Yesterday I purchased a Nook Color from Best Buy with the intentions of using it as an Android Tablet. With tax my total came to $264.99, not too bad for an Android Tablet. After getting home I started the Nook Color for the first time and followed the on-screen setup wizard. Within only a couple of minutes I was ready to explore the Nook Color.
One of the first things that I noticed about the Nook Color was that the screen, while it appears to be glass, was not smooth to the touch like Corning?s Gorilla Glass. The second thing I noticed was that on some screens you can see the light in the background of the device flickering like a CRT using a refresh rate that it cannot handle. This problem only appeared when viewing primarily white backgrounds. The device felt sturdy in my hands and the rubberized backing on the device was a nice touch. The Micro SD slot on the device is located in the lower left corner where the Nook?s ?hook? is. In my opinion this is not the best placement for a Micro SD slot as I had some trouble inserting and removing the card.
The software is heavily modified and provides a limited experience. It?s definitely not what I would consider an Android Tablet out of the box. The book reading portion of this works great, it even reads some books to you. Pandora is provided on the Nook Color and it works just as well as it does on any Android device. There are also a few games that come with the device such as Sudoku and Word Search but I honestly did not try any of the games.
There was no Market application on the device and I did not see anything on the Nook?s website that would allow you to download additional applications such as Facebook for Android or even Angry Birds. This was a bit of a disappointment to me because had they included a Market application by default then I think the Nook Color?s potential could be much higher.
So we all know that the Nook Color can be rooted, it can run Froyo from both an SD Card and internal memory. It can even run Honeycomb from an SD Card and internal memory. I decided to root my Nook first. But for some reason I was never able to authenticate with Google so the Market never worked for me. That?s when I decided to try Froyo on SD. It seemed to work fine despite being sluggish. I was however unhappy with how small the icons where considering this is a tablet. The screen also seemed to have some problems registering touch in the correct places. Since I was unhappy with Froyo on SD I decided to install Honeycomb on the internal memory. I followed the steps and within minutes I had Honeycomb up and running. I really liked the interface but market would not download any applications. I tried doing the fix that was suggested but after that market loaded to a white screen with an error box in the background that you could not see but for a split second after exiting the market.
After exploring the above mentioned mods I decided to return the device to stock. First I ended up using the pre-rooted stock and it worked flawless with the exception of not authenticating with Google. I then used the 8 boot method to re-flash the device and followed that up with the data wipe. Now my Nook Color is back to factory condition. I gathered everything that came with my Nook Color and put it back in the packaging along with my receipt. Later today I will return to Best buy and get a refund for this device.
If you are in the market for an Android Tablet I would suggest you stay away from the Nook Color. While it is cheaper than other devices it is currently lacking a stable and efficient operating system from the development community. Don?t get me wrong, I think the work that has been done so far is great but comparing the hacked OS this device has to the Galaxy Tab on the same OS? well it?s like night and day. If you are however in the market for an eReader and would like the added bonus of it having Android, however limited it may be, then this device most certainly be for you.
One of the first things that I noticed about the Nook Color was that the screen, while it appears to be glass, was not smooth to the touch like Corning?s Gorilla Glass. The second thing I noticed was that on some screens you can see the light in the background of the device flickering like a CRT using a refresh rate that it cannot handle. This problem only appeared when viewing primarily white backgrounds. The device felt sturdy in my hands and the rubberized backing on the device was a nice touch. The Micro SD slot on the device is located in the lower left corner where the Nook?s ?hook? is. In my opinion this is not the best placement for a Micro SD slot as I had some trouble inserting and removing the card.
The software is heavily modified and provides a limited experience. It?s definitely not what I would consider an Android Tablet out of the box. The book reading portion of this works great, it even reads some books to you. Pandora is provided on the Nook Color and it works just as well as it does on any Android device. There are also a few games that come with the device such as Sudoku and Word Search but I honestly did not try any of the games.
There was no Market application on the device and I did not see anything on the Nook?s website that would allow you to download additional applications such as Facebook for Android or even Angry Birds. This was a bit of a disappointment to me because had they included a Market application by default then I think the Nook Color?s potential could be much higher.
So we all know that the Nook Color can be rooted, it can run Froyo from both an SD Card and internal memory. It can even run Honeycomb from an SD Card and internal memory. I decided to root my Nook first. But for some reason I was never able to authenticate with Google so the Market never worked for me. That?s when I decided to try Froyo on SD. It seemed to work fine despite being sluggish. I was however unhappy with how small the icons where considering this is a tablet. The screen also seemed to have some problems registering touch in the correct places. Since I was unhappy with Froyo on SD I decided to install Honeycomb on the internal memory. I followed the steps and within minutes I had Honeycomb up and running. I really liked the interface but market would not download any applications. I tried doing the fix that was suggested but after that market loaded to a white screen with an error box in the background that you could not see but for a split second after exiting the market.
After exploring the above mentioned mods I decided to return the device to stock. First I ended up using the pre-rooted stock and it worked flawless with the exception of not authenticating with Google. I then used the 8 boot method to re-flash the device and followed that up with the data wipe. Now my Nook Color is back to factory condition. I gathered everything that came with my Nook Color and put it back in the packaging along with my receipt. Later today I will return to Best buy and get a refund for this device.
If you are in the market for an Android Tablet I would suggest you stay away from the Nook Color. While it is cheaper than other devices it is currently lacking a stable and efficient operating system from the development community. Don?t get me wrong, I think the work that has been done so far is great but comparing the hacked OS this device has to the Galaxy Tab on the same OS? well it?s like night and day. If you are however in the market for an eReader and would like the added bonus of it having Android, however limited it may be, then this device most certainly be for you.
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