Barnes & Noble are aware of their
position in the race of tablets. It is sure that this company has insisted on
that market since the day Nook Color became a full-fledged tablet, but it seems
that Nook is rarely mentioned as much as Kindle or Nexus 7 whenever there is a
discussion on low-price tablets. The company also seems never talking about
their devices without mentioning its competitors especially Amazon. In fact, at
the introduction event of Nook HD and HD+, representatives always found their
way to bring Kindle Fire HD out as much as possible.
Looking those two devices together, there
is no doubt that Nook defeats Fire in many categories, and the bookseller took
a step forward in highlighting Nook HD in a battlefield in which there are full
of formidable competitors. First of all, this device takes more concentration
on reading experience than its competitors, the fact that has been reflected through
the hardware as well as UI decisions. The company also conducts a more dynamic
solution in marketing this device toward families. So, the question is whether
these feature adequate to win any market share against many other prominent
devices. Let’s see how Nook HD is.
Barnes
& Noble’s Nook HD
Hardware
Nook Color/Tablet scored great deal of
points for its unique features in the industrial design segment, polarizing
users in that process. The long body covered by plastic does it job excellently
when standing beside other premium tablets that have ruled the market in the
past several years. That is many thanks to the carabiner that would not be
monotonous when hooking with your reliable backpack. Those who vote for that
old design would also be pleased with HD+’s enhancements. On the other hand, HD
will not seem to be out of place when attending in the Simple Touch family
meeting, with the chunky body, curved edges and concave back, created by Robert
Brunner, the former designer of Apple who brought life to the famous B&N’s
reader series.
Quality rather than beauty is what Barnes
& Noble is sticking to this time. We did not mean that Nook HD is a
bad-look device, but just like Simple Touch, there is a feeling that this
company has sacrificed a part of beauty to give priority to a human-friendly
tablet building, a kind of noble pursuit in industrial design of tablets. Like
other current B&N’s products, Nook HD has bezel to spare – a plastic affair
playing the role of a shield that prevents fingerprints, noise and ensures that
greasy digits do not dirty the brand new HD screen in the middle of the device.
Beside this, you will find a wider black display bezel at the top and bottom of
the device.
Nook
HD: front and back
There is no camera in the back or front of
the Nook. That is such a sacrifice that B&N has decided to do as an attempt
to lower the cost – one of some categories that this company is willing to be
defeated by Kindle Fire HD. While many customers who intend to spend their
money in a new tablet are unlikely to be lack of a front camera, in late 2012,
a built-in camera seems to be a pretty basic feature. It is special for a
high-definition and easy-to-hold product that should mean to be a small and
pretty Skype device. On the bottom black bezel, there is a physical home button
in special “n” shape just for Nook. It is really easily recognizable on the
device, located there as the consistency in design and as what B&N told us,
it is for you to navigate easily which way is up.
On
the bottom black bezel, there is a physical home button in special “n” shape
just for Nook.
A small line separates the plastic bezel in
the back with another one which is a little brighter on the side of the tablet.
This bit contains other Nook’s buttons. You will find two volume buttons on the
right and the power button on the left (it takes about 1 second or so for the
screen to switch on after pressing this power button). It is not as visual as
putting the power button on the top, but let’s be straightforward; the dream of
a relatively uniform position for buttons was broken many years ago. On the
top, there is an earphone jack and a small microphone slot allowing you to use
the company’s fabulous Read and Record feature designed for children’s books,
along with other tasks.
On the bottom, there is an exclusive
charging jack. When being asked for the reason for that rout instead of the
micro USB which is visible almost everywhere (the choice on the reader’s
brothers of tablets), the company claimed that it was for increasing the speed
of charging. According to many micro-USB cables that we have – it will be a
good solution and it is good enough for Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 isn’t it? However,
Barnes & Noble quickly reconfirmed that unlike Fire, Nook’s price has
included the necessary cable (which is exclusive), along with a wall adapter. Lying
on the right of the charging port, there is a small yellow light which turns
into green when the charging process is completed. On the left of this port,
there is a microSD port allowing you to extend 8GB or 16GB of the device to
64GB, which is always a welcome feature on Nook’s device, especially in tablet
case, where unlike reader, you surely want to save HD multi-media files. It is
also a benefit for those who recognized Nook as a good device to root.
The back side of the device brings the same
soft and smooth feeling, which is truly interesting when holding in hand, and
provides a bit of traction for a sweaty hand when using the device. Just like
Simple Touch’s device, the back is a little concave, providing a slot for you
to lay your finger in when reading. However, it is not outstanding here and
does not really serve that purpose well enough. In its middle, there is large
lower case “n” as usual to remind you if you forgot to have purchased a tablet
when it’s faced down.
Nook
HD’ speaker
Along the back side, there is a two-speaker
system flanking the small Nook logo and all necessary FCC information. We
prefer the spread-out distribution of the Fire HD rather than this, because this
design makes accidentally muffle the sound while holding the tablet during
watching movies. In fact, the sound on Nook is not really loud. In most of the
case, we supposed to rely on the earphone jack on the top for our multimedia
purposes.
In general, Barnes & Noble does a good
job here in terms of industrial design, creating an easy-to-hold tablet, thanks
in part to the thin width (7.7x5x0.43 inches compared to 7.6x5.4x0.4 inches of
Fire) and light weight (11.1 ounces vs. 13.9 ounces of Fire). The 7 inch
1440x900 IPS screen is truly outstanding, providing fabulous view angle and
high-definition replay type which might be very hard to imagine on a $200
tablet not long time ago. Nook also reached 1271ms stably in the SunSpider
test. The front plastic bezel sets a good room for your thumb and like Simple
Touch, providing an eye-catching design that stands out from a great number of
similar tablets that dominate the market.
