Barnes & Noble Announce Samsung Nook Tablet

Barnes & Noble has recently unveiled a customised version of a Samsung tablet as a replacement for the Nook HD+.  Barnes & Noble themselves manufactured the Nook HD+ but have now turned to the tech giant to assist in them in their quest.

Based on the inclusion of pre-installed Nook apps and homescreen shortcuts, the book chain is marketing the device as the “first-ever full-featured Android tablet optimised for reading”. This is a strange statement to make, however as its screen is a lower resolution than Kobo’s Android-powered Arc 7HD?

An analyst has said it would be an “uphill struggle” to sell the new device; Ben Wood, from the tech consultancy CCS Insight said, “There is growing consumer apathy to this growing class of low-cost tablets…Although there is the Nook angle on this, it goes into the melting pot with numerous other tablets that will appear in this price point as we run up to Christmas…Amazon has pretty much locked out the market in reading-focused tablets anyway, the only thing I’d applaud here is the fact that Barnes & Noble has gone to Samsung, which can give it scale and quality.”

One advantage that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook has over Amazon’s Fire tablets, is it can easily access the Google Play Store. Whereas Amazon’s tablet uses a proprietary store with fewer available apps.

The cost of the new Nook is $179 (£107) and it is also cheaper than the Kindle Fire HDX and Kobo Arc 7HD.  The Nook has only 216 pixels per inch, which means the text will appear less sharp on the screen.  This will also affect the kind of content that is viewed on this device. Content such as magazines and movies that are sold from the included Nook Newsstand and Nook Video apps will give you less detail than similar purchases on either other Android machines or Apple’s take on the small tablet, the iPad Mini.

Currently the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is only available in the US.  Barnes and Noble will continue to sell e-ink readers, including the Nook GlowLight, which was launched in the UK earlier in August this year.

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SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28872196