Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet Details Leaked to the Web
Barnes & Noble recently sent out invitations to members of the media and certain publishing bigwigs inviting them to a press event in New York on Monday. That prompted immediate speculation that B&N was likely getting ready to announce a new tablet device to compete with Amazon's upcoming Kindle Fire, a notion that's virtually confirmed by leaked documents.
Engadget and Slashgear both got their hands on internal documents outlining the new Nook Tablet and why B&N thinks it's a "Better reader, better tablet -- better than Kindle Fire." One of those reasons is not the price: the Nook Tablet will sell for $249, versus $199 for the Kindle Fire. So what does an additional $50 investment buy you? Let's break it down.
B&N Nook Color (not the Nook Tablet)
The Nook Tablet is a 7-inch slate with an IPS panel and a 1024x600 screen resolution. So is the Kindle Fire. B&N's Nook Tablet is slightly bigger at 8.1 (H) x 5 (W) .48 (D) inches versus 7.5 (H) x 4.7 (W) x 0.45 (D) inches, but it weighs slightly less at 14.1 ounces versus 14.6 ounces. It's also more power than the Kindle Fire. The Nook Tablet sports a 1.2GHz OMAP4 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM; the Kindle Fire rocks a 1GHz OMAP4 dual-core processor and 512MB RAM. You also get twice as much storage with the Nook Tablet, which offers 16GB (plus a 32GB expandable SD card slot) versus 8GB on the Kindle Fire.
So what's the verdict? Would you be willing to pay $50 more for a better spec'd Nook Tablet, or do you think the Kindle Fire is where it's at?
Engadget and Slashgear both got their hands on internal documents outlining the new Nook Tablet and why B&N thinks it's a "Better reader, better tablet -- better than Kindle Fire." One of those reasons is not the price: the Nook Tablet will sell for $249, versus $199 for the Kindle Fire. So what does an additional $50 investment buy you? Let's break it down.
B&N Nook Color (not the Nook Tablet)
The Nook Tablet is a 7-inch slate with an IPS panel and a 1024x600 screen resolution. So is the Kindle Fire. B&N's Nook Tablet is slightly bigger at 8.1 (H) x 5 (W) .48 (D) inches versus 7.5 (H) x 4.7 (W) x 0.45 (D) inches, but it weighs slightly less at 14.1 ounces versus 14.6 ounces. It's also more power than the Kindle Fire. The Nook Tablet sports a 1.2GHz OMAP4 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM; the Kindle Fire rocks a 1GHz OMAP4 dual-core processor and 512MB RAM. You also get twice as much storage with the Nook Tablet, which offers 16GB (plus a 32GB expandable SD card slot) versus 8GB on the Kindle Fire.
So what's the verdict? Would you be willing to pay $50 more for a better spec'd Nook Tablet, or do you think the Kindle Fire is where it's at?