Nook Color as a tablet?

[slackerinabox]

Anyone have any hands on experience with it? I'm considering getting one as a simple android tablet but wonder if it's a good experience, or a buggy hack. The root seems simple and the price is right, but is it a seamless experience or are there a lot of compromises? I'm wondering if I should just spend the extra money on a low-end tablet like those made by Archos, or of the nook is competitive.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

I picked one up a couple weeks ago and rooted it right away.

The basic root is really easy, and the thing is almost impossible to brick (it boots from the micro SD by default). There are some workarounds needed due to the fact that the NC doesn't have the standard Android keys (menu and back specifically). Theres a software method to get them, and some people remap the volume buttons to do those tasks.

Additionally, if you want to keep the stock B&N software around, there's a method (using an app) to switch between the B&N launcher/home and another of your choosing.

Other than that, it works pretty much as you would expect given the hardware (no GPS, no cell, no working bluetooth).

I'm running the new CyanogenMod 7 nightlies on mine now, and it seems pretty decent so far. I think that it's still missing hardware video decoding, but development seems to be going at a good pace.

 

[slackerinabox]

I picked one up a couple weeks ago and rooted it right away.

The basic root is really easy, and the thing is almost impossible to brick (it boots from the micro SD by default). There are some workarounds needed due to the fact that the NC doesn't have the standard Android keys (menu and back specifically). Theres a software method to get them, and some people remap the volume buttons to do those tasks.

Additionally, if you want to keep the stock B&N software around, there's a method (using an app) to switch between the B&N launcher/home and another of your choosing.

Other than that, it works pretty much as you would expect given the hardware (no GPS, no cell, no working bluetooth).

I'm running the new CyanogenMod 7 nightlies on mine now, and it seems pretty decent so far. I think that it's still missing hardware video decoding, but development seems to be going at a good pace.

Thanks for the post! Is it speedy enough to be worthwhile? I mean for standard apps - web browsing, email, etc- is it's fluid enough to be your go to device, or is it a choppy mess?

Also, the CM7 builds - does that include the software mods for homekey/etc, or is that another hack?

Thanks!

 

[slag]

I rooted one a couple weeks ago also using auto nooter 3.0. It is definitely speedy enough for standard apps, browsing the web, playing angry birds, watching movies (m4v, mp4 format standard player), email, etc. Plus, its a great E Reader.

Seriously, it is smooth and great, and has good battery life. I'm on the fence if I want to get one for myself or just use the one I got my wife.

I use the Zeam launcher with soft keys and it does what I want.

 

[SunnyD]

I picked one up a few weeks ago for this purpose as well as trying to get myself into actually reading something again. I haven't had the time to root and play with it yet, but intend on it.

Another thing to note is that B&N previously announced the next update for the Nook Color will be Froyo and expected to be a full Froyo Android release allowing out of the box market/apps access in addition to the Nook software.

That, coupled with the groupon deal a few weeks back making the Nook Color $130 for me was a no brainer purchase.

 

[dougp]

I'm probably one of the few people who actually reads on their NC, but it does make a great little tablet. I also play a few games, Pocket Legends runs great and so does Angry Birds. I'm still running the stock Eclair, rooted - I have no problems on ESPN and other intensive sites, just the typical "Android lag" on page scrolls.

 

[slackerinabox]

Awesome - it's decided then, unless the iPad drops to $300 post iPad 2 announcement, but I doubt that will ever happen!

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Yeah, it's pretty smooth, and there are overclocked kernels that you can use if you want a bit more out of it. My CM7 install is using a 1.1GHz kernel now.

As for the CM7 and buttons deal, CM7 has soft buttons for menu and back integrated into the status bar. It's not totally ideal, since they're not available if you go into an app that hides the status bar, but for most stuff it's fine. You can always run softkeys or remap the volume buttons in addition, anyway.

Edit: For the record, I use mine mainly for reading manga and other basic Android-y stuff; email, web browsing, etc.

 

[SunnyD]

Awesome - it's decided then, unless the iPad drops to $300 post iPad 2 announcement, but I doubt that will ever happen!

One thing... consider the price of it as $305. You will WANT to buy the extended warranty, because odds are you'll end up exchanging it at least once when you get it. (First one I got had a dead pixel right in the middle of the screen and a horrible flicker issue on dark/dim images). I think dougp said he went through 3 before he got a flawless one.

 

[GhettoFob]

I'm tempted to pick one up. Are there any rumors of a price drop in the next month or two (to counter an iPad 2 announcement/launch)?

 

[SunnyD]

I'm tempted to pick one up. Are there any rumors of a price drop in the next month or two (to counter an iPad 2 announcement/launch)?

