Since introducing its first Nook in 2009, Barnes & Noble has spent heavily on its e-book readers and e-bookstore. There may be no bigger slugfest than what is taking place this week in 7-inch touch-screen tablets as the Kindle Fire from Amazon goes toe-to-toe with the Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble. Amazon is unleashing a body blow against the pricing status quo by introducing Fire at $199, $50 less than the Nook Tablet and, perhaps more important, $300 less than the Apple iPad 2. Both Fire and Nook have far fewer apps than the iPad. Amazon has a major advantage because of its vast digital offerings. Unlike its rival, Amazon has built-in music and movie stores, the latter providing 48-hour rentals along with sales options.
Fire buyers can try Prime for free for a month. On Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble is pushing available apps from the likes of Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora, but such apps are also available to Fire owners. Where Barnes & Noble does have a bragging chip is in extra onboard storage—16 gigabytes vs. 8GB. Amazon counters that all the digital media you purchase through the company — apps, music, videos, and, of course, books— are held in the cloud for free. At 14.6 ounces vs. 14.1 ounces, the Fire is a tiny bit heavier, though.--The Fire screen appeared to be more reflective. Amazon's tablet bears a strong resemblance to BlackBerry PlayBook, but that's where that comparison ceases. The only physical button on Kindle Fire is a power button that is in a bad spot on the bottom of the device. Meanwhile, Nook Tablet looks just like its predecessor Nook Color, which remains in the Barnes & Noble lineup. How apps stack up
Both Nook and Fire run on top of the Gingerbread version of Google's Android operating system. But for apps, you visit proprietary Amazon or Barnes & Noble stores, not the Android Market emporium found on other Android tablets. At times the Fire screen was slow to respond to my taps and a little sluggish. Amazon has made a big deal about its new Silk browser technology that taps into Amazon's cloud services to boost performance. As the first color Kindle, children's books come alive as never before on an Amazon reader, a nice plus for parents. Both companies sell children's books with read-aloud features.
Amazon provides a couple of ways to read magazines on Fire, a page view that mimics the experience of reading an actual magazine and a text view that makes the type larger, plainer and easier to read at the cost of the original layout. I didn't do a formal battery test on either device—Barnes & Noble says you'll get up to 11 ½ hours on Nook Tablet, Amazon says you'll get up to 8 on Fire. Of course, while Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire battery life is measured in hours and minutes, the battery life on the company's respective E Ink devices is measured in weeks if not a month or more. I wouldn't elevate the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet to knockout status just yet, but they are solid and appealing.
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