We have been seeing a lot of good deals from Barnes and Noble recently, and now an even better one. They are currently offering both the Nook HD and the HD+ at discount rates through Mother’s Day on May 12.

You can now get the 8GB Nook HD for $149 and the 16GB version costs $179 (a $50 discount). The 9-inch 16GB HD+ will be yours for $179 (down from $269) and the 32GB model for $209 (drop from $299). The devices are available online at Barnes & Noble bookstores and on Nook.com, and at retailers including Best Buy.

The Nook tablets have suddenly become more appealing with this price drop, and also the slates now support Google Play (so access to more than 700,000 apps and games. That’s a big advantage over the Amazon Kindle Fire devices. At Amazon, the entry-level Kindle Fire has a price tag of $159, the 16GB Fire HD costs $199 and the 32GB 8.9-inch Fire HD tablet is available for $299.

As for other rivals, the Google Nexus 7 starts at $199 and Nexus 10 retails from $399. The Mac maker’s iPad mini starts at $329. Bottom-line, for the hardware, the Nook HD and HD+ are nothing less than a steal at their reduced pricing. What do you think, are you interested?

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If waiting for great deals on gadgets is the way you roll and if you are fond of doing a lot of shopping at Walmart, then you will be glad to hear about this new deal. They are offering a $70 e-gift card when you get a Nook HD+ tablet from Barnes & Noble.

Both the 16GB and 32GB models, which cost $269 and $299 respectively, are available. So if you are someone who frequently shops at Walmart, then the offer is giving you a chance to truly pay $199 or $229 for an impressive 8.9-inch tablet with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor (when you factor in the $70 card). Indeed it’s a great deal especially when we think about the 8-inch, lower-resolution iPad Mini starting at $329.

So, are you interested in the deal? It’s a great deal and a great tablet. If you are still not moved, maybe you probably went for the earlier deal. And certainly there is the possibility that all these Nook-related deals are pointing towards the arrival of new devices from Barnes & Noble. We will let you know when something new comes up. In the meantime, you can check out the Walmart product page here if you want to get in on the deal.

The post Barnes & Noble 16GB Nook HD+ Tablet for $199, Well Sort Of appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In a press release Friday, Barnes and Noble announced that they would be having a special limited time offer on their tablets. More specifically, when you purchase a Nook HD+ between March 24, 2013, and March 31, 2013, you will also receive a free Nook Simple Touch E Ink reader, a $79 value.

The Nook HD+ will run you $269 and you can pick it up both of your new Nook tablets at any Barnes and Noble retail store or online at www.nook.com. If you are not familiar, the Nook HD+ comes with a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, a 1920×1280 display, and 16GB (32GB @ $299) of storage. It’s counterpart, the Nook Simple Touch, has a 6-inch E Ink touchscreen and a battery life of up to 2 months on a single charge.

It is possible that Barnes and Noble is using this offer to clear out for a new line of devices. In fact, it’s been a while since we last heard from the book giant. And with Amazon’s fire finally cooling off after the holiday season, this could be Prime time for a new device.

Did you find the two Amazon puns? Will you be picking up a Nook HD+ and a Nook Simple Touch this week? Let us know in the comments below.

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When it comes to finding affordable tablets from major brands, now is a great time for consumers. There are many notable choices out there such as the B&N Nook HD, Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and – of course – the Asus-built Google Nexus 7. While all three of these certainly have merit, today’s review is going to focus on the Nexus tablet.

Sporting a Tegra 3 processor and essentially a vanilla build of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, is the Nexus 7 all that is cracked up to be? Let’s take a look.

Design

Despite original nay-saying against it, 7-inch tablets have quickly become popular for their lightweight and extremely portable design- the Nexus 7 is no exception here. The Nexus tablet weighs just 12 ounces and has the dimensions of 7.81″ x 4.72″ x 0.41″.

The build quality of the Nexus 7 is very good, especially considering its budget-friendly price. The unit has a Gorilla Glass front and easy-to-grip back joined together by a silver metal frame running around the chasis’ edges. The absence of front buttons and its overall high-quality appearance make it look like no other budget tablet around.

While the front is buttonless, there are some small buttons found on the edges for things like power and volume. Overall, I like the way my Nexus 7 looks- it certainly holds its own against my iPad 2 in the looks department.

Hardware

Looks are one thing, but it is the hardware that truly makes a tablet. The Google Nexus 7 is powered by a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Sure, there are devices with 2GB of RAM and even slightly faster processors coming out, but they will cost you several times more than the Nexus 7.
There are two versions of this tablet, the 8GB and the 16GB model. Besides internal storage devices, they are basically the same thing. Storage is one area where I find the Nexus a bit lacking – microSD would be nice. Its not surprising that a Google flagship device would leave this out and considering you’ll never find an iPad with microSD, it’s hard to complain. Still, the expansion of memory would have been a nice extra.

The Nexus 7 also has lots of high-end goodies when it comes to hardware, like GPS, NFC and Bluetooth (though Bluetooth is pretty common in tablets these days). The front-cam is a 1.2MP device, but it is worth noting that there is no rear cam. Another area where the Nexus 7 misses out is HDMI, it would have been nice to have a way to directly hook up to the big screen. If you are looking for a mobile broadband version of the Nexus 7, you will want to get a different tablet. The Nexus 7 doesn’t offer a version with 3G/LTE.

