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Kindle Fire vs Barnes and Noble Tablet/Color

adamvk

adamvk

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 29, 2008
1,308
0
Phoenix, AZ
So I want to buy a tablet. But for UNDER $250. I am looking at both the Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Tablet or Barnes and Noble Color. Does anyone have experience with either of these? What would you recommend? Do you think the number of apps available is about equal? My BIGGEST concern with the Kindle Fire is lack of storage, there's only 8GB. And after the OS/apps My concern is there would hardly be any room. Suggestions? Thanks!
 
adamvk said:
So I want to buy a tablet. But for UNDER $250. I am looking at both the Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Tablet or Barnes and Noble Color. Does anyone have experience with either of these? What would you recommend? Do you think the number of apps available is about equal? My BIGGEST concern with the Kindle Fire is lack of storage, there's only 8GB. And after the OS/apps My concern is there would hardly be any room. Suggestions? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would suggest saving and waiting until the iPad 3 comes out to see what happens to iPad 2 prices. I think that beyond storage you'll find with either of those tablets is that they're so limiting you'll just be frustrated.
 
adamvk said:
So I want to buy a tablet. But for UNDER $250. I am looking at both the Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Tablet or Barnes and Noble Color. Does anyone have experience with either of these? What would you recommend? Do you think the number of apps available is about equal? My BIGGEST concern with the Kindle Fire is lack of storage, there's only 8GB. And after the OS/apps My concern is there would hardly be any room. Suggestions? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would try them both out to see which one you like best. Most reviews I have seen rate the nook tablet higher since you can expand it's storage.
 
I had the Kindle Fire for less than 24 hours before I returned it.

I didn't like the keyboard, the browser, the weight (too heavy for its size), or the way that the homescreen is organized.

For some background......I had the iPad since launch, and then sold it and got the iPad 2 soon after it launched. I sold the iPad 2 because my wife was the only one using it, and she was only using it to browse, for email, for facebook and for FaceTime. She got an iPhone 4S instead. We bought the Fire as a browsing device, but we both hated it.
 
I know quite a few people who have purchased low-end tablets (under $250), and they've all said that they were, well, pieces of crap :eek: If you haven't had a low end tablet or smartphone before don't expect too much, or you'll be disappointed. If I were you I'd continue to save my money (even if it took a long time) until I had enough to get a high end tablet (as in, an iPad, high end android tab, Windows 8 tab when they come out, etc) :)
 
We have 2 Kindle Fires in the house and all I can really think to tell you is that if you're looking for a cheaper alternative to the iPad that fulfills all of the functions of the iPad, the Fire isn't it. The Fire is good (maybe even great) for reading books/documents and some web browsing, but I can't imagine collecting tons of apps on it like you can do with an iPad. There just wouldn't be a point because the device itself feels... limited, for lack of a better term. The OS is choppy and the multitouch is just not as good as an iPad. I can only speak for the Kindle Fire, because I haven't used a Nook Color or whatever else B&N has out now, but I think you need to go try the tablets out and see if they're "enough" for you or not.
 
Ok, thank you all for the thoughts! Yea, I realize it's a cheap tablet, but for me that's kind of what I want. I bought a 64GB iPad at launch and I did like it, but I couldn't justify the $700 when I already had a Macbook Pro and an iPhone. That's still how I am today. Although an iPad would be nice, I feel like in most cases either the Mac or the iPhone would be easier/better. For this tablet, I'm basically just looking for something simple that I can use for streaming my Netflix and Hulu Plus, and do web surfing. I really don't care about apps that much since I have my iPhone for that.

I will keep this all in mind though, thank you!
 
mrsir2009 said:
I know quite a few people who have purchased low-end tablets (under $250), and they've all said that they were, well, pieces of crap :eek: If you haven't had a low end tablet or smartphone before don't expect too much, or you'll be disappointed. If I were you I'd continue to save my money (even if it took a long time) until I had enough to get a high end tablet (as in, an iPad, high end android tab, Windows 8 tab when they come out, etc) :)
Click to expand...

I'm afraid this says it all, and no, I'm not knocking cheap tablets per se. I have played with the sub $250 stuff and trust me, you are better off saving....Doesn't have to be an iPad, although that's what I use, there are some perfectly acceptable Android offerings...The Iconia Tab is a nice solid tablet and I suggest you have a look. The build quality is good, but the Ice Cream Sandwich (no, really) OS (Honeyconb) is laggy IMO.

The low end stuff is cheap, plastic and will only disappoint you. In short, you get what you pay for.
 
adamvk said:
Ok, thank you all for the thoughts! Yea, I realize it's a cheap tablet, but for me that's kind of what I want. I bought a 64GB iPad at launch and I did like it, but I couldn't justify the $700 when I already had a Macbook Pro and an iPhone. That's still how I am today. Although an iPad would be nice, I feel like in most cases either the Mac or the iPhone would be easier/better. For this tablet, I'm basically just looking for something simple that I can use for streaming my Netflix and Hulu Plus, and do web surfing. I really don't care about apps that much since I have my iPhone for that.

I will keep this all in mind though, thank you!
Click to expand...

My first cellphone was a $99 budget fliptop. It was great :) My next one was a bit better $200 fliptop. My next was a $500 Samsung touchscreen. When that got stolen I had to use a $99 budget phone again until I could afford an iPhone. It was awful... Even though I had used the same sort of phone only two or three years earlier and had found it perfectly fine!

The thing I learnt was that once you have tasted the stuff on the top shelf you'll be disappointed with anything less. If you have used the iPad for any length of time you will be disappointed by a sub $250 tablet, even if you just want to surf the web with it.

May not be true for others, but it was, and is, true for me :eek:
 
^^ I don't want to mess with hacking my tablet, it just becomes a pain in the butt. I'd rather just buy a tablet at use the OS that's meant to be used with it..


Does anyone have any idea what the number of apps is for these two devices though? Are there more apps available for the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet?
 
The Kindle Fire runs a modified version of Android, and after checking out the app store my mom's Fire, I assume you can get any app you want for it. There's an "apps" tab in the home screen, and you click on that, then there's another arrow in the top right to go to the app store. It looks pretty much like the regular Android "market" to me.

According to Wikipedia the Nook Color runs Android, too, but again, I've never used one so I can't speak for it. The extent of my knowledge of the Nook's apps is that I know it can run Angry Birds. :rolleyes:
 
I like the Kindle Fire more than the Barnes & Noble tablet. Then again, I've probably used them for a total of five minutes each. I'm just not a tablet person.
 
Cheap tablet? Nook Color rooted to CM7 is it

Rooting to Cyanomod 7.1 is ridiculously easy and the Nook Color is as capable at that point as any other 7" tablet. I rooted mine in about 15 minutes several months ago and with the right apps, it's fine. The Nook tablet has a faster processor and, yes, at times the web page loading on a Nook Color can get laggy, but refurbed Nook Colors are in the $140-$150 range, and for the price, they're a well made machine. I understand that the most recent version of the Nook Color comes with a v1.4 firmware update that prevents rooting, so that would be a factor to consider

My son has rooted his to Ice Cream Sandwich (I'm on Froyo - 2.2) and he's advised me to wait for a stable release.

Is a rooted Nook Color as capable as an iPad? No, the screen size makes the keyboard a bit tricky to use, and there are obviously a mountain of iPad apps. Ultimately, I do use mine mostly for email and browsing and as an ebook reader/mp3 player (and yes, Angry Birds), and for that it's fine.

It's all in what you want to do with it. Even an iPad isn't a complete laptop replacement, but yes, it would be closer than a Nook Color (or Fire) would be.
 
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