Nook Tablet Review

Unboxing

The box for the Nook Tablet strongly resembles the boxing for all the other Nook devices. Two compartments, the top compartment for the device and a bottom compartment for the charging/data cable and the charging block. The device still uses microUSB as a connector type, which is just like home if you already have a nook or a more-recent release Blackberry. The Nook Tablet is couched in high-density shipping foam.

First Look

The Nook Tablet weighs in at an even 400 grams. My first-generation iPad with Apple slipcover comes in at 865 grams. Already this device has the iPad beaten on mass. The device is wrapped in a matte or brushed aluminum finish and the texture of the case is not slippery but rather grippy. The power button is on the top left corner, the volume buttons are on the top right corner and the microSD slot is cleverly established under the “nook” flap underneath the carabiner-clip part of the case. In the upper right corner, along the top is a standard headphone jack. The rear of the device is wrapped in a dull metalic finish darker than the edging and equally textured. Not slippery, but grippy.

Power On

The power on sequence brings you to the same screen that the Nook Color has, although I can’t recall if the Nook Color had sound effects like this device has upon power up and unlocking. The first thing I noticed in the Library was a video called “New Years Eve” after playing it I noticed that the video was bright and the sound good, except when I turned the display the video was paused and the screen rotated. I had to manually restart playback. Not a showstopper, but worthy to note. The included Spiderman Graphic Novel showed off the Nook Tablet’s color and excellent resolution and the display responded to both my pinch-open and pinch-close finger gestures. The glass surface has some friction to it, nothing upsetting, but worth noting. Through the library feature at least, comic books on the Nook Tablet have the same convenience as reading them on the iPad using Comic Zeal, there isn’t any guided panel-by-panel view that you’d expect with a Comixology app.

Networking

Accessing Wifi is not a problem, at least with plain-jane WEP. Once connected to the network the device can be used to browse the web, and the browser is very fast and actually more responsive than the iPad. The only issue I ran into was a run-away inertial bug in the flick gesture for websites. If you flick too forcefully the Nook Tablet web browser will advance the page faster than you can read and faster than you want. You have to have a very gentle way of gesturing for the built-in web app.

Apps

App downloading is quick and tidy. The update command to check for updated apps is plainly visible on the App Screen. The device comes with a series of standard apps which include:

• Angry Birds (lead-in to download)
• Chess
• Contacts
• Crossword
• Email
• Grooveshark
• Hulu Plus
• Music Player
• My Media
• Netflix
• NOOK Friends
• Pandora
• Showtime (lead-in)
• Solitaire (lead-in)
• Sudoku

The App Store access is easy to find and the app store itself has many apps that I recognize from the Apple App Store, so I didn’t feel like a stranger in a strange land. One notable absence which I did notice was that there was no Comixology app for the Nook Tablet. I suppose it will take just a little bit of time for this app to make it to the Nook App Store.

NetFlix

NetFlix loaded very quickly and I was able to browse my instant queue immediately. Starting a movie was problem free. The display is very bright and the colors are gorgeous. While I watched the movie I decided to test the device with my Apple iPhone earbuds. These have play controls in-line with the wire and I attempted to control volume and playback using them and the Nook ignored this attempt at control. I would hazard that the Nook Tablet cannot understand in-line headphone wire controls. Listening to the movie had only one mild issue and that is as you hold the device in the landscape orientation you can accidentally occlude the devices primary speakers. While these are acceptable for general purpose use, when you have your hand covering the grille to these speakers the sound is muted and muddy. Keeping your hands clear is obviously the answer, but it makes holding the device a little tricky.

Reading

Reading on this device is similar to reading on the iPad. The weight savings alone make it more pleasant to use than the iPad for long-duration reading, and the spoiled-rotten brightness of the display makes reading in any indoor environment very pleasant. The font selection for reading contains:

• Century Schoolbook
• Dutch
• Georgia
• Ascender Sans
• Trebuchet MS
• Gill Sans

Looking up a word brings up the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition with the usual high quality dictionary detail you come to expect. There are two other controls along the bottom in the Lookup Feature, a icon for Google Searching and an icon for Wikipedia Searching.

Accessing new books via the Nook store is a given. However accessing new books via Project Gutenberg is something that I’ve found to be hit-or-miss on these devices. Accessing the web on the Nook Tablet is easy enough, browsing to Project Gutenberg is likewise not an issue. I downloaded Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” as an ePub with images. The file downloaded to the Nook Tablet just fine and the Nook Tablet had no qualms displaying this freshly downloaded ePub, including it’s images. The only thing that I have a qualm about is that the downloaded Books only appear in My Files, under “My Downloads” and can’t be integrated with the primary device library. Because of this limitation you cannot add your downloaded ePub file to a Nook Shelf or browse it in the Nook Library, you have to go out of your way to find what you just downloaded.

