The summer has led to a bit of a revival in my mind for the Nook range of digital readers here in the United Kingdom. With smart partnerships, aggressive pricing strategies on both the eInk and the LED backlit tablets, and a greater focus on the benefits of the Android platform, it's time to look again at the hardware, especially the HD and HD+ tablets.
The 7 inch HD model, and the 8.9 inch HD+ model are not going to set the world alight with their specifications. When they were launched last November, the Texas Instruments OMAP 4 CPU, PowerVR SGX544 GPU, and 1 GB of RAM marked it out as middle of the road. Compared to the 2013 range of Android tablets the Nook range is not going to move mountains in terms of speed or power.
Here's the key thing to remember. While the Nooks can be used as general purpose tablets, there is a key difference between these tablets and the generic devices you could pick up from Sony, Samsung, and other manufacturers.
These tablets have a specific focus, and are built for reading.
Much like Amazon has adapted Android on the Kindle Fire tablets to suit their own needs and not those of the generic Android market, Barnes and Noble has skinned much of the interface to suit their own needs, and again it puts the focus on the content. The home screen has a lovely carousel widget that you can flip left and right to scroll through your recently viewed book covers, album art (and the occasional Android app). You can also place content items or app widgets onto the home screen (and there are five panes available to fill up).
There's also a touch of inconsistency in the 'back' soft key. Sometimes this well used function is at the top of the screen, typically in the dedicated Nook apps. The rest of the time it can be found in the black bar at the bottom of the screen, but it's only 'lit up' some of the time. If you're not familiar with how Android works you're left with the only physical key on the front of the device, the metallic 'n', that returns you to the app. A little bit more focus on a consistent experience would not go amiss.
On the smaller 7 inch tablet, with just a 1.3 GHz CPU, the UI can sometimes be slow, switching between portrait and landscape orientations can take time to react to the change in orientation, and there are moments when the is a noticeable pause between selecting an action and the action being carried out by the tablet. That doesn't have a huge impact when you are reading, and I never came across it inside many third party apps (the 3d infinite running game Subway Surf is very smooth when playing). The issue seems to be in switching between and launching applications. It's far less noticeable on the 1.5 GHz enabled 8.9 inch tablet, but it is there.
Given the solid battery life of the tables, I suspect this is an issue around power saving rather than anything wrong with the UI, in which case it's a design decision with a view to the real world usage, and not a reviewer's test bench. I found myself having to recharge the unit on the fourth day of steady usage.
Nook's reading app, along with the navigation of your library of books, magazines, and personal documents, has been iterated on over a number of years and hardware platforms, including the earlier Nook tablets and eInk readers. It's not a surprise that it's stable, comfortable to use, and easy to navigate around.
There are not a huge number of layout options, but with a choice of fonts, line spacing, margins, and color themes to choose from there's going to be a few combinations you will find comfortable. Personally I'd like to see a left justified option for the text leaving a ragged right hand edge of the text would be preferable to the fully justified right and left view that is used, at least for my eyes.
Page turning is through a tap on the edge of the screen or a swiping movement in the required direction, while a tap in the center of the screen brings up the menu bar and access to the settings and the library. This UI matches up the experience on the other Nook tablets, which means if you have the chance to move between them they all feel part of the same ecosystem. A feeling which is enhanced as your page location and bookmarks in any Nook book is synced over Wi-fi, so you can pick up another Nook (or the Nook app for iOS and Android) and be in the same place.
It's just a shame that there's no way to note that a personal document can be marked as 'on multiple devices' and have the reading location synced as well, although I'm glad that you can copy your own documents into the Nook, either through an online service such as DropBox, or over the supplied proprietary USB cable (which also doubles as the charging cable).
The physical design of the Nook tablets continue the focus on reading as the primary role of the tablets, with the wide bezels on the front of the device that keep your thumb out of the way, and the curve on the back edges leading to a recessed central spine give you a comfortable one handed grip. It might not be a thin sheet of Android tablet, but the sculpting and materials used make the Nook tablets a rewarding tactile experience.
Comfort or fashion is always the eternal debate, and having tried out fashionable Android tablets (such as the Sony Xperia Z Tablet) both the Nook HD and HD+ are some of the best that I have held. The 8.9 inch HD+ can be tiring after a long period of one handed holding, but the 7 inch HD unit is clearly a one-handed reading experience for as long as you want.
I also love the fact that you can set up multiple accounts with differing levels of access to books and apps, and the different reading positions in each book. This makes the Nook a personal device that can be shared around the family, and remain personal for every user. And I can make sure my kids don't read 'Game of Thrones'.
Nook ties into the Barnes and Nobles store, and the mainstream selection is comparable to Amazon. It's interesting that Amazon tends to discount the popular titles a little bit more than the B&N titles, and Amazon has an advantage with far more self-published authors in the Kindle Store through the KDP program. While the former has a slight impact on the content you would be willing to put on the device, the latter may be a bigger consideration, especially as the two stores use a different eBook format and different DRM standards.
There is a way around this issue though for the benefit of the user, and it's down to one of the reasons that the Nook tablets deserve a second look. In May, an over the air firmware update added the Google Play store to the applications in the Nook, which meant that any compatible app could be installed onto your Nook.
Which includes the Android version of Amazon's Kindle reader.
It is possible to use the Nook HD and Nook HD+ as purely Kindle readers, which does feel a touch subversive as a user, and I did wonder how sales from the Barnes and Noble store have performed since the opening up of the Kindle. Interestingly Managing Director Jim Hilt told me earlier this month that "sales have not been diminished with the inclusion of Google Play."
Barnes and Noble still has a significant number of apps available through the Nook Store, but having Google Play available should give the switched-on user more confidence to buy a Nook. If for any reason the Nook ecosystem was switched off, the inclusion of Google Play, and the ability to side load content and apps over the USB cable would mean the tablet would still be usable.
The Android tablet space is an incredibly crowded one, from the high end spec-heavy tablets, through the mid-tier, and into the ultra competitive low-end space. Nook's Android tablets were never built for performance, they were built to fulfil a specific purpose, and the Nook does that very well.
Couple that with the recent price drop in the UK and US markets and you have a combination that provides good value for the money, as well as a decent level of functionality when you look at the 2013 offerings from the larger companies producing 'general' Android tablets. The construction and feel of the two tablets is far in excess of the current pricing levels (starting at £79 for the 8GB 7 inch version in the UK, and £129 for the 16 GB 8.9 inch), and if you are not looking for ultimate performance from an Android tablet, then you should take some time to consider the Nook tablets.
Disclosure: Barnes and Noble provided a Nook HD and Nook HD+ for review purposes.
