It’s no secret that the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire tablet has B&N’s Nook Color (NC) in its sights. The two have a lot in common, both have books and magazines deeply embedded in their DNA and both run a very customized Android experience, they are also two of the cheapest 7-inch Android tablet offerings out there. It might not be completely fair to compare the two though, as the Nook Color is a year older, but until B&N comes out with a Nook Color 2, it remains the Kindle Fire’s main competitor.
The Fire wins in terms of processing power and initial reports state that the experience is very smooth, the NC can get a bit slow at times, showing its age. Amazon has a huge cloud presence and its putting it to work with the Fire, which lacks on storage options, Amazon envisions your music and videos stored in its cloud. The Fire also utilizes Amazon’s cloud with its Silk browser which will offer an accelerated browsing experience.
Neither tablet has access to the official Android Market, but the Fire wins in this regard, because the Amazon app store simply has more apps than the Nook. On the other hand the Nook Color is one of the most ‘hackable’ devices out there, so if you get bored with B&N’s customized experience you can quite easily run standard Android with the full Android Market. The Nook Color also wins on looks; the Fire is a standard all-black rounded affair.
For the full spec lowdown between the Fire and the NC head after the break. Be sure to also read our very extensive review of the Nook Color and how much we like its magazine app.
| Kindle Fire | Nook Color | |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
| Processor | Dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP 4 | Single-core 800MHz TI OMAP 3621 |
| Memory | 512MB | 512MB |
| Built-in storage | 8GB | 8GB |
| Display and resolution | 7-inches IPS panel 1024 x 600 169ppi |
7-inches IPS panel 1024 x 600 169ppi |
| External storage | No card slot Free cloud storage for Amazon content |
microSD up to 32GB |
| Operating system | Android 2.3 based fully Amazon customized | Android 2.2 based fully B&N customized |
| App store | Amazon Appstore | Nook Apps |
| Pre-loaded apps | Amazon Silk accelerated internet browser, Email, music and video player Tight integration with all Amazon services (Kindle books, Amazon Cloud player, Instant Video player) |
Internet browser, Email, Pandora, music and video player Tight integration with B&N book and magazine offerings |
| Audio | Top mounted stereo speakers | Back mono speaker |
| Support | Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, MOBI, DOC, DOCX JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8 |
EPUB, PDF, TXT, DOC, DOCX JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP MP3, MP4, AAC |
| Other features | no GPS, no camera, no Bluetooth | no GPS, no camera, no Bluetooth but can be enabled through hack |
| ‘Hackability’ | To be confirmed | Extreme – can boot-up OS from microSD card. Virtually impossible to brick. |
| Connector | micro-USB | micro-USB |
| Wireless connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n |
| Max battery life | 8 hours | 8 hours |
| Dimensions | 7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45 (190 x 120 x 11.4 mm) |
8.1 x 5.0 x 0.48 (206 x 127 x 12.2 mm) |
| Weight | 14.6 oz (413g) | 15.8 oz (448g) |
| Body material | Plastic with rubberized back | Plastic with rubberized back |
| MSRP | $199 | $249 |
| Release date | 15 November 2011 | 19 November 2010 |
| © Stuff-Review | ||
[Amazon Kindle Fire, B&N Nook Color]
