Battle of the Budget Tablets - Nook Color vs. Galaxy Tab
by Vivek Gowri on May 25, 2011 12:52 AM ESTRound 3 - Display
And here, the Nook starts winning back points. There’s no way around it, the Nook screen is gorgeous, almost worth the $250 on it’s own. It’s an IPS panel, so the viewing angles are great, and the 909:1 contrast ratio is actually better than the iPad 2. Both in terms of numbers and in daily usage, this is a screen that is in the same conversation as the iPad and Asus Eee Slate as far as best screen on a tablet.
This isn’t to say that the Galaxy Tab has a bad screen; with a 733:1 contrast ratio and generous viewing angles, it’s a very good display, just not on the same level as the Nook. I really appreciated Samsung putting in a solid panel in the Galaxy Tab when I first reviewed it, because on a hardware level, the display is probably the most important part of a tablet. Both contrast ratio and viewing angles are huge factors in how usable any given tablet is, and it looks like B&N recognized that and pushed for the best 7” panel they could get, whereas Samsung used the same tried and true LCD panel they had previously. All indications are that Samsung will be moving to AMOLED for their next 7” tablet, so it’ll only get better, but for now, B&N wins the screen conversation.
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?