NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ tablets take on Kindle Fire HD

By Chris Davies
on 26 Sep, 2012

Barnes & Noble’s response to the new Kindle Fire HD are here, and the NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ don’t hold back. Each packing an HD-capable display – 7-inch 1440 x 900 on the HD, and 9-inch 1920 x 1280 on the HD+ – the two slates run a carefully-re-crafted version of Android with new multi-user Profile support.

Both models use a dualcore OMAP 4470 processor – 1.3GHz in the NOOK HD, 1.5GHz in the HD+ – with 1GB of RAM, WiFi b/g/n, and Bluetooth. The NOOK HD will be available in 8GB ($199/£159) and 16GB ($229/£189) capacities, while the NOOK HD+ will be sold in 16GB ($269/£229) and 32GB ($299/£269) versions; each has a microSD card slot, SRS stereo speakers, a built-in microphone, and support 1080p HD video output via an HDMI adapter.

Up to five Profiles can be set, with password protection optional, for a family or household that wants to share each slate. For kids, different functionality – such as the browser, or the Exchange-capable email app – can be locked down, and it’s possible to set the NOOK Store to require a password before eager offspring can begin racking up charges to your registered credit card.

If you’re short of ideas on what to read, meanwhile, there are curated channels put together by B&N’s head booksellers in the US and UK, and updated daily with new themed ebooks and, eventually, apps. Parents can record their own narration for children’s books with the Read and Record feature, and there’s video access through the NOOK Video store announced yesterday.

Unfortunately for Android tinkerers, there’s some degree of lockdown. B&N couldn’t tell us what the official policy on modifying each tablet might be, but did say that there was no support for sideloading apps. That’s unlikely to dissuade the more eager modders, however.

Both models will go up for preorder in late October in the US and UK, with shipping beginning in mid-November. More first-impressions over at SlashGear.

DrGQ

B&N will never be a true competitor in the tablet market until they give up trying to have their own app store. They need to open the Nook up to the Google App Store. I have a Nook tablet now and while it is a nice piece of hardware, I feel I wasted my money and should have bought one of the other tablets. The bottom line is that the Nook apps are just pathetic and seriously undermine the potential of the Nook. I don’t see the new HD Nook as being any better. Check the Nook forums and the call for allowing access to Google App store is overwhelming yet B&N acknowledges the cries from users and turns a deaf ear. It is a joke to put the Nook (even the HD Nook) on the same level as Amazon Kindle Fire and Apple iPad. In terms of what a user can do with one, there is no comparison. Buy a Nook HD if you want to read books and watch movies. If you have plans to do anything else, forget it. The Nook has a huge potential but for some reason, B&N is crippling the Nook by denying access to Google Apps. Bad idea. Very bad idea. If you want to be a player in the tablet market, you have to have good hardware and good apps. The Nook has good hardware but pathetic apps. I would really like to get one of these new Nooks, but because of the poor apps I won’t and I would not recommend buying a Nook Tablet, HD or otherwise. No access to Google Apps + no side loading apps = no Nook purchase for me.
- http://twitter.com/GizmoTakeOut GizmoTakeOut.com
  
  Sadly I do agree with you. It is not a deal breaker for me as I use it extensively in BN stores to read free Ebooks
http://www.facebook.com/riley.wave Riley Wave

Both the Nook and Kindle Fire HD are premiering “Video Services” but aren’t providing HDMI in Full 1080p HD – like the new Android tablet the Novo 7 Flame does, which goes for a much better deal at $189 at a site in the US called TabletSprint – overall, there’s a lot of features missing on the Nook, Kindle and Nexus 7 tablets – compared to the Ainol Electronics Novo 7 Flame – such as dual cameras – 5 MegaPixel Rear camera & 2MP Webcam, Wifi, Bluetooth & an option for 3G and more… why can’t the big players give us more?
- tomas
  
  Nook tablet HD has 1080p HDMI out…
- tomas
  
  Nook tablet HD has 1080p HDMI out…
Captain_Doug

In the whole article, you never mentioned the sizes of either of the tablets. I guess it’s safe to assume a 10 and 7 inch version but it’d be nice to know for sure.