Overall there are a few quirks, like no HDMI, but the hardware is very strong on the Nexus 7. The 7-inch LED-backlit IPS screen is also very good. It features a 1280×800 (216ppi) resolution and even if it isn’t quite as good as the iPad Retina 264ppi- it is very close and much cheaper.

Software

The idea of Nexus devices are to give us solid products that represent the best that Android has to offer without all the extra clutter. With that in mind, there isn’t any extra software loaded on this thing. What you do get is an Android tablet with 4.1 Jelly Bean. With Jelly Bean, the overall performance of the OS is extremely smooth. I also own an ICS-based Acer tablet and will tell you that I can certainly see the difference between the performance of these two devices, even if their hardware isn’t worlds apart.

Another great reason to love Jelly Bean is that it includes Google Now, the somewhat Siri-like program that can guess what you are going to be searching for before you search for it, and have it ready (things like the weather). The more you use the Nexus 7, the more it can predict what information you will need and it will go and fetch it for you.

The only downside to Jelly Bean is the lack of Flash in 4.1. Since Adobe has all-but killed Flash, this isn’t surprising. It might not affect you in that many places, as more sites use alternatives like HTML5. If you really need Flash, there are plenty of 3rd party browsers out there that will allow you to browse Flash content without any problems.

Performance

The Nexus 7 is fast, very fast considering the price. As you can see from the Benchmark shot it might not be the “most powerful device in the world”, but it performs quite admirably. It’s also worth noting that there are supposedly ways to overclock the Nexus 7 and make it run circles around an unclocked Nexus 7.

The device is smooth and capable, but is it a massive battery drainer? Actually the 4325 mAh battery was able to hold up with a 8 ½ hour video playback loop without a real issue, pretty close to Google’s claimed 9 hours for video playback. Google also states it can do 10 hours of web browsing, 10 hours of e-book reading and 300 hours of standby time.

The Bottom Line

The Nexus 7 isn’t perfect, but it is pretty damn close. Jelly Bean 4.1 is great, the processor is great and the fact that there is no 3rd party junk pre-loaded is highly appreciated. If you want a relatively capable tablet in a 7-inch form factor, it’s hard to beat this tablet.

The post Hardware Review: Asus Google Nexus 7 Android Tablet appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Things keep getting better in the 7-inch tablet market. First we had the release of Google’s Nexus 7 earlier this year, giving us a near vanilla Android experience. Next, we had a worthy successor to the popular Kindle Fire in the form of the Fire HD 7-inch and 8.9-inch models. Yesterday we received word that Nook was going the club with an improvement to its Nook Tablet line.

When it comes to B&N tablets, they essentially have proven to be nothing more than e-readers with a few extra tweaks. The Nook Tablet was a major step up from the single-core Nook Color, but it still lacked the level of content of the Kindle Fire. With the announcement of a new Nook Video service and the Nook HD and HD+, B&N just brought their game to the next level.

So how does the Nook HD stand up against the 7-inch Kindle Fire? Take a look at the table below to get an idea:

As you can see, the two 7-inch versions are actually quite evenly matched. In some ways, the Nook is faster and has a few key items like MicroSD. At the same time, the Nook lacks a camera and has considerably fewer apps through its own store.

If you care about having a large selection of apps, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is clearly the winner. It’s also worth noting that its video service is much more established than the up-and-coming Nook Video offering. Content is often key in the decision of what tablet to get, and the Fire HD is hard to beat here. If app selection is your only concern, the Nexus 7 might be an even better option, since it has access to the 675,000+ Google Play apps for Android.

Both of these offerings are quite attractive, but B&N has yet to truly “Wow!” us away from Amazon’s offering. The Nook HD is a great step in the right direction, as is the upcoming Nook Video service. If B&N keeps gunning it in the right direction, the gap between Amazon and B&N tablet offerings will continue to shrink.

What do you think? Would you rather have a Nook HD or a Kindle Fire HD 7-inch model?

The post Kindle Fire HD 7-inch VS Nook HD: How Do They Compare? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Barnes & Noble has yet to truly excite us with their tablet offerings, but this might finally be changing. Today they announced a brand new set of tablets, the Nook HD and HD+. There is a 7-inch model with 8GB of storage for $199, and 9-inch Nook HD+ model with 32GB of storage for $299.

Is the new line a worthwhile upgrade from the Nook tablet and Nook Color? Absolutely. The Nook Tablet has a 1024×600 resolution, the HD line has a 1440×900. Other changes include Android 4.0 as the basis, not Android 2.3. Not enough of a reason? How about a dual-core 1.3GHz (HD) or 1.5Ghz dual-core processor (HD+), as opposed to the slightly slower 1GHz dual-core in the Nook Tablet? All around, this is a worthwhile upgrade. The screen is crisper, the graphics are better. The Nook Color is nothing more than a color e-reader with a few apps, the Nook Tablet is slightly above that in capability. The Nook HD and HD+ are both in an entirely different league than any of B&N’s previous offerings.

The new tablets look pretty good, and with a new “Nook Video” service coming this fall, there are more reasons to own a Nook HD tablet than ever before. Are the changes enough to truly set them apart from the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7? Yes and no, but we’ll take a look at that in another upcoming post.

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