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# Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nJgKAkti.m3u8" -->
## Video: Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire?

[Watch (HLS stream): Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nJgKAkti.m3u8) (2:01)

![Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/nJgKAkti/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2011-11-21. Tablets just got a whole lot more interesting with the $199 Kindle Fire and the $249 Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. Which one is best?_


---

Jul 27, 2023 3:19 PM UTC

---

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### How to Choose a Kindle

---


## Transcript

Which one's better. The $ 200 Amazon Kindle Fire, or the $ 250 Barnes & Noble Nook tablet? Let's look at the hardware. The Nook wins this round. It's got a better overall build quality. It's got dedicated volume buttons. It's got double the RAM. It's got double the storage. And, the storage can be expanded by inserting a memory card. Kindle Fire, on the other hand is a relatively pedestrian slab that has no dedicated volume buttons. It's got no expandable memory slot. The power button is inexplicably located on the bottom of the device, right where you'd hold the tablet while reading a book. As far as average battery life, I was able to get about six hours out of the Kindle Fire, about seven hours out of the Nook Tablet.

So as far as the hardware goes, advantage Nook Tablet. Now onto software. The Kindle Fire has a more intuitive and fun interface, while the Nook Tablet has some cool integration with various media. The Nook tablet's web browser is snappier, while the Kindle Fire's browser has tabs. The Kindle Fire's keyboard has a very useful row with special characters, and a quick way to enter numbers, while the Nook Tablet's keys are spaced out better for simple text entry. So advantage, neither, or both. Now as for content, Amazon sells digital music, movies, and TV shows directly, and its app store has a wider selection of apps and offers a free app each day.

By comparison, the Nook Tablet's app store features a much more tightly curated selection of apps and you'll have to load your music and videos on the device itself or use one of several streaming apps. The Nook Tablet, however, makes for a better overall reading experience, especially for magazines and children's books which are full of cool interactive features. You can use the Nook Tablet's microphone to record yourself reading your kids' favorite books. But for overall content, advantage Kindle Fire. So which tablet is better, that depends. The Kindle Fire wins on price by 50 bucks, but the Nook Tablet gets you snappier performance, better build quality, slightly longer battery life and in person support at Barnes & Noble retail stores.

The Kindle Fire wins for overall content, especially music, movies and apps. Well the Nook Tablet wins for reading content, especially if you like magazines or have young kids.

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