Laptop Thoughts: Budget Tablets Head-to-Head: Galaxy Tab WiFi vs. Nook Color

"When Apple announced the iPad in January 2009, the entry price for the tablet market was set at $499. I saw (and still see) the web tablet as the successor to the netbook, so I assumed that it would go down over time, and we would eventually see tablets settle in the $350-400 range that netbooks sold for in their brief period of atomic glory (see what I did there?) ASUS and Acer are pushing that agenda for the moment, with the $399 Eee Transformer and the $449 Iconia A500."

Interesting comparison, to see if the Nook Color can be modded to make it a low-priced competitor for the Galaxy Tab WiFi tablet. The $249 Nook Color, with a 7-inch 1024x600 IPS color screen, runs Android 2.2 internally, on an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor with 512MB System RAM, and 8GB of flash storage. The $349 Galaxy Tab also has a 7-inch (1024x600) screen, Android 2.2/2.3, on a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, with also 512MB of system RAM, but 16GB of flash storage.

A very interesting piece of information is that B&N encourages modding, unlike some companies. In any case, after turning the Nook into an Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab proved itself to be faster in almost all cases, even though the WiFi-only version is a step down in performance from the 3G versions. Usability went also to the Galaxy Tab, as it just seemed like a more finished product. Display quality went to the Nook Color, with its IPS display. Cameras were no contest, as the Nook Color has none. Battery life also went to the Galaxy Tab, 8.75-hours, to 6.45-hours on the Nook Color.

The bottom line is that the competition was really between a "finished" product, and one that can be "hacked to oblivion." If you want to be able to mod, customize, and tweak each and every part of the system, the Nook has the advantage, although both offer almost infinite customization. The bottom line here was that the Galaxy Tab is the better tablet, but at $100 more than the Nook Color.