Barnes & Noble introduces 9" Nook HD+ touchscreen tablet

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Barnes & Noble has announced two new tablets in its latest Nook lineup, led by a larger 9-inch model that will compete more directly with Apple's iPad, as well as the new 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD.

Nook


The newly unveiled 9-inch Nook HD+ will be priced at $269 for a 16-gigabyte model, while a larger 32-gigabyte capacity will be $299. Customers can preorder starting Wednesday and the devices will ship in late October.

The Nook HD+ has a 1,920-by-1,280-pixel display that packs in 256 pixels per inch. It is laminated to reduce glare and improve viewing angles. It also has a 1.5-gigahertz dual-core processor with a gigabyte of RAM.

In its press release, Barnes & Noble took a shot at Apple's iPad with Retina display, stating that the Nook HD+ "rivals the 'resolutionary' screen of the leading high-resolution large-format tablet." The bookseller also boasted that its new device is 20 percent lighter than the iPad and nearly half the price of the entry-level third-generation iPad.

Nook


"With the combination of the highest resolution screen, lightest weight and expansive access to content rendered in a digital quality never before seen, Nook HD is the world's best 7-inch media tablet," said William J. Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. "We designed our larger format tablet Nook HD+ because we think there?s big demand from customers for a super-light, extremely high quality 9-inch tablet, at half the price of the iPad. Both our 7-inch NOOK HD and 9-inch NOOK HD+ deliver an exceptional customer experience and we enthusiastically encourage customers to go to nook.com and learn more about them."

In addition to Apple's iPad, the Nook HD+ will also compete with the 8.9-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD. That forthcoming tablet will feature a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel display packed into a screen slightly smaller than the 9.7-inch Retina display on Apple's iPad. The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD starts at $299 for the 16-gigabyte model, while the 32-gigabyte version is $369.

Nook


Barnes & Noble will also launch a new 7-inch Nook HD in October. That device will have a screen resolution of 1,440 by 900 pixels, which amounts to 243 pixels per inch. The smaller Nook will run a 1.3-gigahertz processor and weighs 11.1 ounces.

The 7-inch Nook HD is priced at $199 for the 8-gigabyte model, and $229 for a 16-gigabyte version. Both are expandable with microSD cards.

In the 7-inch market, Amazon just launched a smaller Kindle Fire HD earlier this month for $199 with 16 gigabytes of storage. An entry-level Kindle Fire model with 8 gigabytes of storage is priced at $159.

Barnes & Noble and Amazon are increasing their options in the tablet market as Apple is expected to expand its own iPad lineup in the next month with the debut of a new, smaller iPad. The so-called "iPad mini" is rumored to feature a 7.85-inch display.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 50


    Dear Barnes & Noble,


     


    I used to enjoy purchasing books at your stores. However, as of late, the front of your store seems to be setup to peddle Nook devices. Have you notice nobody is even standing around your Nook displays? I dislike walking into your stores and being harassed by a salesperson trying to push your failed Nook devices onto me. I would visit a competitor's store instead, but you and Borders assimilated most of the mainstream smaller bookstores, and then Borders closed their doors.


     


    Sincerely,


    Negafox

  • Reply 2 of 50


    I wonder in what area does the screen rival the iPad... It's certainly not resolution. Glare?


     


    "No annoying ads"... hahaha. Sounds like a decent offering. What about cellular radio?

  • Reply 3 of 50
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member


    Laggy, slow and ugly. I'm not joking, but I won't buy one if they were $50. Hell, if I was offered one for free and told I couldn't resell it I'd say keep it.

  • Reply 4 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Negafox View Post


    Dear Barnes & Noble,


     


    I used to enjoy purchasing books at your stores. However, as of late, the front of your store seems to be setup to peddle Nook devices. Have you notice nobody is even standing around your Nook displays? I dislike walking into your stores and being harassed by a salesperson trying to push your failed Nook devices onto me. I would visit a competitor's store instead, but you and Borders assimilated most of the mainstream smaller bookstores, and then Borders closed their doors.


     


    Sincerely,


    Negafox



     That's funny. The B&N I visit at least once a week does have a few Nook tables set up in front as well as a salesperson, but they never bother me with more than a greeting. The other 90-95% of the store still seems to carry the same books, periodicals, music, and movies. Look, my anecdotal experience cancels out yours and the world is in balance again.

  • Reply 5 of 50


    The article doesn't say what operating system it is using. Maybe this version is faster than the last version.


     


    I like the SD card feature. That makes the Nook HD more appealing than some tablets without it. I'll wait for some video reviews. The Nexus 7 appeals to me and even the Kindle Fire does. I don't want one of these for playing games. I want it for reading, browsing the web, and streaming video. The one that does the best job will get my money before Christmas.

     

  • Reply 6 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    Laggy, slow and ugly. I'm not joking, but I won't buy one if they were $50. Hell, if I was offered one for free and told I couldn't resell it I'd say keep it.



