Following the September debut of Amazon's much-ballyhooed Kindle Fire tablet, sporting a stunning $199 price tag and decent specs, is expected to become the iPad rival to beat this holiday season. But Barnes & Noble just threw its hat into that ring, announcing a powerful, competitive new device of its own: the Nook Tablet.
This followup to 2010's Nook Color e-reader doesn't undercut the Fire tablet in terms of price, but the Nook Tablet does offer robust specs and access to a ton of digital content at a price point that is far below Apple's best-selling iPad.
During the new tablet's unveiling, Barnes & Noboble also announced a price slash for the Nook Color (down to $199 from $249) and for the Simple Touch e-ink reader (now $99, previously $139). The company also said a software upgrade would be available (starting November 7) for the Simple Touch, brining clearer text, better battery life and other improvements to the device, according to CNET. An upgrade will also be available for the existing Nook Color.
While the USA Today observed that the Nook Tablet looks quite similar to the Nook Color, Barnes & Noble's new tablet offers a host of improvements over its predecessor and, though the design isn't groundbreaking, MG Seigler writes that it "clearly looks nicer than the [Kindle Fire]."
Check out the slideshow (below) to see the 11 biggest things the new tablet has going for it. Then take a look at the Amazon Kindle Fire's list of features (here) to see how the two devices stack up.
