8GB Nook Tablet to challenge Kindle Fire

Barnes & Noble may launch an 8GB version of its Nook Tablet at the same price point, or perhaps even cheaper than the Amazon Kindle Fire.

The as-yet-unannounced device will go on sale in Wal-Mart stores at midnight on Wednesday 22 February, according to documentation leaked to The Verge.

The current iteration of the well-reviewed Nook Tablet has 16GB of storage, just like the Kindle Fire, but the $50 price difference has pushed buyers towards Amazon's Android device.

Evening the playing field

The scaled-down slate is likely to match or maybe even undercut the phenomenally successful Kindle Fire and give Barnes & Noble a better shot at competing in the budget table.

The original Nook Tablet launched late last year arrived packing a dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, along with a version of Android 2.3 skinned with B&N's own UI.

The 7-inch 1024 x 600 IPS display was a hit and played video at 1080p.

Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet Review

The Nook Tablet is Barnes & Noble’s follow-up to the highly successful Nook Color which magically transformed from a color screen eReader to an Android tablet via a software update. It is also the company’s way of leveling the playing field now that Amazon already has the Kindle Fire lining up the shelves.

In terms of its design and construction, not much has been changed in the Nook Tablet when you compare it with its older sibling except that it lighter metallic silver color compared to the Nook Color’s dark gray. Its back panel is slightly more textured which leads to a firmer grip on the tablet. In a market where tablets seem to go for the iPad look, the Nook Tablet sets itself apart by having a carabiner loop found in its bottom left corner.

In terms of dimensions, the tablet measures 8.1 x 5.0 x 0.48 inches making it slightly taller and wider than the Kindle Fire. That being said, despite packing a slightly bigger build than the Kindle Fire, at 14.1 ounces, it is a bit lighter than its chief competitor. These numbers make the Nook Tablet super-light and portable that bringing it around town doesn’t add that much heft to your bag.

The top edge of the tablet houses its 3.5 mm headphone jack whole its bottom edge contains its microUSB port. The left flank of the Nook Tablet on the other hand houses its volume rocker while the right flank is where one can find the tablet’s power button. The back panel of the Nook Tablet has a slightly convex shape that makes it conform to the hand better for a more comfortable hold on the device.

The Nook Tablet is built for speed with its Texas Instruments OMAP4430 chipset giving the tablet a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with a clock speed of 1GHz in addition to a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core. The processor of the tablet is paired with 1GB of RAM and this combination gives the tablet a snappy performance with smoother video streaming and lightning-fast web browsing. For the storage of your content, the Nook Tablet comes with 16GB of onboard storage in addition to a dedicated memory expansion slot that lets you add an additional 32GB externally.

As for its display, the Nook Tablet comes with a 7-inch VividView Color Touchscreen IPS high-resolution display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The display is very bright and is capable of delivering 16 million colors thereby making it the ultimate for reading and enjoying multimedia content. In addition to that, aside from boasting of a 169ppi pixel density count, the display of the Nook Tablet is fully laminated so no air gaps can be found in it. This feature gives the display of the tablet remarkable clarity while at the same time significantly reducing glare and reflection enabling you to make use of the tablet even under direct sunlight.

The Nook Tablet at $249 may be pricier than the Kindle Fire but it really is hard to dislike the device. Its internals deliver a snappy performance and its display is very stunning to say the least, two attributes that will make you forget the extra 50 bucks you have to shell out for this baby.