Barnes & Noble's 10.1-inch Nook may be a hard sell at $129.99 for what is ultimately just a mediocre white label Android tablet, but the bookseller has just announced a .99 7-inch Nook tablet that might convince more buyers this holiday season.In direct competition with Amazon's 7-inch Fire 7 tablet, the wi-fi-only Nook tablet offers the benefit of featuring the Google Play Store out of the box - which is perhaps its main selling point (though we don't know what version of Android it runs).Apart from that, the device offers 16GB of storage (expandable up to 128GB by microSD card), a 7-inch 1024 x 600 IPS display (171 ppi), and promises a battery life of up to 7 hours use. For connectors, there's a micro USB 2.0 port and 3.5mm headset jack. If you're looking to take pictures, though, get ready to travel back to 2005 with a front-facing VGA camera (roughly 0.3 megapixels), or 2-megapixel rear-facing camera.Barnes & Noble doesn't divulge the processor or RAM (we've reached out for info), but last year the 7-inch Nook featured a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, so it'll likely be the same or slightly stepped up. For what it's worth, that tablet got middling-to-decent reviews from the e-reader media set, but mainly because it was inexpensive enough to be potentially worth the buy despite slow performance and wall charger issue that prompted a recall. In any case, it's available now, in case you want a reasonably similar alternative to the Amazon Fire 7.
PRESS RELEASE
Barnes & Noble Announces New NOOK® 7” Tablet Just in Time for Holiday Shopping
New NOOK 7” Tablet Has Double the Memory for Book Storage, as well as Upgraded Reading and Browsing Experience
Barnes & Noble’s Most Compact and Affordable NOOK Tablet is On Sale Now in Stores and on BN.com
December 03, 2018 08:30 AM Eastern Standard Time
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest retail bookseller, today announced a new NOOK 7” tablet with expanded storage to carry your virtual library, and an updated reading experience just in time for holiday shopping. This sleek and lightweight 7-inch tablet is Barnes & Noble’s most affordable NOOK device at just $49.99, and is on sale today in stores nationwide and on BN.com.
“We think this new tablet will delight both current NOOK users as well as introduce new customers to this affordable NOOK device.”
The new NOOK 7” tablet offers double the storage space as the previous model at 16GB (expandable up to 128GB), a front and rear facing camera, Bluetooth capability, a headphone jack, a speaker, and a microphone. The new NOOK is a full-featured tablet with a beautiful LCD display, connection to the Google Play Store, as well as a soft-touch finish and upgraded NOOK software for an improved reading and browsing experience.
“The new NOOK 7” tablet is a lightweight and affordable option for book lovers who also want the ability to browse, send emails, and listen to music,” said Bill Wood, Chief Digital Officer for Barnes & Noble. “We think this new tablet will delight both current NOOK users as well as introduce new customers to this affordable NOOK device.”
The new tablet has a custom home screen with easy access to your current read and recent purchases and shortcuts for browsing the NOOK Bookstore and Library. The tablet also gives readers access to Barnes & Noble’s Browsery™, where book lovers can talk about their favorite books and get recommendations for new ones from a community of fellow readers.
Customers can find the new NOOK 7” tablet at their local Barnes & Noble or buy it online at BN.com/NOOK7. The NOOK 7” tablet joins Barnes & Noble’s largest tablet to date, the NOOK 10.1” tablet, released earlier this year and on sale for just $129.99.
Customers can also share the excitement on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat (bnsnaps) and Facebook, using the hashtag, #NewNook.
About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the nation’s largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates 630 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®. The NOOK Store (www.nook.com) features digital books, periodicals and comics, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.
