Nook Color Airs For $250, Early Reviews are Mixed

From DailyTech: Launching at $250, the Nook Color, a new e-book reader from America's largest book retailer, Barnes & Noble, is an interesting proposition. It lacks apps, but otherwise offers most of the features of a tablet, albeit crippled to various degrees. The 7" E-Book Reader's closest competitors are the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple iPad -- the latter of which sells for $399 in 3G form on Sprint, and the former of which sells for $499 in Wi-Fi form/$629 in 3G form on AT&T.

The device just started shipping and the early reviews have come in.

The Nook Color packs a 7-inch 1024x600 in-plane switching (IPS) LCD display. IPS have been around since 1996 when Hitachi invented them. Many argue that IPS displays are harder to read that E Ink displays, such as the display in the Kindle and the original Nook. Part of this is due to increased reflectivity.

While magazines and newspapers are reportedly inferior to a 10" format, due to size issues, the tablet reportedly handles e-books better than the iPad or Tab. Gizmodo writes, "[I]t's arguably the first seven-inch device that's been designed to be one from the beginning, rather than a puffed-up phone."

The Nook Color is a jack of all trades and master of none. Its also unbeatable at its price point -- because there are no other tablets at its price point. Thus the value of the device is quite debatable.

You could say that the Nook Color represents the rise of the long-awaited budget Android tablets. On the other hand, its software is reportedly so crippled that certain activities become painful. At the end of the day, if your main goal is to read books digitally the Kindle (or original Nook), seems a better buy. If you have $500, the Galaxy Tab would be a better buy. But if you only have $250 and you have to have a tablet, the Nook Color is really the only solution out there, so it's your best bet for now.

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