No. There's plenty of demand (most stores are selling out of their stock within 2 weeks of getting a shipment, but there seems to be enough supply to keep most stores getting new stock within a week of selling out). It's an eReader, first and foremost. An iPad 2 announcement will have zero bearing on the Nook Color's pricing.

 

[dougp]

I'm tempted to pick one up. Are there any rumors of a price drop in the next month or two (to counter an iPad 2 announcement/launch)?

Doubtful, because they're not in the same "class" - I think the only way you will see any hint at price drops would be an announcement from Amazon or Sony.

 

[poofyhairguy]

One thing I am loving about my Nook Color (besides overclocking, which is huge) is I am running pre-release Honeycomb. The biggest issue the Nook Color has with regular Android- the lack of hardware buttons- is mostly fixed by a Honeycomb that has all of its relevant buttons built onto the screen. Its a big upgrade.

Right now I dual boot between community released Froyo and Honeycomb, but that is only because Honeycomb lacks a Market. Once the Xoom hits and Honeycomb is live the Nook Color will get a nitro-boost of awesomeness.

Compared to all the cheap tablets that are available and will soon be available, the Nook Color seems like a clear winner. No other tablet hits the same price point with a high-resolution multi-touch screen, and most have (to me, useless) things like GPS, 3G, camera, etc. to help jack up the price so that manufacturers can milk those tablet margins while they still exist. An overclocked nook color is neck and neck specs-wise with a Samsung Galaxy tablet but is available for hundreds less because it lacks these frills.

The ONLY major downside to the Nook Color (despite its need to be hacked to be useful) is that apparently Adobe Flash for Honeycomb will be optimized for Tegra, meaning that the long term difference in Flash performance between the Nook Color and something like a Xoom will probably be fairly significant. But this same problem exists for all single core Android tablets (including Samsung's), and unfortunately the only cheap Tegra tablet on the market (Dell's Streak) is crippled by a low-res screen.

So therefore if you are looking for a tablet to replace a laptop at everything- including lots of Flash- save up for the Xoom or pull a Cartman and bury yourself in ice for two years until Xoom capability is sub $300. If you are looking to get a tablet for reading the web, playing light games, and basically being a cool toy then get a Nook Color.

I was scared to get mine based on negative comments on this forum, but it has been awesome. The developer community behind the Nook Color has some real talent, so I expect to be rocking fully compatible Honeycomb (with hopefully fully working Bluetooth) within a month at most...

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

One thing... consider the price of it as $305. You will WANT to buy the extended warranty, because odds are you'll end up exchanging it at least once when you get it. (First one I got had a dead pixel right in the middle of the screen and a horrible flicker issue on dark/dim images). I think dougp said he went through 3 before he got a flawless one.

My GF went through 3 of the original Nooks, and just got the Color not to long ago. She's now waiting on them to send her a replacement cable because the usb cable is bad and you can't use a standard micro usb cable on it.

 

[s44]

Yup, Honeycomb is the killer app for this -- it's built for a buttonless tablet, so the main disadvantage disappears. Plus you can dual-boot between a hacked OC kernel/ROM for amusement and the stock 600mhz B&N reader environment for actual reading.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I was scared to get mine based on negative comments on this forum, but it has been awesome. The developer community behind the Nook Color has some real talent, so I expect to be rocking fully compatible Honeycomb (with hopefully fully working Bluetooth) within a month at most...

I don't think there are many negative posts on the nook at all on this forum, it's the hacker's tablet of the year, IMHO.

 

[slackerinabox]

Yup, Honeycomb is the killer app for this -- it's built for a buttonless tablet, so the main disadvantage disappears. Plus you can dual-boot between a hacked OC kernel/ROM for amusement and the stock 600mhz B&N reader environment for actual reading.

I've seen youtube videos with honeycomb on the nookcolor and it was so stuttery that it was basically a slideshow - how are the devs doing with optimizing performance?

 

[SunnyD]

My GF went through 3 of the original Nooks, and just got the Color not to long ago. She's now waiting on them to send her a replacement cable because the usb cable is bad and you can't use a standard micro usb cable on it.

I'm using both a MicroUSB cable that came with my Vibrant as well as one I bought from Monoprice without any issues. Or do you mean with the charger?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I'm using both a MicroUSB cable that came with my Vibrant as well as one I bought from Monoprice without any issues. Or do you mean with the charger?

The cable that came with her Nook Color has a longer connector on it (the side the the N that lights up). We have to jiggle it around to get it to make a connection. I tried plugging in the usb cable from my BB's and my Vibrant and none of them worked on the Nook Color. They work on her old Nook.
If you say it should work, perhaps the Nook Color itself is the problem.

