Nook Color and Kindle Fire - Two eReader-Tablet Hybrids Compared

Nook Color from Barnes and Noble has been one of the most original and affordable devices for electronic reading as well as performing other multimedia tasks until now. However, this fall Amazon introduced their Kindle Fire and the world of funds Android eReader/tablet hybrids has become much more interesting. Now it's two full-colored touchscreen devices that straddle the line in the middle of eReader and tablet. In this description I will try to collate these two competitors.

Design
Nook Color and Kindle Fire both feature straightforward build with a good holdability factor. They look pretty much the same, but Nook has its unique loop at the bottom-right corner. On the other hand, Kindle is a itsybitsy bit smaller (7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45 inches compared to Nook's 8.1 x 5 x 0.5 inches) and lighter (14.6 vs. 5.8 ounces).

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Screen
Both gadgets can boast of high potential 7-inch Lcd touchscreens with the resolution of 1024×600 at 169 dpi and 16 million colors. They both look great in either portrait or scenery orientation

Speed
Though the Cpu is not such an prominent factor for tablet Pcs and e-readers, still the Kindle features a newer dual-core processor which is likely to perform faster than that of Nook. When reading or listening to mp3s you will probably not consideration any difference.

Operating System
Kindle Fire and Nook Color run Android but have their own ownership versions of software and user interface. It makes it easier for midpoint non-techie users to use these devices. However, advanced users might want to root them in order to turn them in a full Android tablet and sideload applications instead of buying them. In this respect Nook seems to be a winner as it features a microSd slot with which you can run the hack and take off it to return to the original configuration.

E-book reading
Both devices are very good for reading in full color roughly under any conditions: in the sunlight and in total darkness. The screen adjusts its radiance accordingly to make the process the most comfortable. Fire and Color maintain popular text/e-book formats and with their 8Gb of internal memory can store thousands of ebooks and text files.

Multimedia
It's fair to say that Kindle is more of a multimedia tablet than Nook, as it supports more video and audio formats. Apart from Kindle books (including audio enhanced), this expedient can play music from the Cloud Drive as well as Video on Demand. It's also potential to stream video rentals or free offerings which are ready for Amazon Prime members.

Summing it up
The main features of the two devices are nearly the same: 7-inch touchscreens, customized Android Os, 8Gb of internal memory, similar size and weight, similar battery life (about 8 hours), same connectivity (Wi-Fi), same price (Fire is slightly cheaper). However, Nook Color features more original build and due to microSd slot it is more expandable/rootable.

Nook Color and Kindle Fire - Two eReader-Tablet Hybrids Compared