The Amazon Kindle Fire and The Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet both want to occupy the same physical space this Christmas season and that would be the space under your tree. Since we all know two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time, it looks like we're going to have to make a choice between the two. Which one is it going to be? Which of these tablets is going to give us the best value for our hard-earned holiday shopping money?
The Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet are both 7 inch screen multimedia tablets configured to allow you to read eBooks, newspapers, magazines, play music, watch movies, surf the Internet, check email, and launch apps. Here is our breakdown between the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet - and our conclusion as to which has the advantage:
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Design
Both these tablets weigh the same, but the Nook has a textured boarder around the screen that makes it feel better in our hands compared to the plastic boarder of the Fire. Also with the Nook's boarder, it measures slightly larger than the Kindle Fire. Some people will find that the soft rubberized back covering of the Kindle Fire makes it less graspable than the Nook. If looks are a big component in your decision making, it will all boil down to a matter of personal preference. Will you prefer the simple black slate that the Kindle Fire offers, or will you go for the more stylized design of the Nook Tablet? Some people don't like the little loop-hole that protects the memory card slot on the Nook, but others think is a nice distinguishing characteristic. (Advantage - Nook)
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Physical Controls
The physical controls of the Kindle Fire, or well, the lack of controls really, is one factor than annoys many customers. There is no physical volume control on the Kindle Fire. In order to control volume on the Fire you will have to use the software touch-control on the screen, while the Nook Tablet has an actual volume control located on one side of the device. Also many users report the power button on the Fire is badly positioned at the bottom of the unit instead of the top. (Advantage - Nook)
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Screen
Screen resolution for both of these tablets are the same (1024x600), and you may not be able to tell the difference between them with your naked eyes. But the Nook Tablet has eliminated the "air gap" between the LCD cell and the glass covering, which many people believe gives images and text a sharper look. Apps likewise look as if they fit the Nook Tablet's resolution more effectively compared to the Kindle Fire. That may be primarily due to the different ways the two devices display icons in relation to their own user interface. Although the Kindle Fire has a very large viewing angle, the Nook has an 89 degree viewing angle which makes it better suited for shared viewing. (Advantage - Nook)
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Processing Power, Memory, Data Storage
The very same 1GHz OMAP4430 processor powers both of these devices, which makes both the Fire and the Nook quite responsive when asked to perform basic functions. However, the Nook has 1GB of RAM whereas the Fire has only 512MB, and the extra memory of the Nook Tablet means it can multitask much more efficiently than the Fire. Opening apps simultaneously on the Fire will, at some point, slow it down to a crawl, while the Nook will keep on performing.
One big criticism of the Amazon Kindle Fire has been its rather light-weight storage capacity. It has only 8GB of storage, and only 6GB of that is accessible to the user. Remember when many computer hard drives were a lot less than 6GB? That was years ago. Nowadays with movies, videos, and music being saved, 6GB does not last very long. Not only that, the Kindle Fire has no expansion slot available, so you can't upgrade onboard storage even if you wanted to. Now to be fair, Amazon does give each Fire owner a free 5GB Cloud account where they can upload and access any music, videos, documents, photos, etc. But just remember, to access those goodies on the Cloud you will need an Internet connection.
On the other hand, the Barnes & Noble Nook has 16GB of storage, of which 1GB can be used for anything the user chooses. The other 15Gb must be used for Barnes & Noble content exclusively. But, and this is a big one, the Nook has an expansion slot allowing up to an additional 32GB of storage to be used however the owner sees fit. (Advantage - Nook)
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Movies and Videos - eBook Selection
Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have provided their customers with excellent options for streaming movies and videos. Amazon has bundled its video service very nicely with the Kindle Fire, and Barnes & Noble quickly countered with a movie link on the Nook homepage. The Nook's premium movie services are Netflix and Hulu Plus and are paid subscription services. The Amazon premium service is called Amazon Prime, and is free for the first month, then $79 yearly after that. Both services offer tons of content and it's hard to choose between the two. If you're already a Netflix user, the Nook will be your choice. It has superior movie streaming. But if you're an Amazon Prime member, the Kindle Fire will be the one to go with because of its free streaming alternatives and superb user interface.
As far as eBook availability is concerned, Barnes & Noble is at the top of the heap with its extensive and expansive collection of over 2 million titles. And if you ever go to an actual Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar store, you can stream eBook titles via the in-store Wi-Fi, sample a book for up to an hour, and get help from store staff - something that's not possible with the Amazon Prime membership.
Of course Amazon runs a close second to eBook selection and catalog size. Plus in addition to books, Amazon offers a wider selection of shopping choices with its Prime membership. One other noteworthy aspect of the Prime membership is the ability to borrow one book a month from the Kindle Lending Library at no further cost. (Advantage - You Decide)
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Web Browsing
A lot has been made of the Kindle Fire's Silk web browser, and it seems to be substantiated as the faster browser. The Fire offers speedier web surfing with quicker page loading times than the Nook does. Don't misunderstand, the Nook Tablet is very capable of good web browsing also. But the Silk browser splits page loading between the Fire's core processor and Amazon's Cloud servers, which makes web browsing faster. Silk also has "predictive learning" allowing it to load your most accessed web pages quicker. (Advantage - Kindle Fire)
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Apps
There is absolutely no doubt that Amazon has the better offering of apps when compared to Barnes & Noble. The Amazon Cloud Storage and multimedia service has a world class music and video store. Here's where the Amazon Prime membership pays off in a big way, with over 10,000 movies and videos available at no extra charge you will never have to rent another movie or TV show. The Kindle Fire has the Amazon App Store for Android built-into the unit, also it just lately included Netflix and Pandora.
Barnes & Noble, realizing that it is way behind on this front has started to offer some major third party apps like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Mog, Rhapsody, and TuneIn Radio. Barnes & Noble says that thousands more free and paid apps are coming next year, but as of now the Kindle Fire has access to many more apps than the Nook Tablet. ( Advantage - Kindle Fire)
Amazon Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Nook: Conclusion
As with most electronics these days, there's a trade-off and you must sacrifice a little in order to keep the price down. That's the case with these two products. With the Fire and the Nook, you're not getting anything near an iPad, nor are you paying $500 plus dollars. Each of these units are very capable when it come to eBook reading, browsing the web, checking email, streaming video, music playing and so forth.
However aside from the price difference (Kindle Fire $199 - Nook Tablet $249), there are some real differences that make the Nook a better choice in our opinion. The expandable storage (up to 32GB) of the Nook Tablet, coupled with the larger 1GB of RAM are the biggest advantages it has over the Amazon Kindle Fire. But we also liked the physical layout of the Nook, the style, and the screen imaging better than that of the Kindle Fire. The bottom line is, if you have the $50 extra bucks, the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet is a tad bit nicer package to put under your tree this Holiday season.