Well I just read this and the Nook cable is different than a standard micro USB cable
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371554,00.asp

Although the Nook Color looks like it has a standard micro USB port, it will only charge with the Nook AC adapter. I tried both 5V and 10V adapters, with no luck. Nor can you charge the device by connecting it to a PC. Turns out the cable that comes with the Nook Color has a few extra pins in it, to enable faster charging. The custom connector supports 2000mAh charging, whereas most mobile electronics use 500mAh chargers.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Hey, guys...

I've been thinking about getting a tablet, but I'm torn between this one and the Archos 70.

Here's the deal - I have a distinct set of requirements:

1) screen size between 7 and 10 inches
2) WiFi and fully-usable web browser
3) must be able to read and display PDF (including image-heavy files), TXT, HTML (other formats, like DOC, LIT and EPUB are a bonus)
4) USB port
5) SD card slot
6) able to read and display audio and video files, from MP3 and AVI to FLAC and MKV. The loading of audio and video files on the device should be as easy drag-and-drop from USB or card, or from a Windows computer, and NOT require a special interface (a la iTunes or Calibre).
7) compatible with most frequently used image files (JPG, TIF, BMP)
8) good battery life (at least 5 hours for non-stop video, more if used only as reader.)
9) good-sized program/applications market, with many available for free
10) priced at $400 maximum

I would appreciate some basic level multi-tasking (ie being able to read a book or browse the net while listening to music at the same time).

There are prons and cons for getting either the Nook or the Archos 70...

- the Archos has a smaller screen resolution (800x400), but it's got lots of I/O ports, and it's practically guaranteed it will work with any video files I throw at it.
- the Nook has a better screen resolution, but there are fewer guarantees it will play anything I want.

What's your experience with the Nook? Did you find any files it refuses to play? How's the audio?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Hey, guys...

I've been thinking about getting a tablet, but I'm torn between this one and the Archos 70.

Here's the deal - I have a distinct set of requirements:

1) screen size between 7 and 10 inches
2) WiFi and fully-usable web browser
3) must be able to read and display PDF (including image-heavy files), TXT, HTML (other formats, like DOC, LIT and EPUB are a bonus)
4) USB port
5) SD card slot
6) able to read and display audio and video files, from MP3 and AVI to FLAC and MKV. The loading of audio and video files on the device should be as easy drag-and-drop from USB or card, or from a Windows computer, and NOT require a special interface (a la iTunes or Calibre).
7) compatible with most frequently used image files (JPG, TIF, BMP)
8) good battery life (at least 5 hours for non-stop video, more if used only as reader.)
9) good-sized program/applications market, with many available for free
10) priced at $400 maximum

I would appreciate some basic level multi-tasking (ie being able to read a book or browse the net while listening to music at the same time).

There are prons and cons for getting either the Nook or the Archos 70...

- the Archos has a smaller screen resolution (800x400), but it's got lots of I/O ports, and it's practically guaranteed it will work with any video files I throw at it.
- the Nook has a better screen resolution, but there are fewer guarantees it will play anything I want.

What's your experience with the Nook? Did you find any files it refuses to play? How's the audio?

I don't think anything out there will give you 5 hours of video playback.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I too considered the Archos 70, but in the end I decided the Nook Color was a better deal-

-The Nook Color's higher resolution is the exact size needed to load most webpages without resizing. Plus the whole interface is the screen, so why not pick the better screen?
-The Nook Color has had excellent battery life, even with the 1.1GHz overclock kernel, I web browsed on it for over 6 hours yesterday (slow day)
-As far as playing files, using Rock Player I have played FLAC, AVI, MP3, and MP4
-I have not tried playing any of my MKV files, because none of these non-Tegra devices can play any old mkv file- they all require you to re-encode to special x264 settings that fits their specs. I have handbrake and a Quad Core desktop in which to do that, but I don't want to keep two copies of files, especially when Orb will transcode on the fly

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Archos forums are full of people reporting they get 4-5 hours of video... Some of the owners of the 8gb model (no HDD) say they get even more...

 

[Pliablemoose]

Hey, guys...

I've been thinking about getting a tablet, but I'm torn between this one and the Archos 70.

Anita, there are a lot of gadget lovers here, and no one likes the Archos stuff, it's cheap, and has performance issues.

Typically posters will talk themselves into buying one and then never post again or mention that they returned it or resold it fairly quickly.

If you can hack it a bit (or know someone that will do it for you) get a nook color...

 

[SolidSnake42]

Curious, if the Nook came out like this but had Honeycomb in it, would it probably be the best Android tablet? Better than the Xoom (especially for the price)?