The big thing here is the 7" screen, and for the price the Nook Color delivers something rather impressive: a full-color 1024x600 "VividColor" (16 million colors) IPS screen that delivers an impressively wide viewing angle and decent performance even in bright light. It's not quite the Pixel Qi screen we were hoping for, but the iPad has proven the technology works quite well, and the Nook Color will likely be no different. Worth noting is that the Nook Color nets a pixel density of 169 PPI versus the iPad's 132 PPI. With a built-in accelerometer, users can switch between landscape and portrait modes on the fly (including when in e-reader mode).
In fact, in many ways the Nook Color takes an iPad, shrinks it to a standard 7" e-reader size, and strips it down to a certain number of bare essentials: reading, web browsing, video playback, and social networking. It's WiFi-only, but that frees consumers of having to make the choice between data network providers, and allows Barnes and Noble to hit their ambitious $249 price point.
The book experience will initially be no different from the current Nook store, but the color screen and video capability allows for a low-priced e-reader to finally serve as a viable textbook replacement--something sure to be exploited down the road. Moreover, the new screen finally makes it viable to bring magazines and newspapers to the device, and Barnes and Noble packs leverage with publishers that Apple will have a hard time matching. In fact, Barnes and Noble claims it debuts with more magazines and newspapers than any other mobile device-- over 100. Price wars and exclusivity agreements for digital distribution of books and periodicals appears destined for the future.
When it goes beyond the books, the Nook Color offers native support for MP3 and AAC audio as well as MP4 video. That media is stored in the 8GB internal memory, which is expandable up to 32GB per card via MicroSD cards. The homescreen feels more Nook than Android (even though Google's robot is under the hood) but developers will no doubt offer extensibility down the road.
Third party applications included out of the box include Pandora, a couple games (Chess, Sudoku, and crossword puzzles), as well as full integration with Twitter and Facebook. Web and e-mail are handled by what looks to be a proprietary browser designed around the Nook UI, but Barnes and Noble is already marketing the Nook Color around apps it calls NookExtras (Pandora being the first one). With a good SDK provided to developers, the Nook may just have a future as a tablet, and it certainly provides a level of functionality far beyond a specialised e-reader.
Of course, many people still prefer the flat e-ink screens for long reading sessions, and the standard Nook isn't going anywhere. Nor can the Nook Color match the portability of the standard Nook when it comes to battery life, but 8 hours (with Wi-Fi off) is still decent.
The Nook Color will retail for $249 online and at all Barnes and Noble stores. It will also be sold at 2200 Wal-Mart stores, 1100 Best Buy stores, and 223 Bam! Books-a-Million stores. Online pre-orders are already being accepted, with an expected ship date of November 19th.
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