (for a little bit, the 16GB could be found on sale for $199) price difference, an extra 8GB of storage and twice the memory might not make much of a difference, especially when you are talking 25% of the price of the device.

[gtriever]

I choose "neither", because of B&N's history of broken update issues and walled-garden approach. IMO you should be looking at either the Iconia Tab A100 or Galaxy Plus 7 tablets.

[oppy]

I can't speak for the Tablet, but a CM7(and soon 9)-equipped NC has tons of flexibility.

[avaloncourt]

Originally Posted by oppy

I can't speak for the Tablet, but a CM7(and soon 9)-equipped NC has tons of flexibility.

^ This.

The tablet is just the color with a higher speed processor and more memory.

The Color does a decent job with what it has. Getting a CM7 SD card for the Color allows you to boot back and forth between Android and the Nook and it does a fine job. I went with the Nook Unlocked card because it was less expensive.

I was a digital subscriber to the NY Times and I saw that if you got a Nook Color with the NY Times subscription the Nook Color was only $99. Worked for me.

[Rocketime]

Tablet!! More storage and ram equals better performance and usefulness.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by Rocketime

Tablet!! More storage and ram equals better performance and usefulness.

More RAM, yes. More storage, no. Of the 13GB available for use on the 16GB tablet, only 1GB is available for non-Barnes & Noble content, significantly reducing the usefulness of the larger size. You can increase that by using an SD card, but the NC supports that as well so you're literally paying more for less storage.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by toddos

More RAM, yes. More storage, no. Of the 13GB available for use on the 16GB tablet, only 1GB is available for non-Barnes & Noble content, significantly reducing the usefulness of the larger size. You can increase that by using an SD card, but the NC supports that as well so you're literally paying more for less storage.

In case you didn't know they'll have the ability to reformat that partition in store next month (not sure why it couldn't be done by the user with a download) to give access to more of that space for non-B&N content (maybe not a perfect solution, but it's something). Yes the NC supports microSD also, but the Tabs also have a better processor which makes it run much better, at least my Tab runs better/smoother than my Color (I haven't overclocked either device).

[toddos]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

In case you didn't know they'll have the ability to reformat that partition in store next month (not sure why it couldn't be done by the user with a download) to give access to more of that space for non-B&N content (maybe not a perfect solution, but it's something). Yes the NC supports microSD also, but the Tabs also have a better processor which makes it run much better, at least my Tab runs better/smoother than my Color (I haven't overclocked either device).

But it's not currently next month. I was just in a B&N today and looked at the 16GB tablet vs. the 8GB tablet. The 8GB tablet had 4GB available to user content and something like 1.5-2GB available for B&N content, but IMHO that's not good enough. I see no reason why there has to be a split in storage at all. Let me mix my content and B&N content.

The Tab has a faster dual-core processor compared to the Color, and more RAM (though not the 8GB Tab). If it were as open as the Color it would be a slam dunk. Unfortunately it's not, though the community is diligently working around B&N's attempts at locking it down.

If all you want is a reader that can browse the web and play some Angry Birds, either will work just fine. If you want something that's easily customized to your own preferences, the NC wins hands down.

[azazel1024]

There is a better screen and more battery life for the tab over the nook color, which are pretty important things as well. It isn't simply a faster processor and in the case of the 16GB model more memory.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by azazel1024

There is a better screen and more battery life for the tab over the nook color, which are pretty important things as well. It isn't simply a faster processor and in the case of the 16GB model more memory.

I keep hearing about the "better screen" but they looked identical in person in the store. Turns out, it's a sunlight thing. The NT is apparently more visible in direct sunlight and more power efficient.

Otherwise they're both still 1024x600 24bpp IPS panels, so if you only use the tablet indoors or in the dark you're unlikely to notice a difference.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by azazel1024

There is a better screen and more battery life for the tab over the nook color, which are pretty important things as well. It isn't simply a faster processor and in the case of the 16GB model more memory.

Are you sure the screens are different? I don't really see a difference and I've never seen anything from B&N claiming the Tabs was better/different. Both use VividView.

[azazel1024]

Hmmm I had thought it was. Turns out I was wrong. I think the screen IS different, but apparently it is the same resolution between the two.

The extra battery life though does still stand. The tab supposedly gets an hour or two of extra battery life.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by azazel1024

The extra battery life though does still stand. The tab supposedly gets an hour or two of extra battery life.

I haven't done any special tests, but that's been my experience too.

[BruceMcF]

Originally Posted by toddos

... I see no reason why there has to be a split in storage at all. Let me mix my content and B&N content.

The storage that is directly accessible from the USB is formatted as an FAT partition. The memory that holds the apps is formatted as a native Android EXT partition.