Thinking of a Color, need advice

[Catsnkites]

I have a Nook Classic ... hubby loves it and wanted to get me a Color and let him have the Classic ... I chose to stay with the Classic and thought the issue was dead. We were at an event and the gal next to us had a Samsung Galaxy tablet ... hubby was enthralled ... hopefully with the tablet not the gal

Anyway, we are cheapskates ... neither of us want a tablet that we have to pay a monthly fee for, wifi-only is just fine. So.... I suggested HE get a Nook Color.

I've investigated other smallish tablets and it seems that they can't do flash, have older Android OS, can't switch from landscape to portrait ... that sort of thing.

I don't want to pay more than the Nook Color, so that puts our limit at $250.00.

As it comes out of the box, is it an Android Tablet? Able to use all the Android apps out there? Surf the 'net and play any video on the websites? Check e-mail, google, read Nook Books, get the Kindle app and read Kindle books?

Or, in order to do all of the above, I'd need to root it ... and then it will?

What do I lose by rooting? anything? Warranty?

What about storage capacity? I know it has 8GB on board and can expand with SD cards ... anyone running out of room? He is not a huge reader, so it'd be apps and data and some books.

Those who have non-Nook tablets, anything else I should look at?

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings and hopefully offering advice!

Susie
Olathe, KS

And PS, how come my thread titles aren't in Bold like everyone else's?

[RainingLemur]

To take advantage of the Android Marketplace, you'll need to root. B&N is hoping that people hold out on rooting and wait for the official update that adds the Nook Store, along with Flash support. Out of the box currently, it's not a full Android tablet. With a root, it gets unleashed and does a whole lot more.

By rooting, you can pretty much kiss your warranty and tech-support bye-bye. But, I've found that the active communities for rooted devices work better than the call centers in India.

The storage capacity shouldn't pose too much a problem. I haven't run out of room with the apps and books and such that I've procured. And, worse comes to worse, a quick SD swap rectifies the problem.

[techWHAM]

Well said Lemur....the Nook Color is pretty limited out of the box.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by techWHAM

Well said Lemur....the Nook Color is pretty limited out of the box.

Limited as to what? It's not intended to BE a full blown tablet. Just a dedicated ereader with some extra's. In fact when you compare it as an ereader in of itself, the eink ereaders are are quite limited in comparison to what you can do with the nook color due to using LCD technology.

Now if Barnes and Noble marketed this as a full blown tablet that was to compete with the Galaxy S Tab and the iPad you would have a very valid point. but its not.

but granted with a little "help" in can compare to the Galaxy S.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

By rooting, you can pretty much kiss your warranty and tech-support bye-bye. But, I've found that the active communities for rooted devices work better than the call centers in India.

If a warranty issue comes up, all you have to do is un-root it, send it in, then re-root it once you get it back. Very simple.

I have a two-year warranty on my rooted Nook Color. Year one with B&N and year two with my credit card company.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

If a warranty issue comes up, all you have to do is un-root it, send it in, then re-root it once you get it back. Very simple.

Doesn't change the fact that rooting voids warranty, regardless of how simple the process of un-rooting then re-rooting is. It's still a slight risk, even if it is easily circumvented by people with as much brain activity as a piece of carpet.

Originally Posted by techWHAM

Well said Lemur....the Nook Color is pretty limited out of the box.

Well, it's still supposed to be just an ereader, after all. It displays books, and a couple of other functions. If anyone bought it for any other function (rooting aside), they're going to be sorely disappointed.

[=X=]

I would take it a step further and say Out of the box the nook is not an "Android Experience" nor a tablet. B&N have not only bolted the security on the device, they have heavily modified the OS. What you get out of the box is their ereader app and a decent web browser.(For some reason they removed the pinch/zoom feature of the browser).

Once rooted you get the Android market and access to apps. Which will make the experience a better one. However because they have removed/modified so much of the Android OS many apps work wonkie or do not show on the Market.

However I took it a step further and installed an Android OS on my nook and that is when it truly becomes a tablet device. All the apps seem to show on the market and all the apps work as they should.

=X=

[sjkevin]

For me, the big drawbacks of the rooted Nook Color as an android tablet are: no GPS and compass (useful for star-gazing), and no bluetooth (e.g. for skype).

