MOBILE

Nook HD - A High-Definition Tablet With The Heart Of A Reader (Part 4)

5/21/2013 6:28:25 PM

Profiles

As being proved by the lock screen, Barnes & Noble is really pushing the features this time – and it is not really tricky to understand the reason. The families share their tablets, especially the low-cost ones. However, while you are not hesitant to spend your money for a $200 tablet, it is not necessary to put all of these contents on your children’s hands. You can create 6 profiles for each device by clicking on the user icon on the home screen. From here, you can freely create profiles for different subjects, from adults to children. You can change the icon of the profile by using clip-art or the built-in images which is saved on the device as well as choosing the gender (you can also head for the non-specific-gender version). Filled-in ages also help Barns & Noble identifying the “age-fit content”.

Nook HD’s profile

Nook HD’s profile

On the next page is the checklist of different content which you allow your children to access, as well as ranking levels for movies and TV shows. Once finishing all of this and chose some preference, Nook will recommend you some free content.

Shop

Nook Shop’s design is quite easy to understand as it provides a rotating carousel for nice content at the left top corner, with the list of different content (books, magazine, movies and TV…) on the right. Below this are introductions which are split into categories like “Passion for Fashion” and “Your Favorite Heroes” (comics). However, if you are aware of what you are doing, just jump straight to the searching field at the bottom of the page.

Nook HD’s shop

Nook HD’s shop

It should be bear in mind that, just like Fire, UI of Nook means that you cannot access the Google Play store. Instead, the company chose to cooperate with developers to create more appropriate apps for their device. And while B&N claimed to have every popular thing, there are some absences that are really notable for instance the Spotify searching will just provide a $12 copy of ebook, “Spotify for Dummies”. Who knows there is such existence and really, if there is no application access, who would need such thing?

Conclusion

Barnes & Noble has invested a lot in hardware, and it has been showed. The Nook HD owns a magnificently small screen, fast performance and outstanding industrial design compared to its competitors and not really polarizing as its predecessors. It is mainly designed for easily holding, the fact that echoes with the focus on reading experience of the device. That main feature flows to software and turns the magazines, comics and children’s book into an interesting experience in terms of vision. With the price of $199 (ad-free) for the 8GB model and $229 for 16GB model, it is a great hardware unit for those who are looking for a reader that can process the normal game playing and high-definition videos. The addition of profiles turns it into one of the most appealing thing for families with children.

On the other hand, the “paper-like” UI does not really bring good feeling. It is simple and sometimes unstable (although the company has promised to fix it soon), lacking of the focus of Kindle Fire HD and the full functionality (and Google Play access) of Nexus 7 running Jelly Bean. The lack of the camera seems to be an awkward omission. However, in short, the Nook HD is such a small and beautiful tablet at this price, although in a segment that Kindle and Nexus are winners, asking people to jump for another ship is relatively difficult.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD with magnificent display

Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD with magnificent display

Info

·         Price: $199, $229

Advantages

·         Low cost

·         The beautiful and good hardware

·         Magnificent display

Disadvantages

·         The simple UI

·         Cannot access to Google Play

·         The software is not good enough when we write this review

Verdicts

·         Nook HD is a good hardware unit with a nice price which is somehow regretful due to the minimized Android

Nook HD specifications

·         Processor: Dual-core 1.3GHz OMAP 447

·         Graphics processor: PowerVR SGX544 @ 384 MHz

·         Display: 7 inch 1440x900

·         Density: 243ppi

·         Built-in storage: 8 GB/16 GB

·         Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth

·         Ports: Micro USB, 3.5mm headphone jack, power port

·         Camera: no

·         Video playback: MP4 3GP, KV, TS, WEBM, AVI, ASF

·         Battery: Lithium Ion,

·         Dimension: 194x127x11mm

·         Weight: 315g

 

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