Amazon’s Kindle Fire vs. Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief September 29, 2011 · 2 min read

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And we thought Amazon’s Kindle Fire was something revolutionary for a tablet until we found out Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color actually started it all. Let’s look at how much different, or alike, the Kindle Fire is to the Nook Color.

Shipped way back in November 2010, the Nook Color is essentially a 7-inch Android tablet disguised as a colored e-Reader and has since sold more than 3 million units.

Barnes & Noble Nook Color
7-inch IPS multi-touch display @ 1024×600 pixel
TI ARM Cortex-A8 800MHz
512MB RAM
8GB internal memory
up to 32GB via microSD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
micro-USB port
3.5mm audio jack
up to 8 hours battery life
Adobe Flash support
Nook Apps (custom Android 2.2)
Price: $249

There are actually several ways to install Android (including Honeycomb) to the Nook Color. PC Mag has outlined three methods here, including the very easy N2A Card that runs CyanogenMod via the microSD card.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire improved on what the Nook Color already started, including a bump in the processor (1GHz dual-core). The rest of the specs are actually almost the same.

Amazon Kindle Fire
7-inch IPS multi-touch display @ 1024Ã—600 pixel
1.0GHz TI OMAP4 dual-core
512MB RAM
8GB internal storage
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
micro-USB 2.0 port
3.5mm audio jack
Amazon App Store
Android 2.3.5
up to 8 hours battery life
Price: $199

Can we dare say Amazon actually copied the Nook Color?

With the release of the Kindle Fire on November 15, we’re expecting the Nook Color to actually drop to the same or lower than $199.

It’s also rumored that Barnes & Noble is preparing to launch the Nook Color 2 to compete with the Kindle Fire.

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kindle fire nook color

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

8,006 Articles

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28 Comments

Jean · 14 years ago

Now that Nook Tablet is out, I will definitely prefer Nook over Kindle!

Nook tablet was released almost at the same time as Kindle Fire. But without so much buzz. By reading reviews, there are lots of drawbacks with Kindle Fire primarily for being slow but with Nook tablet, with its improved dual core processor its definitely smooth.

And besides, Amazon doesn’t accept Paypal for payments! It’s already expected though since Paypal is under eBay which is a direct competitor of Amazon. But I can’t purchase the ebooks I want in Amazon since I’m too paranoid to use a credit card, so I guess Nook is more preferable. Barnes and Noble accepts Paypal.

Leesa Ebookna · 14 years ago

Hi Mia, if you’re an epub reader like me you can side load the Nook App in Fire. I’m just wondering why is the Nook App’s reading interface is better than the Fire’s reader?

Please see comparison here:
http://ebookna.multiply.com/photos/album/375/Kindle_Fire_with_Apps

Eddy · 15 years ago

The Kindle Fire’s main selling point is providing digital content. I think this is where it differs from other Android-powered tablets. Can’t wait to get my hand on this. It’s EC2 could pose some privacy concerns though.

Mai · 15 years ago

I’d buy the Kindle Fire WHEN it supports the EPUB format. Probably when it gets rooted, hehe.

hanjo · 15 years ago

“And we thought Amazonâ€™s Kindle Fire was something revolutionary for a tablet until we found out Barnes & Nobleâ€™s Nook Color actually started it all.”

guess it shows that ereaders are not that popular in the philippines. i have been aware of the nook color since they launched it. i was hoping that you’d also get into covering reviews on ereaders but so far (if i’m not mistaken, but correct me if im wrong) you have only an article about the kindle 3. are ebook readers really that rarely sold in manila? im in the province so i don’t know and i got my sony prs-650 when an aunt came home from canada.
if it’s not much of a trouble, i hope you might consider looking out for ebook readers available in the stores there in manila and “report” sightings like you usually do about other tech products. you already know kindle and barnes and noble. other popular brands are sony, kobo, bebook, pandigital, iriver, and aluratek but there are lots of others.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 15 years ago

It’s mainly because of their availability, or lack thereof, of ereaders in the Philippines. They’re not that popular locally.

Abigail · 15 years ago

Hi Sir Yuga,
Is it just me or is it there some kind of bug in the other Amazon Fire/Touch blog post.

Personally though Id love the Kindle Touch but you know I’ve been struggling with the browser of Kindle 3. Its soo slow and if I like click on it too many times it hangs.

So, Id buy a Kindle Fire instead.haha.

Kyle · 15 years ago

If the Kindle Fire does indeed use an OMAP 4430 or 4460, it’s essentially a Blackberry PlayBook without the camera — albeit a better one at that! Even the general impression of the screen of the Fire is better than the PlayBook’s (Engadget has side by side comparo pics).

At $199 and iPad-level specs (sans the camera, optional 3G and faster GPU), I’m expecting this to force Apple’s hand in the future in terms of pricing. It’s a shame though that this is only in America. Though I’ll be definitely importing one as I’m expecting a Cyanogen mod in the future, as with the Nook Color.

benchmark · 15 years ago

Sir Yuga under Amazon Kindle Fire

WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
micro-“USB” 2.0 port
3.5mm audio jack

garz · 15 years ago

what??

ckyboy · 15 years ago

This will spell doom for the Playbook!

Leesa Ebookna · 14 years ago

You’re soooo right! Playbooks went on sale for $199 at Best Buy and other US Retailers last Black Friday!

Andre · 15 years ago

I think though the service behind it from Amazon is a much better offer

hanjo · 15 years ago

barnes & Noble has been offering most of those services for quite some time now. amazon followed suit. but based on the device alone, nook color is better with its microSD slot. after all, if you wanna be mobile, you’d wanna be able to bring your files with you. though the amazon offers cloud services, it’s only for your amazon digital content. also the nook color supports more formats including MS doc., docx, ppt. xls which is nice if you want to have with you your personal files. as for the kindle, you will have to email your documents for conversion to Kindle readable material. but of course, with an app, you may be able to just do something about it but then you have to have a pc when transferring files. a wifi connection becomes very important for kindle but with the nook color, it’s not as important and you not even need it.
when i was on the lookout for a good ereader, it’s only my preference for e-ink and longer battery life that made me choose sony-prs 650 over the nook color to think they have the same price.
then again, it’s just my opinion. im looking at both from the perspective of a person who considers these two mainly as ereaders and not tablets. after all, they are from companies who sell books.