I haven't used a Galaxy Tab, so I'm not sure how it compares to the Nook Color in other ways (responsiveness, screen, etc).

Anyhow, I'm quite happy with my rooted Nook Color. The price is fair, the screen looks fantastic, and it's great for reading in bed at night.

[VicLavigne]

To the OP,

I have both the Nook Color and a 7" android tablet. If you want a tablet experience, IMHO it is better to get a tablet, and not the Nook. That said, there are some tabs out there for your price range. I have the Archos 70 Internet tablet, wi-fi only, runs Froyo OS. It plus a 16 Gb SD card cost me about $305 from Amazon. I have several book reader apps on it, and it is thinner and much lighter than the Nook.

My wife has the color Nook, it is rooted but the tablet operation seems a little less smooth than my Archos.

[amujee]

The screen is what prevents me from getting anything else in the NC's price range and size.
The screens are either resistive, lower resolution than 1024x600, non-IPS, or all of the above. For me, this is the most important deciding factor since it's what I'll be looking at the entire time.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Doesn't change the fact that rooting voids warranty, regardless of how simple the process of un-rooting then re-rooting is. It's still a slight risk, even if it is easily circumvented by people with as much brain activity as a piece of carpet.

Doesn't change the fact that my warranty is still intact.

[RAH]

I'll stick my 2-cents-worth in here. I have been using an e-ink Nook for about 6 months and love it. I just bought a Color Nook, but not really to read with, but to use as a tablet. So, for MY use, I see them as complementary devices.

I have read all about the advantages of rooting on this forum for many months. Also, I've been reading about the upgrade for the CNook that is supposed to be coming down the pike in April.

OK, so I have been trying out the unrooted CNook for web browsing. I find it very good. From other threads I have read on the forum, it isn't as good as an iPad, and I'm sure that is the case. However, I have not had any problems with any websites I have tried (except 1, see below). So, as a web browser it is quite good right out of the box, IMHO.

The only website I had a probelm with is trying to pick up my email using 1and1.com's online Webmail website. It allows me to view my email, but I cannot do a reply or create a new one, because it won't activate the virtual keynboard in the reply area (which is strange).

So, for reading email, it works for me OK, but within limits. I understand that it DOES work with Gmail. It may work with other web-based email, depending on your ISP, etc.

I understand that one of the rumored upgrades to the CNook is an email app, which I am hoping will completely fix this problem.

To view pictures, it works great. You can download stuff from the internet, including non-DRM epubs and PDFs, and then view them. I see a lot of complaints about how it handles PDFs, but to me it seems pretty good, and certainly a LOT better than the Classic Nook (disregarding the e-ink vs backlit screen religious war).

So, to summarize, for the uses that I want it for, the non-rooted CNook works very well. I don't care if I never can play Angry Birds! I would like to get Flash for YouTube, but the iPad cannot do this either. The rumored upgrade is said to maybe provide Flash. The CNook is MUCH cheaper than the other tablets that I am seeing. So I am very happy with it. When the upgrade comes out, I expect to be even happier.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by RAH

I'll stick my 2-cents-worth in here. I have been using an e-ink Nook for about 6 months and love it. I just bought a Color Nook, but not really to read with, but to use as a tablet. So, for MY use, I see them as complementary devices.

Same here, only I have a Kindle and my NC is rooted. I prefer reading on an eInk device and use my NC as a tablet. It's the best bang for the buck in the tablet market.

...and 7" Angry Birds kicks butt!

[wymore]

I'll echo RAH's sentiment that surfing with a non-rooted Color has been fine for me with the exception of email. Trying to use Hotmail with it has been a disaster, so I am definitely looking forward to the email integration that is rumored for next month's update.

As far as reading pdf files, I haven't tried many, but the ones I have tried have displayed fine. My gripe has been that there is no way to bookmark pages.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by RAH

The only website I had a probelm with is trying to pick up my email using 1and1.com's online Webmail website. It allows me to view my email, but I cannot do a reply or create a new one, because it won't activate the virtual keynboard in the reply area (which is strange).

This is a known problem. Use the mobile/touch version of the website or change your browser settings from desktop to mobile. That should solve the problem.