Barnes & Noble Nook Color

Nook Color
I'm not sure why I bought this. It was more of an impulse buy. I had a lot of points saved up that were burning a hole in my pocket. I went in not knowing a lot about this reader, except it had an IPS panel. What I have since learned is that for 249, a little rooting, this is actually a pretty good tablet.

What's in the Box:

The Nook Color comes with a power adapter and a USB/Micro USB cable. The Cable can hook to your PC for adding your own content. IT does not charge the Nook. For this you have to plug the cable into the power adapter.

Design

The Nook is 8.1 inches in height, 5 inches wide, 0.48 in depth. Its very thin and sleek. Even though its not very big, its heavy, at about 1 pound, its very solid in your hand.

The back has a hard cover with a rubberized coating which gives it a nice soft touch in your hand. It also keeps it from slipping. I like my iPad but it always felt like it would slip from my fingers. It has a solid, metal frame which only adds to its build quality. You won't feel like your holding a cheap device in your hand. The Nook feels and looks like quality.

Screen:

IPS Panel with 178 degree viewing angles baby! The screen is gorgeous. The colors are bright. I keep the brightness at about 1/3 because its actually to bright.

Compared with the iPad, the biggest difference is the iPad has true white, where the Nook has a yellowish tint to its whites. I think however, this makes it a little easier since white can be harsh on your eyes for extended periods of reading, keeping in mind this was built as a reader.

Screen Resolution is 1024 x 600. Now the iPad has the edge on white, but the Nook has the edge on Pixels(169 PPI) per inch. This gives it much sharper text and makes it easier to read on.

I can't speak of how it looks outside as its dead winter and you won't get me outside to find out just yet.

The screen as far as I can tell is perfect. I didn't find any dead pixels that I could detect.

Keyboard and Web Browsing

The keyboard is your basic virtual keyboard. When you are in your book library, the library only works in portrait mode. There is a search box there that allows you to enter what you are looking for. Only needed it I assume if you have a mass number of books like I do.

The keyboard also works with the built in web browser. If you have a WiFi connection, you can surf the net. The web browser and keyboard works in both landscape and portrait modes. There is no pinch to zoom just yet but there is a virtual - and + key that allow you to zoom in and out on webpages.

Some of the settings on the browser are, New Window, Bookmarks, Windows (shows running web pages) Refresh, Add Bookmark, Find text on Page, Page Info, and settings.

In the settings you can enable text side, Java Script, block popups and so on.


Features:
The Nook Color, not rooted, has a Book case that stores all your Epub books. These also show the covers of the books. You can also make Book Shelves and put whatever books you have on those shelves, like you can have a entire shelf of just Stephen King books.

There is another shelf for Magazines. This seems to handle PDF files. I find it works great if its not a PDF I made myself. (If anyone know how they get a full Magazine with pic's down to 4mb let me know.) My PDF's tend to be big files and the Nook is slow loading the pic's. But for Native PDF's I guess professionally made, its snappy and loads all the pictures fine.

So far my only gripe is PDF covers, you side load don't show up on your bookshelf. Right now its just a blank default cover with the title. Magazines bought from B&N load fine.

Besides access to Barnes and Nobles own store, using the web browser I was able to download Epub files from my Fictionwise.com account and Epub and PDF's from my Gmail account.

The Nook does play Video. Youtube plays but it sees the Nook as a mobile browser and the video it gives you should be what you see on a cell phone. Hopefully this will be fixed with the next update. But it will play high quality files in MP4 and the playback has been surprisingly smooth.

The Nook comes pre-loaded with a Crossword puzzle App, which I'm terrible at. Apparently my vocabulary needs work. It also comes with Sudoku, Chess, a Contacts list you can sync with Gmail, Gallery for your pic's, Lend Me feature to share books with other Nook owners, Music player that supports Mp3 and AAC and Pandora.

You can also link your Nook to Twitter, Facebook and Gmail so that you can share passages from books that you are reading. Unfortunately, few of my friends read so I doubt I'll get much use out of those features.

Now that about covers what the standard unrooted Nook can do. Currently its running 2.1 but it is suppose to get 2.2 soon. There has also been an official SDK release for App developers. Soon the Nook Color will have its own App Store.

Now this is what it can do Rooted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw3bs5Xybw

The Nook really starts to shine as a inexpensive Android Tablet once you go through the root process. I don't plan to root mine until after it gets 2.2, but for those who do, here is a list of what others have working on their rooted Nooks.

angry birds
iheart radio
Astro filemanager
Angry Birds Seasons
launcher pro
Aim
Advanced task killer
dolphin browser hd
Tower raiders
GBCoid
KINDLE!
Abducted! 2
ESPN
GenSoid
Teamviewer
Estrong File Manager
office suite
winamp
google earth
SNESoid
appplanet.net
Astro File Manager
Deluxe Moon
google maps
AP Mobile
speedx 3d
rockplayer
Pocket Legends
droidftp
SportsStap
andtftp

This is just a short list, but you can see at 249 dollars, the Nook is turning out to be a good bargain if you want a good quality Android Tablet but don't want to pay Galaxy Tab prices.




Wifi –

Wifi works with your router, and you get free wifi at Barnes and Nobles stores. It doesn't have Ad-Hoc support for those with rooted/jailbroken phones. I hear there is a work around for that here. Try at your own risk.

Speakers

The speakers are on the back and they are just Okay. Nothing to write home about. I would say the iPad has better sound, as does my Fascinate.

Input and Output Ports

It does have a standard headphone 3.5mm headphone jack if you need louder sound. The only other port is the micro usb port for charging and transferring files.

Front:

The front of the Nook has one hard button that returns you to the home screen. It has a few soft buttons that will take you to your bookshelf, settings, browser or the built in Apps.

There are no mic's or webcams. Sorry no Facetime or Skype. I can't tell you how i'm not heart broken over those missing features. But if its important to you, it is up to you to judge if that is worth the 300 dollar plus premium of something like the Galaxy Tab.


Right Side:

The right side of the device has a - and + button for volume controls and to mute it.


Left Side:
This is the sleep button and off button if you hold it in for 5 seconds.

Heat and Noise

The Nook is fanless, and completely quiet. It also stays completely cool. I haven't felt any heat and this is a pet peeve of mine along side bad viewing angle screens.

Battery Life

Barnes and Noble rates it at 8 hours. I've had times where I've used it for that long with wifi on so I'm going to agree with them. I haven't actually tested it to complete drain so maybe I'll update once I do. Needless to say I think it has great battery life.


ProsTo close..if you want
Quality,
Android,
Tablet functions
Run games like Angry Birds..

Cons:
No 3G
No Ad-Hoc Support

Conclusion:
I think for the build quality, the 1 year warranty from Barnes and Noble (because 1 year usually means they feel its a quality device but rooting it will void your warranty just so you know).

Coming 2.2 Froyo,
Its Own App store soon,
Ability to say screw all that and root it now..
Over half the price of Galaxy tab,
Graphics good enough to run games.

At 249 I don't think anything in the 7'' range can touch this.