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roebeet · 07-17-2010, 11:23 PM

I demoed the Nook last month, and bought the Novel a few days ago (and promptly hacked it). Noah98 is right on the money with his posts.

The Nook, even with the WiFi, MP3 player and browser, is primarily an ebook reader. Your money is going to the eInk screen, which is superior to an LCD screen when reading in daylight. If you want to read, I would get that (or a SONY or a Kobo, whichever suits you best).

The Novel is being sold as an ebook reader, but it's not a very good one. As Noah98 mentioned, the screen really isn't all that great to read on, except in the dark of course. It's really not a tablet either as the hardware / OF isn't setup that way, although the hack does work well. With the hack and some app searching, I've been able to get a ton of Android apps on it (Pandora and Opera Mini, for example) and it does function - but, it's also buggy and does crash on occasion. I will probably keep it just to play around with it and because it was so cheap, and maybe sell it once real Android Froyo tablets start showing up at the EO this year.

If you are technically inclined and want a really cheap Android 2.0/2.1 quasi-tablet that may get better with future hacks, then the Novel might fit you. A jack of all trades device, does a little of everything but nothing really well (yet).

07-17-2010, 11:23 PM	#10
roebeet Connoisseur Posts: 67 Karma: 770 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Pennsylvania, USA Device: Kindle 4 Basic, Kobo Aura	I demoed the Nook last month, and bought the Novel a few days ago (and promptly hacked it). Noah98 is right on the money with his posts. The Nook, even with the WiFi, MP3 player and browser, is primarily an ebook reader. Your money is going to the eInk screen, which is superior to an LCD screen when reading in daylight. If you want to read, I would get that (or a SONY or a Kobo, whichever suits you best). The Novel is being sold as an ebook reader, but it's not a very good one. As Noah98 mentioned, the screen really isn't all that great to read on, except in the dark of course. It's really not a tablet either as the hardware / OF isn't setup that way, although the hack does work well. With the hack and some app searching, I've been able to get a ton of Android apps on it (Pandora and Opera Mini, for example) and it does function - but, it's also buggy and does crash on occasion. I will probably keep it just to play around with it and because it was so cheap, and maybe sell it once real Android Froyo tablets start showing up at the EO this year. If you are technically inclined and want a really cheap Android 2.0/2.1 quasi-tablet that may get better with future hacks, then the Novel might fit you. A jack of all trades device, does a little of everything but nothing really well (yet).