Can someone REVIEW the NOOK COLOR with honeycomb?

[ali.fazal]

Hey all!

I was wondering if a savvy user could do a review of the Nook Color with Honeycomb installed. It seems all articles I find are either from the first few days of the port (when things were super buggy) or are of the Nook Color in general.

I was hoping someone could review the Nook Color AS a Android 3.0 tablet/e-reader and focus on speed, apps, bugs, etc.

I'm interested in buying a Nook Color and putting 3.0 on it and this could help me.

 

[bjordan]

I've had a NC for about 2 weeks and been running the Honeycomb 3.0 (preview 4) ROM on it from an SD card. At first I just tried out Honeycomb to see what it was like. I didn't expect to run it as my daily NC OS.

The preview release of Honeycomb definitely has some issues on the NC. It's not likely to get any better until Google releases the source code for Honeycomb and devs can work from the official source. No one knows when this will happen, but probably within a few weeks to a month.

For what I use my NC for Honeycomb is fine.

Web browsing:

The browser is really nice. I like the tabs, the way it handles bookmarks and the thumb menu navigation (you turn it on in the options and if you touch the side of the screen a menu appears, very handy for 1 handed use).

Occasionally after running the browser for a while I'll notice pages will stop loading and things will hang. If I go into the settings > applications > all and force close the browser everything is fine again. Sometimes I can go days with out the issue sometimes it happens after a few hours.

Tabs are nice. However switching between tabs and closing a tab can be VERY finicky on this build. You have to touch it just right.

The majority of my NC tablet use is browsing the web.

Apps/Games

I only use a few apps and games. I moved them over from my Evo and installed them on my NC. (I haven't bothered rooting and/or installing the market and Google Apps yet, waiting for final).

USA Today (phone version)
CNet
Engadget
Angry Birds (barely play but did test it out and it worked)
Pocket Legends (works great, I play it frequently)
Winamp (works well, the lay out stretches funny but usable)
Kindle (works great)
Adobe PDF (I've read large books on it with out any issues)
Aldiko (seems to be fine, read books on it as well)
XDA app doesn't work, crashes on launch.

The gallery app on this ROM is broken so you can't view images. It was like that on the SDK image this ROM was built from so no way to fix it. I installed QuickPic (an alternate gallery) to get around the issue.

I've noticed a little LAG on this ROM, but not too terrible.

One other small goofy issue is that if the NC sleeps long enough the Wifi will disconnect. It's not a big deal though, but sometimes when you go past the lock screen you have to wait 10 to 20 seconds for the network to reconnect. It's a minor annoyance though (and I think you can work around it with a screen unlocker)

While Honeycomb meets my personal needs (even with the issues in this build) it may not be for everyone). With it likely being a month (at the soonest) to a little longer before the source is released and a better ROM appears. I've considered switching to the Froyo ROM. So far this ROM is doing everything I need though, which is why I haven't switched.

I hope that helps. I'll be happy to try anything out on the NC for you and/or answer any questions I can.

 

[mwoelmer]

+1 to bjordan's post. I agree with everything he said. I also didn't expect to use HC as my daily NC OS. The interface on HC is so nice, I can't bring myself to load my froyo SD card. I have HC installed on a class 10 8GB SD. No issues with the market. Angry Birds, AB Seasons, and tons of other apps installed fine.

Another nice feature is I use Chrome on my laptop, and the browser of HC syncs bookmarks between the two. Awesome!

Also a note on performance. HC is much more responsive than Froyo. I was getting frustrated with the touch screen responsiveness on Froyo. With HC, the touchscreen is very responsive. Neither one of my OSs are overclocked.

What doesn't work. The nookdevs.com wiki has a good list of stuff that doesn't work. The biggest for me is the youtube app. You have to quickly un-select high quality in order for anything to play.

 

[vegeta_2123]

and the galery works if you hold down the app and select slide show but QuickPik is easier

 

[eric6052]

Thanks for the write up. I rooted my Nook Color but i'm still using the stock 2.1 with ADW installed on top of it. I thought about going with Honeycomb build but decided to wait till its more functional. It does everything I need in a tablet now so I can afford to be patient.

 

[Terrigno]

Im in the same boat as you. I tried Froyo on an SD card and I refuse to give a good review on that one at all. It was just plain horrible to me. HC I had also for a while and that was nice. But since Im not 100% advanced with doing things, I couldnt get the Market on it and the lag at times was just frustrating to me. So I stuck with Rooted 2.1 for now and I have everything working. All Google apps, gmail, calendar and youtube. ADW Launcher EX is sweet on the Nook. Other then that, If I had to ride with it just the way it is I would be fine. Cause it performs pretty nice this way. But I do know the real honeycomb will be comming soon and Im excited about that. Beause the HC Preview is really nice indeed once it gets ironed out.

 

[roberto]

I have tried both Froyo and Honeycomb running on SD cards and prefer Honeycomb, but I agree that it is not ready for prime time. I use rooted stock 2.1 Eclair firmware for everyday use and will continue to do so until Honeycomb comes a bit further along.

 

[aviduser]

Thanks for sharing your views of HC on the nook. I am running stock rooted, but will wait for a more stable HC. Am looking forward to it.

FWIW, I plan to flash it and wipe the B&N ROM. Don't need it at all.

avid

 

[coolVariable]

I aboslutely LOVE HC on the nookcolor.
My only issue is the speed, though I am running it from a class 2 microSD, so I expect that to be one of the reasons for the slow speed.

So far I have only come across the following issues:
- market is missing some apps
- youtube doesn't work
- pain in the A, to get files to the nook, since it won't mount when connected via USB