    How do you know it is slow?  I couldn't find any videos showing it in operation.  I like how they only charge $30 for the next 16 Gb of memory and the ability to use SD cards. 

  • Reply 7 of 50
    New sales slogan: We are cheap pieces of crap that are almost as good as an iPad. Gee, sign me up! Nice notch around the bezel. Is that so I can put a clock face on it and hang it around my neck... like the new generation Flavor Flav?
  • Reply 8 of 50


    Awesome. 


     


    Another DOA tablet. These also-rans just don't get it. 

  • Reply 9 of 50
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tjwal View Post


    How do you know it is slow?  I couldn't find any videos showing it in operation.



     


    The Verge

  • Reply 10 of 50


    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post

    Another DOA tablet. These also-rans just don't get it. 


     


    Maybe if it was 7.85" it would have a point.


     


    Or… not. image

  • Reply 11 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Negafox View Post


    Dear Barnes & Noble,


     


    I used to enjoy purchasing books at your stores. However, as of late, the front of your store seems to be setup to peddle Nook devices. Have you notice nobody is even standing around your Nook displays? I dislike walking into your stores and being harassed by a salesperson trying to push your failed Nook devices onto me. I would visit a competitor's store instead, but you and Borders assimilated most of the mainstream smaller bookstores, and then Borders closed their doors.


     


    Sincerely,


    Negafox



     


    Have you ever thought that perhaps they are trying to do you a favour?  Whether you like it or not, digital books are catching on faster than greased lightning and regular paper books are fast disappearing in many categories.  Most big box retailers of books are now (primarily) big box retailers of scented candles and calendars as a result.  


     


    Perhaps they are trying to make you see that by ignoring this trend your book reading experience will only go downhill from here. 

  • Reply 12 of 50


    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    Perhaps they are trying to make you see that by ignoring this trend your book reading experience will only go downhill from here. 



     


    Until a digital version of a book even has higher resolution images in it than a paper copy, I don't think there's much downhill-going yet.


     


    Inexcusable, really.

  • Reply 13 of 50
    30 bucks to go from 16 to 32 GB. Apple should be so generous...
  • Reply 14 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


     


    Perhaps they are trying to make you see that by ignoring this trend your book reading experience will only go downhill from here. 



     


    Who's ignoring it? I read plenty of books on my iPad retina.


     


    I don't think that the criticism was against e-books. I think it had more to do with the tablet.

  • Reply 15 of 50
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tjwal View Post


    How do you know it is slow?  I couldn't find any videos showing it in operation.  I like how they only charge $30 for the next 16 Gb of memory and the ability to use SD cards



    I can see the attraction of the SD card slot, but my guess is that very few people would actually use it if there was an easier alternative. Not that it is hard to use an SD card but my guess is that the 'main stream' wouldn't know what to do with it and if they did, would loose it very quickly. I'd like more memory in my tablet (and phone), no question, but faffing around with SD cards is a pain. Just like CD's, floppy disks, tapes and cables, etc.


     


    What Id like to see is an app that lists all your media (with optional description) under media type headings, and gives you two options: delete, and back up & delete. Any media that is already backed up such as anything you have bought from Apple will have 'Back Up' already checked. Every time I upgrade my devices I have to spend ages finding what to delete in different places and it is a pain.

  • Reply 16 of 50


    And so it is...


     


    The end of Apple's tablet marketshare domination. thank god. 

  • Reply 17 of 50


    Originally Posted by pedromartins View Post

    And so it is...


     


    The end of Apple's tablet marketshare domination. thank god. 



     



     


    Thanks for my joke for the day. That was a pretty good one.

  • Reply 18 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by paxman View Post


    I can see the attraction of the SD card slot, but my guess is that very few people would actually use it if there was an easier alternative. Not that it is hard to use an SD card but my guess is that the 'main stream' wouldn't know what to do with it and if they did, would loose it very quickly. I'd like more memory in my tablet (and phone), no question, but faffing around with SD cards is a pain. Just like CD's, floppy disks, tapes and cables, etc.


     



    I agree it would be nice if there was an alternative but the iPad doesn't provide it either.  I recently wanted to tranfer a large number of work files onto an iPad.  After suckinig up to IT for a week I managed to get iTunes installed but that didn't work.  A USB port would have been nice but no luck there either.  Even the WiFi apps for file transfer don't seem to handle more than one file at a time, and with no WiFi at work it doesn't matter anyway. I understand Apples walled garden approach but I've bumped up against the inside of the wall too many times.  I keep hoping that one of "these also rans" will get it right.

  • Reply 19 of 50


    is this a tablet or an e-reader? that is the question.


    It's silly comparing only the specs. Who cares how many GB ram it has... They still don't get it, iPad has an ecosystem, reading books is only one of the features of it.

  • Reply 20 of 50

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


     


    The Verge



    Thanks, although they did point out that it was pre-production software.  Hopefully the final version will be better. 

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