Hands on: The B&N Nook Color with new apps capability

Last week's firmware update to the Nook Color brought applications to a device that we've called the best color e-book reader we've tested—and one that some consumers have already "jailbroken" and used as a tablet. So how does the updated Nook Color stack up as a tablet against such devices as the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab?

After using the Nook Color for some days, with help from my testing colleague Rich Fisco, my short answer is that it's better than you might think--though you shouldn't sell your iPad yet.

Here are the details of our informal tests of the Nook Color, the iPad2, and the Galaxy Tab:

Responsiveness. A responsive touchscreen is, of course, important in a tablet. When we compared the Nook Color's screen to the iPad's, the two were equally responsive. But some apps may take longer to load because the processor is slightly slower than those used in the fastest tablets, such as the iPad 2.

The display. With the apps, as with reading, we couldn't discern a difference in quality between the iPad's display and the Nook Color's. Both appeared bright, with good color contrast and viewing angles. Of course, the iPad's display is bigger, at 9.7 inches, while the Nook's is 6.8 inches; the Samsung Galaxy Tab's display is 7 inches.

Video. The Nook Color can now play Flash video, and the videos that are (as of the update) embedded in the enhanced books that Barnes & Noble offers looked good. The Nook Color's screen looked as bright to me as the Galaxy Tab's when viewing video from various Web sites. But there's no Netflix, YouTube, or Hulu Plus app available yet. If you want to view your own videos, you can use the microSD card slot and load videos in the MPEG-4 format.

Battery life. The Nook Color falls a bit short on battery life. It provides 8 hours of battery life for reading with the Wi-Fi turned off, according to Barnes & Noble. That's very short compared with e-book readers with E Ink screens that claim battery lives of two weeks or more. It's meager even compared with some tablets, which lasted seven to 12 hours in our tests while playing a video. When we tested the Nook Color's battery by surfing Web sites continually, it lasted just over 5 hours.

The app store. This is the Nook Color's biggest weakness. The Android Market has more than 200,000 apps, many of which are free; Apple's App Store has hundreds of thousands of apps, about 65,000 for the iPad alone. By comparison, there were 138 apps on the Nook store when I checked this week (and several of those were "professional" apps, including some for nurses, doctors, and CPAs).

Prices were generally in the same range as those in other app markets, though I did find a Webster's Dictionary app priced at a whopping $60 (also available at the same price in the Android Market). There were only about 15 free apps when I checked.

Navigation. The Nook Color gets high scores for navigation in our e-book reader Ratings (available to subscribers); it has changed little if at all. But that means that the Nook Color still uses the default Android browser, which is less robust than the ones on your desktop, for example, and limits you to one open page at a time. And there's no alternative available yet.

The interface doesn't make it easy to find specific apps, either. The app store can be reached as a standalone section of the Nook store. But when you try to search, the apps are integrated with the books. While that sounds seamless, there's a problem: If you're looking for an app, you could get a lot of irrelevant hits, as there are only 130 or so apps mixed in with thousands of books.

Other features. A new e-mail app that's automatically added to the Nook with the upgrade connects you to Web-based mail clients. You can get notifications of newly delivered mail in the Nook's status bar, or you can choose not to get them, if you'd rather read undisturbed.

In addition, there are currently more than 150 magazines and newspapers available, along with books enhanced with video and kids' titles with interactive features.

Bottom line. With this update, the Nook Color becomes a class of product that stands alone. It's more than an e-reader but less than a full-fledged tablet, particularly because of its skimpy app market.

At $250, though, the Color Nook costs half as much as the top tablets in our Ratings—even if it's pricey, as e-book readers go. So if your emphasis is on e-books but you want to push your reading experience a bit further, the Nook Color could be for you. Just be sure there's a plug nearby should you be planning to spend your day with the device.

—Donna L. Tapellini