Cracking Open: Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

[Spider]

Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet teardown

Barnes & Noble is marketing the Nook Tablet as the company's first, full-fledged tablet. But our teardown and hardware analysis show the new Nook to have more in common with the Nook Color e-book reader than Android tablets, such as the Sony Tablet S, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, and Acer Iconia Tab. Perhaps the Nook Color was always a tablet in e-book reader's clothing.


Follow along as I cracked open the Nook Tablet.


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[J515OP]

I'll have to say that I disagree with the implied conclusion of the Nook Tablet being an e-reader in disguise on the following grounds.

1. An e-reader is a device whose primary purpose is to read books and usually has an e-ink display to make e-reading as similar to paper reading as possible. They may feature other capabilities such as email or music but are not computer like in function or use.

2. The author supposes that the Nook Color is simply a color e-reader. In fact even without rooting or using a custom ROM the Nook Color is a tablet featuring an app store, games, internet (including flash), email and movies on a his res color screen. In other words, a tablet not a device dedicated to reading books (e-reader) on an e-ink screen.

3. By saying that the Nook Tablet is an e-reader because it is similar to the Nook Color from a hardware perspective is flawed since the Nook Color is a tablet (see point 2). The Nook Color was never really marketed as just an "e-reader" it just wasn't marketed specifically as a tablet to avoid the inevitable comparison with the iPad. Even if it was heavily marketed as an e-reader (which it wasn't) being marketed that way does not make it so. Current marketing for the Nook Color: "World's Best Reading Experience + Tablet Essentials" and the Nook Color page features the msnbc.com quote "Best value in the tablet world."

4. Hardware specs alone do not make a tablet. Lack of one or more cameras, a gps or a mic do not disqualify a device as tablet. A tablet is simply a small, thin, flat computer like device with a touch screen (Tablet computer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) generally considered to be larger than a phone or PDA. Because this definition is broad an iPod Touch can be considered a small tablet as could many smart phones, particularly with the sizes of the screens creeping up. The only thing keeping them from being labeled as tablets are their primary use being something other than "computer like" and their size.

The Nook Color and Nook Tablet are small thin, flat computer like devices with touch screens larger than phones, they are indeed tablets.