Gadgetory

another tablet unboxing and this one is a pretty good gift idea for the reader in your life it's the new nook HD tablet we're unboxing the 7-inch but they also just released a 9 inch HD tablet and that one this is kind of interesting 269 for that full-size tablet that runs Android if you wanted to buy that and root it you'd have yourself a pretty good Android tablet for not very much money but we are looking at the 7-inch model which is a direct competitor of course to the Kindle Fire HD have we hear things this daily coupons unbeatable prices on holiday cards baby stuff that's a little janky well it's coupons okay for the Nook here we go the Nook has a pretty good cult following it's proved in a pretty decent competitor but it doesn't have quite the traction probably because it doesn't have quite the ecosystem we got the white one highest resolution ever on a 7-inch tablet take that iPad Mini oh I think I open it upside down I totally did I failed alright here's our not very attractive black power brick little get Quick Start Guide one thing people really like about the Nook actually is that you can go to a Barnes & Noble store and they will help you with it right there let me tell you that really works out for my mom alright let's get this guy up so it's white on the front kind of this grey on the back it's not the sleekest tablet I've ever seen but it is pretty light oh the back feels nice it's got kind of that soft touch back here feels not quite as substantial as you might expect this is definitely a plastic rim and it shows and then because of this bezel the screen actually looks a bit small let's see if we can fire it up we've got a little battery here are you doing 90% 99% hi welcome to nook while we go through set up let's go through the specs the nut comes in two models eight gigabytes for 199 or 16 gigs for 229 that's actually kind of a worthwhile upgrade it comes in two colors which I like to call white and dark grey but with Barnes & Noble called snow and smoke it has a 1.3 gigahertz processor which doesn't seem as snappy as you might expect it is running Android but it's a custom designed version of Ice Cream Sandwich it weighs 11.1 ounces and the width is 5 inches that's a little less than the Kindle Fire HD and in my opinion makes it a lot easier to hold the nukes HD display is 720p but the resolution is 1440 by 900 and you can see the difference battery life is pretty good according to Barnes & Noble up to ten and a half hours of reading and nine hours of watching video there is built-in Wi-Fi but no cellular connection in terms of ports you have a universal stereo headphone jack it does have a proprietary charger which is kind of a bummer no micro USB here just a 30 pin charging connector that it says it's HDMI compatible there's also a microSD slot for expanding your memory the Nook is a lot lighter and frankly a lot easier to hold them the Kindle Fire HD this is a true 7 inch tablet and this obviously is quite a bit bigger now I think that the display is beautiful here but this presentation might be a little bit better these are about the same price so it's really whichever one you prefer and which one you think is going to offer the more content for me this is much nicer in terms of size weight and it's very intuitive to use of course both of these are now also in the shadow of the iPad Mini but since these start at $1.99 and that starts at 329 that comes down to a wallet decision for my money I think I'd pick the Nook read our full review though and make up your own mind over at cnet.com