Brand Barnes and Noble

Compare Barnes & Noble Tablets

Last updated: January 2021

Barnes and Noble Nook Tablets Compared

Barnes & Noble has been in the book business since 1886 and stands proud as the last major bookseller in America. Today they are known for being large but cozy stores with a Starbucks inside, wifi, and, of course, books – both physical and digital (sold on e-readers and tablets).

In 2009 they entered the e-reader and tablet market as well. Their products received mixed reviews – many users were in rapture at the surprisingly good hardware and the brilliance of the total user experience. Others reported bugs aplenty. In any case, the project ran at a staggering loss, and management soon tired of it.

The Future of Nook

After losing a scarcely credible BILLION dollars on the Nook project, Barnes and Noble started taking steps to extricate themselves from the tablet market. They spun off the Nook project into its own company, ended their partnership with Microsoft, and began looking for other partners.

The New Nook By Samsung

In 2014, Barnes and Noble teamed up with Samsung to produce co-branded tablets. It combined Samsung technology with Nook software. Aimed at the budget end of the market, it had decent specs, including a quad-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor – more than enough to display an e-book or two! Months later, a 10.1-inch variant was released.

September 2015 saw the release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 Nook, running Android 5.0.2 and an 8-core 3.0Ghz CPU.

Nook Glowlight

A beautiful 6-inch e-reader, the device wowed many, though others complained about a lack of features.

The Nook HD

The Nook HD comes with Android 4.0 installed, gives you an extra resolution (1440 x 900) compared to the original Nook Color (1024 x 600), and also has better processing power with a 1.3 GHz Dual-core processor. Even with all these improvements, the Nook HD is still a full ounce lighter than the original Nook. This is truly the perfect lightweight, mobile model for the reader on the go.

The Nook HD+

The Nook HD+ is the extra large 9 inch, high-resolution cousin of the original 7-inch Nook Color. With an extra three inches of the viewing area, 1920 x 1280 resolution, this is the big screen TV of electronic book readers. You also get a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, which is almost double that of the original Nook. This is the tablet of choice for the serious reader.

The Nook Tablet

Nook Tablet was launched one year after the first B&N tablet/eReader the Nook Color. Besides the Android OS upgrade from 2.2 to 2.3, Nook Tablet sports faster TI OMPAP 4430 1.00 GHz CPU over 0.80 GHz TI OMAP 3621 found in Nook Color. Nook Tablet is also lighter than its predecessor.

If you do more than just reading, the Nook tablet might be just what you’re looking for. With a state-of-the-art touch screen interface and 16 GB of space, this tablet competes with the front-runners of the tablet market. Aside from books, you can watch shows on Netflix and Hulu, listen to Pandora, play thousands of popular apps and even check your email.

Nook Color

The lightweight Nook Color gives you the best of both worlds for readers and tablets. You get a portable and thin reader that also displays brilliant 16 million color high-resolution graphics. Just connect to Wi-Fi and enjoy web browsing and email and even exciting apps and games.

Regardless of what model of the Nook tablet line you chose, you’ll be getting a reliable and amazing device that makes it easy to read during your commute, while traveling, or anywhere else. You’ll get a lot more than an electronic reader. Find the Nook that’s right for you today.