Nexus 10, Nook HD worth a look
Each has aspects to recommend it
When it
MIAMI BEACH comes to tablets, you can live large or live small.
Days after Apple broadened the iPad lineup by selling the more petite iPad Mini model, Google went in the opposite direction. The search giant added the Nexus 10 to an Android roster that already includes Nexus 7, a popular tablet with a 7-inch screen and one of the slates Apple is obviously going after with the 7.9-inch Mini.
The bigger Nexus, made by Samsung, boasts a splendid 10-inch, highresolution screen that rivals the gorgeous Retina display on recent full-size iPads. It goes on sale Tuesday, starting at $399 for a Wi-Fi-only model with 16 gigabytes of storage, or $499 for double the storage. Apple charges $399 for the older iPad 2.
Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble is about to bring out a 9-inch Nook HD+. But the tablet I’ve been testing is the 7-inch, $199 (and up) Nook HD. It not only competes against the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini, but the Kindle Fire HD that’s produced by Amazon.
For different reasons, I like both the Nexus 10 and Nook HD.:
GOOGLE NEXUS 10
It’s roughly an inch taller, a tad slimmer and narrower, and about an ounce lighter than Apple’s latest fullsize slate. The black Nexus 10 has curved corners and a rubbery, easy-to-grip feel. It’s not as attractive as iPad, but it’s still impressive hardware, especially for the price.
The front is protected by Corning’s latest version of Gorilla Glass. There’s a dual-core processor inside, along with a robust Wi-Fi radio, and NFC (near-field communications) technology that lets you share digital information with other devices through the Android Beam feature.
On board are micro USB and micro HDMI connectors for charging or adding accessories. But the real knockout is the 10-inch display, which has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and 300 pixels per inch, specs that are higher than the iPad’s.
Nexus 10 is a terrific tablet for watching movies, playing games, reading Web pages and magazines. The stereo speakers are first rate, too. Nexus 10 also runs the Android version 4.2 mobile operating system.
I appreciated improvements to the Google Now feature that anticipates what you might want to search for before you actually search. There’s a gesture-driven keyboard that lets you enter text by gliding your finger against the letters you mean to type.
I had fun testing a new Photo Sphere feature that takes the idea of panoramic photos in new directions. Guided by a blue ball you align in a circle, you can snap pictures up and down, and side to side. What you shoot is stitched into a single image.
Nexus 10 has a 5-megapixel main camera capable of shooting 1080p high-definition video and a 1.9-megapixel front camera (up to 720p video) you can use in a Google + Hangout.
Next week, Google plans to add the ability to give multiple people their own areas on the tablet, with customized home screens, apps, games.
Google says you’ll get up to 9 hours of video playback and 7 hours ofWeb browsing. I didn’t do a formal test, but nothing inmy heavy mixed usage suggested the claim is out of whack.
In all, there are some 700,000 Android apps now, but relatively few that have been optimized for the tablet experience. Google doesn’t break out the number, but there are far fewer than the 275,000 apps that have been optimized for the iPad.
BARNES & NOBLE NOOK HD
The 7-inch Nook is in a different league, price and size-wise. With a resolution of 1440 x 900 and 243 pixels per inch, it boasts a superb display compared with its main smaller-screen competition.
I enjoyed watching video on it and reading magazines, books and catalogs from leading retailers. Nice feature: You can virtually “tear out” or clip pages from a magazine or catalog and add them to a scrapbook app.
The device weighs slightly more than 11 ounces, making it almost 3 ounces lighter than the Kindle Fire HD. There are no ads, as on some Kindles. Nook HD comes with a power adapter, which Amazon leaves out.
At the entry $199 price, Kindle Fire HD gives you 16 GB of storage compared with 8 GB on the Nook HD. But Nook includes microSD expansion; Kindle does not.
Barnes & Noble has a strong ecosystem of books and magazines, but it’s playing catch-up in other areas, including apps. It has struck content deals with major studios and says it’s adding thousands of movies and TV shows. But it doesn’t have its own music service.
There’s a separate e-mail app and Web browser. You can tap an ArticleView button to remove pictures and make the text within a Web article easier to read.
Worth noting: Barnes & Noble did not equip NookHDwith a camera.