Color or Tablet?

[bfollowell]

I had a little experience with a NC this past weekend. A friend had seen my and my wife's rooted NTs and loved all that we could do with them and asked if I could do something similar with hers. I told her with a little research I knew that I could.

Anyway, I updated hers to 1.4.2 and then rooted it and for what it's worth, the NC is noticeably slower than the NT. I don't mean that as a slam to the device and it's still a great little tablet but, after experiencing mine, it was hard not to notice how much slower hers was. If I'd never had any experience with an NT, I probably would've never noticed. As I have, well, it seemed awfully sluggish to me. I would think the NT would be well worth the extra $.

Just my two cents.

- Byron

[BruceMcF]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

... Anyway, I updated hers to 1.4.2 and then rooted it and for what it's worth, the NC is noticeably slower than the NT. ...

If spending any substantial time browsing, a single processor core at 800MHz is going to be slower versus two processors cores each running 1GHz. A lot of the time in the "loading" bar is grinding through the layout of and scripts on a page, so the loading bar in the NT is going to move noticeably faster.

And of course the NT has the horsepower to handle flash intensive video streaming sites designed for a PC, and the horsepower to stream 720p HD video which allows sharper streaming video than the NC can handle.

Kind of like its supposed to be ~ the NT is supposed to be a Media Tablet including ebook reading, and the Nook Color is supposed to be a Color ebook reader with extra functions on the side. If spending most of your time reading ebooks, including pdf GN's and color Nook Comics, the 800MHz processor has ample horsepower.

When I got my NC, the difference was $100 ~ $150 for a refurbished NC or $250 for a new NT/16GB. Now the difference is $65 ~ $135 for a refurbished NC or $200 for a new NT/8GB.

But if I was buying new, the difference is only $30, and I'd probably opt for the NT/8GB.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by 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

I had both, I returned both

However, I should give credit to B&N on the Nook Tablet (2nd one) It is a big improvement in terms of performance. It is easier to hold.

Watching Netflix is good, better than Kindle Fire, and the customized UI is more elegant and functional than Kindle Fire.

The Magazines, while still small, look ok. The app. let you expand or enlarge the images so it's a nice workaround, missing on other 7" tablets or apps.

Now, it is very locked! Fire has a customized UI but so far, you can download and run Android stuff without the need for any hack. Amazon has shown more interest on hotfixes and the Fire is way much better than what it was when it was released.

The stock B&N app store is also limited and I personally find some apps overpriced, but that's just me.

If you have the money, get a 7" tablet with Full Android experience. There are a few for about $300 bucks. They work out of the box and you can install B&N app and Kindle for Android without any issues.

But if you just want a B&N tablet and your budget is limited, get the Nook Tablet, forget about the Nook Color. The differences in price between both is not so big. $169 vs $199? ... for a few bucks extra... Nook Tablet, anytime.

[wgwood]

Originally Posted by jocampo

But if you just want a B&N tablet and your budget is limited, get the Nook Tablet, forget about the Nook Color. The differences in price between both is not so big. $169 vs $199? ... for a few bucks extra... Nook Tablet, anytime.

1. You can get a Nook Color for $135 refurb like I did. LINK

2. Install CM7 LINK

3. Install V6 Supercharger LINK

Once you do all this, you will have The Full Android Experience.

Then, download Nook Color Tweaks from the Android Market (now called Google Play) LINK

You can now overclock the Nook Color to 1200mhz safely. (Up from 800mhz stock)

You can also undervolt it to gain battery life without affecting the performance.

I have been running with these settings for a while now, with no problems.

300mhz @ 0.925v
600mhz @ 1.05v
800mhz @ 1.2v
1100mhz @ 1.275v
1200mhz @ 1.325v

What you end with is a very snappy little tablet. While the bootloader has been cracked for the Nook Tablet, there is not a new CM ROM for it yet.

The XDA team is also working on ICS for the Nook Color as well. It should be stable soon.

In fact, just go here a look around: LINK

Right now, the Color is the best option.

