The new Nook Tablet, the Nextbook, and the Kindle Fire are the three latest, and cheapest, tablets to hit the e-reader market but if you’re a college student in the market for one which one should you buy?
For all of you readers who have been living under a rock this past year and aren’t sure what a tablet or an e-reader is, it’s pretty much every college students dream come true. Basically it’s a way to carry around your laptop and textbooks in a small, extremely light, portable tablet. Instead of lugging that backpack around campus you could get a tablet instead and carry one small bag and save yourself that expensive chiropractor bill in your future.
If you’re looking for the better battery life and the more price savvy option the nextbook tablet the way to go, according to Brandy White, a Hastings book associate, “the nextbook has a battery life of about 10 reading hours and you’re getting a whole lot for $149.”
Besides having more battery life than the nook the Nextbook runs on the android operating system, the same as the nook tablet, and according to White, “you can get most of the same apps you would be able to get on the nook since they both run on the same Operating Systems.”
“There isn’t a huge difference between the nextbook and nook, you’re just getting basically the same thing for a better price with the nextbook”, stated White.
The Kindle Fire is the middle-man and is only $199, which is a pretty great deal considering all you’re getting.
“It’s not the cheapest ereader on the market, but it’s not the most expensive either…all the customers that I’ve seen come in and buy one have been pretty excited about it when they leave the store [Best Buy]”, said Jordan Wagner.
While the Kindle Fire doesn’t have and SD slot so you can expand your memory it does run on the Amazon system which is comparable to the Apple Cloud system. Another interesting feature about the Kindle Fire is that you can actually borrow books from their library for free, so it’s kind of like your own personal virtual library.
“I bought one and I love it…I don’t really use it for school stuff but I stream movies and use the apps all the time”, said Wagner
The nook starts out at a whopping $249, but you get a lot more extras by purchasing the nook.
According to Journie Cummings, the “nook” girl at Barnes and Noble, “every Friday we [Barnes and noble] offer and free book and if you bring your nook in the store and connect to our Wi-Fi you can read any book for free for an hour.”
“We also offer classes about our nook, those are taught by Evan, sometimes we’ll go over in the café and get coffee and it’s always a good time.”
“I think it’s perfect for college students…it’s not really meant to be used as a laptop but it’s still cool…the ever note software is my favorite app to use,” stated Cummins.
Both the nextbook and ereader come with SD card slots so basically you can never run out of memory which is a very nice accessory to have. Both are equipped with Wi-Fi, Android Apps, and are able to stream Hulu and Netflix.
When it comes down to it which one is better? Well if you’re looking for more of an ereader than I would recommend the nook just because there are so many more options as far as books go. Since Barnes and Nobles does offer the free book every Friday and allows you to go in and read any book for free for an hour it would make more sense for the book lover to go with this product. Whereas if you’re just looking for a tablet to surf the web on, download apps, and occasionally read the Nextbook would be your best bet.
The nook tablet is available at Barnes and Noble, the Nextbook is available at Hastings Entertainment, and the Kindle Fire is avaliable at Best Buy.
