You have no items in your cart. Want to get some nice things?
Go shoppingA week or two ago my boss came in and told me I would be reviewing the newest Nook HD Tablet from Argos. I had an instantaneous moment of panic. I think I sputtered out something like, “But…but, I like books” and showed him the comic that inspired the name of this article. Admittedly not the most diplomatic response, but it’s true that I’m a book person. That is, I don’t own an e-reader or tablet and, in all likelihood, I will not buy one (much to the dismay of everyone I know and my bank account, the only things I brought with me when I moved from the US to the UK were my books). That being said, I understand that I’m a waning minority; and if e-readers and tablets encourage people to read, I won’t be the one to dismiss them.
So, with my real book-loving ways out in the open, I’ll move on to the review. In an effort to genuinely review the Nook HD Tablet, I took the Nook around with me for a week, tried it out on my daily commute, fiddled with it whenever I got the chance, and it certainly grew on me. Straight away, the newest Nook HD highlighted the reasons why one would buy a tablet in the first place. It’s easy to set-up and use, supremely lightweight, and gives you ample storage (the addition of an SD card slot can increase the capacity of the tablet by 64GB). You can also check your e-mail, browse the web, use social media, download a plethora of apps via the Google Play store and watch videos and movies. The Nook HD has a purported 10+ hour battery life, weighs just 320g, and is 1.1cm “thin”. It’s also rather good-looking. The biggest drawback to the Nook HD is that it has no camera, though I’m not sure how necessary a camera is.
Why the Nook HD Tablet instead of its competitors? The most obvious appeal is its price. The Nook HD Tablet is listed for £99.00. The Kindle Fire HD is listed as £159 on Amazon. Though the Nook HD’s price is certainly a huge benefit, the triumph of the Nook HD, and the reason to buy it above its competitors, is its graphics. Just from the sample magazines, you can tell this Nook is designed to capture the experience of those glossy, crisp pictures. In this respect, the Nook HD is also perfect for newspapers, graphic novels and other media.
Even if I did want to hate this Nook, I couldn’t. I found it to be a perfect example of the benefits of e-readers and tablets and, in truth, it was a pleasure to use. If the Nook HD Tablet is the future of reading, I don’t suppose it’s such a bleak future after all. So, while I won’t be tossing my books away any time soon, the Nook HD did beg the question (at least for me), why not both?
About Meghan Beller
Meghan is heading Litro’s membership and development campaign. A New York native, Meghan moved to the UK only a few months ago. She holds a BA in English Literature/Writing and Rhetoric, and is an avid reader, writer and explorer of her new home, London.
