Barnes and Noble Takes Jabs at Amazon with Nook HD, HD+ Tablets

From DailyTech: Amazon made quite a splash when it introduced new Kindle Fire HD models earlier this month. The online retail giant announced a 7" Kindle Fire HD (1280x800) for $199 and an 8.9" Kindle Fire HD (1920x1080) for $299.

Barnes and Noble may seem like an also-ran in the tablet game with Apple gobbling up the lion's share of the market and Amazon grabbing on to the rest, but the company looks poised to outshine the latest Kindle Fire HD models with some fresh Nook tablets. The first new model is the Nook HD which features a 7" display and a screen resolution of 1440x900. Barnes and Noble quickly pointed out that at 243 pixels per inch (PPI), the Nook HD has 25 percent more pixels than the Kindle Fire HD.

The Kindle Fire HD comparisons kept popping up with Barnes and Noble stating that the Nook HD is 20 percent lighter and a half-inch narrower than its main competitor. On the performance front, the Nook HD packs a 1.3GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. A microSD slot is included if you wish to increase your storage capacity beyond the standard allotment.

The Nook HD will be offered in two colors (Snow or Smoke) and will be priced at $199 for the 8GB model and $229 for the 16GB model. The Nook HD will give you up to 10.5 hours of battery life while reading and 9 hours while watching video.

Barnes and Noble is also stepping it up a notch with a new model that is directly aimed at Amazon's 8.9" Kindle Fire HD. The new Nook HD+ features 9" display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1280 (256 PPI). The high-resolution tablet weighs just 18.2 ounces and features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM. It too will feature a microSD slot for storage expansion.

The Nook HD+ is priced at $269 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model. Battery life for the Nook HD+ is slightly below its smaller brother at 10 hours reading/9 hours video.

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