Regards,
Greg

[jocampo]

You can root a Nook Color, but you will be slave, for ever, of those hacks. And every time B&N releases a patch, is broken again. Even if you run that via SD card, the weight and hardware can't be changed. Still the Nook Tablet is a better deal.

With so many Android tablets now at 350 or less, I see no reason why save a few bucks and not getting a tablet with Full Android experience out of the box.

So all that work, overclocking, etc just to save 60 dollars? please! ....

Also, not because it runs, means its recommended. Engineers designed the tablet for stock specs and if they did that was after extensive test that for sure, shown safest values without any risk of frying the tablet or forcing reboots or weird behaviours. Not saying that will occur, but it is against design, no matter what.

And it is not my intention start a debate about pros and cons of overclocking and custom ROMs. So I will not start replying back and forth arguing about it :-) I understand is doable. It is just my opinion and belief it is not a big advantage giving the actual price of similar tablets (plus research and work involved)

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by 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.

I do agree!!!

[wgwood]

Originally Posted by jocampo

You can root a Nook Color, but you will be slave, for ever, of those hacks. And every time B&N releases a patch, is broken again. Even if you run that via SD card, the weight and hardware can't be changed. Still the Nook Tablet is a better deal.

With so many Android tablets now at 350 or less, I see no reason why save a few bucks and not getting a tablet with Full Android experience out of the box.

So all that work, overclocking, etc just to save 60 dollars? please! ....

Running the aforementioned off an sd card does not affect the nook firmware at all. You do not even boot to the to the emmc on the Nook, it runs strictly from the card. If you want to run the stock Nook software, just hold down the "N" when you turn it on and you have a choice to boot CM or Nook ROM.

I do not want to get into an argument with you, I am just explaining how I made the Nook Color into a great tablet. The ROM makes the difference. CM7 is vastly superior to the stock Color ROM. When they (XDA, CyanogenMod) can make it work on the Tablet, then the Tablet's better hardware will win out.

Right now, however, it is very easy to make the Color rock!

But If the OP doesn't want to play with the Color, wait for this: LINK

Regards,
Greg

[oppy]

Originally Posted by jocampo

You can root a Nook Color, but you will be slave, for ever, of those hacks. And every time B&N releases a patch, is broken again. Even if you run that via SD card, the weight and hardware can't be changed.

Not sure how you're any less a "slave" to any other OS. The latest CM builds are super-stable and, in lots of ways, better than the stock B&N!

To each is own, I guess. I'd much rather spend $100 or so on a NC and have 90% of the functionality with an extra couple hundred bucks in my pocket.

[BruceMcF]

Originally Posted by jocampo

You can root a Nook Color, but you will be slave, for ever, of those hacks. And every time B&N releases a patch, is broken again.

In what way? The release of a patch doesn't change anything if you've get it set to not download OTA updates, and for the last OTA release, a minor version upgrade from 1.4.1 to 1.4.2, the existing manual nooter worked as-is.

Even if you run that via SD card, the weight and hardware can't be changed. Still the Nook Tablet is a better deal.

Depends on whether you want to put your money into hardware or put your money into content. $65 is 13 Viz Manga, six months subscription to JManga, or two year's subscription to SJalpha.

With so many Android tablets now at 350 or less, I see no reason why save a few bucks and not getting a tablet with Full Android experience out of the box.

The savings of the $60 is one. The color ereader and media tablet is not a high enough priority for everyone to justify spending $200 on the Archos equivalent to the Nook Color, or $300 on the equivalent to the Nook Tablet.

So all that work, overclocking, etc just to save 60 dollars? please! ....

I'm just running the stock core rooted, to get four or five apps that B&N doesn't have.

... It is just my opinion and belief it is not a big advantage giving the actual price of similar tablets (plus research and work involved)

However, where you went beyond just expressing your opinion and went into giving advice, until large numbers of refurbished NT-8GB's become available, the price difference for the budget conscious is not $30, its $65, with the refurbished NC about 2/3 the price of the NT-8G.