Directly importing ePub files to the Nook Tablet however does provide a way to “have your cake and eat it too”. You have to use your computer to download an ePub book and then plug the Nook Tablet into the computer. You can then move whatever ePub files you wish to the Books folder and they will appear in your Library. With this, you can view the book in your Library and add it to Nook Shelves without a problem. One oddity I did uncover was trying to open the new ePub file the first time lead to an error from the Nook Tablet that it could not open the book. Subsequent loads of the book did not display this error. I am unsure whether this was a glitch or a bug. Subsequent loading of ePub material shows this to be a one-off glitch and therefore shouldn’t appear again, I hope.

Reading with Kids

The Nook Tablet has a portion of the library devoted just to kids books. I explored this feature, along with the “Play Along” mode and the “Record Along” mode for the sample book, which is a Winnie the Pooh story. While the “Play Along” feature was pleasant enough, a cross between a childs book and an audiobook with cute little animations peppered in, the “Record Along” feature is really quite something. A parent can record the entire book in their own voice and their child can play it back whenever they like, and read along with their parents voice. There is a certain power in your parents voice, especially for kids and people who never let their inner child fade away. After I recorded a page or two of the Winnie the Pooh story I thought about how this would work in a home with actual children. The Nook Tablet would either have to be the childs device or a home device. I imagine this feature would have the most poignant effect if a parent recorded the book, and then when the parent is on a work trip or otherwise unavailable the child can open the story and hear their parents recorded voice read-along with them. This is the extreme of niche features but the way it’s arranged and the way the interface is constructed to facilitate such a thing is absolutely breathtaking. If you are a parent who has a young child just starting to read, the Nook Tablet, for this one feature, is worth every penny that you’ll spend on it. I am impressed, and that takes a lot.

Opinion

The Nook Tablet is a very compelling device and at the price point of $249 dollars, when compared to the iPad at $499 it does pose a certain competition to the Apple device. There are some really outstanding features which already make the Nook Tablet a great device:

• Reading is easy, not as easy as a Nook Simple Touch, but more pleasant than an iPad, mostly due to the weight and size.
• Access to both the built-in Dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia deserves an standing ovation.
• Ability to import your own ePub files, and I presume if you insert a large microSD card, putting your books that you already own on the Nook Tablet is a non-issue.
• Access on-the-fly to Project Gutenberg is a delight to see. There is a certain freedom in not being tied to the Barnes & Noble Bookstore with this device and you cannot quibble with free books.
• The audio is clear, and the sound effects for both turning on and off the device replicate very well the sound a dusty tome would make if you opened it and closed it quickly. It’s these little touches that you appreciate as you reflect on your experience.
• The “Record Along” feature is absolutely outstanding. Parents with young children just starting to read really should look at this device for this feature.

Some of the problems with the Nook Tablet:

• Immature App Store – Comixology has an app for Android, but it is not in the Barnes & Noble App Store yet. Barnes & Noble should pour resources into their App Store and corral developers to bring more meat to the party.
• Speaker Placement – The speakers placed where they are makes watching a Netflix movie on the device a little bit irritating as you really can’t hold the device like you really want to without occluding the speakers and either muting or muddying the sound.
• Headphone Insensitivity – Headphones with in-line controls should be respected and honored. People are going to attach these accessories to this device and expect it to work, and so far, it won’t. I don’t know if it’s a firmware adjustment or if the device lacks the controller to process such an accessory. The Nook Tablet also does not stop playback when the headphones are plugged in or removed. If the headphones are accidentally removed during playback, at least with the NetFlix app, the speakers resume playing sound.
• Font Problems – My favorite font is not present. Helvetica Neue. It is present on the Nook Simple Touch but not on the Nook Tablet. I hope this is an oversight by the developers at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and that an upgraded firmware update to the Nook Tablet will eventually fix the issue. The Nook Tablet has a similar set of fonts to iBooks on iOS. This should be on B&N’s list of things to fix soon.
• No satellite charging – The Nook Tablet refuses to charge when plugged into a USB port. I am unsure as to why, since the device was plugged into a MacBook and I know for a fact that this particular computer supports low-current USB and high-current USB, enough to charge an iPad – so why can’t it charge a Nook Tablet?
• Gesture bugs – There are a few places where gestures with your fingers produce unwanted results. Specifically browsing the web, if you flick-gesture too strongly you end up in a warp-speed scroll to the end of the document. On really long documents this can become annoying quickly. While not really a design fault, it will require some experience to master, especially if you have grown used to flick-gesture-with-inertia that Apple has mastered in their iOS run devices.

All in all, the Nook Tablet is well worth the $249.00 pricetag. The device is solid and constructed well and I think it will withstand the kind of use that kids can throw at it. I couldn’t test this demo unit to destruction however I can’t imagine that something this solidly built can be harmed easily. If you are in the market for a tablet, but don’t have the cash on hand for an iPad, this is the next natural option. This device will get better with time, with firmware updates and the later refinements that come with customer feedback to the developers. This device will truly shine when the Nook App Store bulks up. Right now, I would advise anyone looking for a tablet, or parents looking for a device like this to buy it as quickly as you can.