After the announcement from Barnes and Noble today that they too will be releasing a version of their eBook-tablet hybrid, the battle of the tablets officially began. Amazon vs. Barnes & Noble. Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet. Mano a Mano.
The market for ereaders grew by over 60-percent this year alone. Ereaders and the ebook downloads has surpassed the early adapter phase. And now with new ereader tablets, consumers get the best of both worlds.
Both the Nook Tablet and the Amazon Fire will be released within a week of each other. In the mean time, both tablets are available for presale online.
A Comparison of the Amazon Fire and the Nook Tablet
The Similarities
The Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet, in terms of size and specs come very close. The Nook Tablet is slightly thinner and slightly lighter; both have 7" IPS displays and 1024x600 resolution. Both devices also run on Android software.
Both tablets were made for speed, with Texas Instruments dual core processors at 1GHz each.
The Differences
The Kindle Fire is a less expensive price point, at $199. The Nook Tablet is being sold for $249. Is it worth the extra $50?
The Nook Tablet seems to blow the Kindle Fire out of the water in terms of memory and battery life. The Nook has double (1GB) the random-access memory (RAM) than the Kindle Fire (512MB). The Nook also offers external storage with an SD card slot for up to 16GB of extra space.
Optimally, meaning with the WiFi turned off, the Nook Tablet lasts almost 3 hours more than the Kindle Fire at eleven hours of reading time and nine hours of video playback.
The Kindle Fire is starting to look like the lesser bargain at this point. Also consider the following:
- The Nook Tablet is basically just the Nook Color 2.0 with a different color frame & a slightly lighter weight. The capabilities are really all the same.
- Users can buy the Nook Color for $199, which might be a blow to the Kindle Fire.
- Kindle recently announced Kindle Owner's Lending Library, which will not only offer books but TV shows and movies as well. For $79 a year, there is no other membership service available or even comparable in today's market.
- The Nook has a built-in microphone that enables narration for children's books.
Which ereader tablet hybrid interests you more?
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Nook Tablet Features
- Our fastest, lightest tablet with the best in HD entertainment
- HD movies, TV shows and music from the top names-Netflix, Hulu PlusTM, Pandora® & more
- World's most advanced VividViewTM 7" Touchscreen
- Over 2.5 million books, magazines, comics & kids' books
- Lightning fast Email, Web & smooth streaming video
- Thousands of must-have apps like Angry Birds and Epicurious
- 16 GB of memory, extra-long battery life-yet ultra-light and thin
- Always free NOOK support in-store
- Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon's revolutionary, cloud-accelerated web browser
- 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books
- Thousands of popular apps and games
- Ultra-fast web browsing - Amazon Silk
- Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content
- Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle
- Fast, powerful dual-core processor
- Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows