Battle of the Budget Tablets - Nook Color vs. Galaxy Tab
by Vivek Gowri on May 25, 2011 12:52 AM ESTMeet the Contenders - Nook Color
The Nook Color is an interesting case. It’s technically an e-reader, and the included Android ROM never lets you forget that. But the spec-sheet says differently. A 7” 1024x600 IPS display, an OMAP3 SoC, and Android 2.2 for $249? Sounds like a budget tablet to me.
Gallery: Barnes & Noble Nook Color
On a hardware level, that’s basically what it is. As with most tablets, the front face is screen dominated, with a slightly larger-than-normal raised bezel and a stylised N beneath the display acting as the home button. The design of the Nook Color was handled by Yves Béhar and his team at fuseproject, one of the leading industrial design firms in the country.
You’d expect a device coming out of an elite design studio to have a very polished design, and the Nook Color definitely does. The design elements are very cohesive, with a final product that is at once attractive and very functional. The bezel is rendered in a metallic-look matte dark gray plastic, with a near-black rubberized back cover. Connecting the front and back faces is a matte silver rim around the four sides of the device, acting as a plastic band holding the device together. It’s a nice look, with slightly cooler shades of gray (probably 3-5% saturation of blue), and more importantly, the rounded edges make it very comfortable to hold, almost like a thin hardcover book. Almost makes you wonder if they meant for you to read books on it...
But the most notable industrial design feature of the Nook Color has to be the nook (for lack of better word) in the bottom left corner. It’s like a larger version of the through-holes you can find on some MP3 players and cell phones, but with basically no function beyond housing the microSD card slot (unless you really are planning on attaching a 7” tablet to a lanyard.) It’s more of a design quirk, one that adds a bit of character to the device, but an aesthetic element through and through. I’m a fan; it does a lot to break up the monotony that most tablets, especially ones with large bezels, suffer from while also making an amusing play on the Nook’s name.
The buttons and ports are built into the silver colored band, with the power button on the left side near the top, and the volume buttons near the top on the right side. The headphone jack is on the top and the microUSB on the bottom, as God intended them. The microSD card slot is built into the edge of the “nook” on the backside, under a flap bearing the Nook logo.
Overall, the Nook Color is bigger and heavier than the Galaxy, but that gives it a more significant feel in hand, and it definitely feels more durable and rugged than most of the other tablets out there. This is a combination of the larger bezel, the rubberized back, and the high quality matte plastic, and a welcome one. It’s a $250 device that really doesn’t look or feel like it.
Unfortunately, the spec sheet sheds some light on why it’s so much cheaper than the Galaxy. Let’s start with the CPU - it’s an OMAP3 processor, which means Cortex A8 and PowerVR SGX 530. So far so good. Specifically, it’s the OMAP 3621, an 800MHz part that is the basis of TI’s eReader platform. Okay, so an 800MHz A8 isn’t going to set the world ablaze, but it’s definitely livable, especially if we’re planning on tossing a bare-bones ROM onto this thing. Here’s the weird part. Like the Droid 2, the 3621 uses an IVA 2 DSP decode chip, and it can only do SD resolution video decode. So no 720p video.
Which is kind of a pity, because the display is gorgeous. It’s a 7” IPS WSVGA panel with a great contrast ratio, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Rounding out the rest of the specs, we see 512MB RAM, 8GB of onboard flash storage plus the microSD expansion slot, 802.11g wireless, an 8 hour battery, and a distinct lack of any cameras.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
89 Comments
View All Comments
TechnoButt - Thursday, May 26, 2011 - link
I'm rocking my Archos101 I got on ebay for $200. 10.1", 256mb ram, 8gb+sd card, Cortex CPU (?800mhz, maybe 1ghz, not sure).It's biggest grief is the viewing angles on the 10.1" display.. but come on, a capable tablet with 10.1" display @$300 new.. it should be in this article.
It's not great for sharing, but who shares a tablet anyway. As long as you're the single user it's pretty darn nice.
Yes, the transformer is better, but having two of these is better than one transformer. :)
TechnoButt - Thursday, May 26, 2011 - link
http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/spe...1ghz A8
256mb RAM (slightly underpowered.. really the weakest feature, but definitely liveable with a good build and app management).
Power SGX 530
802.11bgn
10 hour movie playback battery life!
And my favorite feature.. it is a USB Host (ie, you can plut a usb keyboard into it.. or storage device, in theory).
SunLord - Friday, May 27, 2011 - link
I've got my nook color running CM7 at 1.2Ghz and it pulls a 2124 running quadrant standard and 14.597 MFLOPS in linpackET - Saturday, May 28, 2011 - link
On page 3.romanfoot - Saturday, May 28, 2011 - link
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/453383121-Ain...I don't expect too much for the quality,but $200 for 8" 1280X800 and cortex A9 &512 ram and front & rear camera? Even though I've already got an Ipad,but still wanna just get one,cause it's such a bargain.Though,I don't have much faith on the screen and its quality and battery life,just put the link here,maybe it could help someone.
HenHowC - Saturday, May 28, 2011 - link
Is the Nook Color screen 24-bit? I can't seem to find any information on this.
fromtablet1 - Monday, May 30, 2011 - link
I really like my Aishuo A817 tablet (Currently writing from it) - It have a fast A8 1.2Ghz CPU, 512MB DDR, Weight about 460g, Android 2.3 (Market is working fine on it, Voice search is working, Flash 10.3, Latest youtube all is working fine) can surf the web using built-in wifi or external 3g using USB modem, NFS/Angrybirds/Asfalt/Raging Thunder are working fast, Battery life about 6 hours with wifi on, Can play H264/MPEG4-TS/AAC 2mbit/s IPTV streams just fine by VPlayer by WIFI or 3G. In other words I am happy with this 190USD tabletYowen - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - link
What I would love to see is GPS functionality compared for tablets. I personally would love to have a tablet that I can bring in my car to use as a GPS and media player. Without the need to connect to 3G. But that would possibly be filed under oddly specific, or no?uberDoward - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Rooted CM7 Nook Color @ 1.2Ghz for the wife, TF101-A1 for me :) Seems simple enough to me!Anand, I'd love a quick update, comparing performance of the Nook Color @ 1.2Ghz. All you need to do is flash Dalingrin's OC kernel. You can't really say that flashing CM7 is somehow any easier than doing another simple kernel flash for an extra 50% theoretical performance?