New dual-core Barnes&Noble Nook Tablet with Android announced, costs $249

Barnes&Noble has just announced an upgraded version of the widely popular Nook Color. Unassumingly called the Nook Tablet, it uses the same 7″ VividView IPS LCD screen with 1024×600 pixels resolution. It has nearly 180 degrees viewing angles and is fully laminated for minimal reflections and glares.

The Nook Tablet uses the Nook Color body, but has a completely different core – a TI OMAP 4430 chipset with a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, a PowerVR SGX540 GPU and 1GB RAM. The internal storage is 16GB, expandable via microSD card slot. The new hardware means that HD video playback is easily possible with the Nook tablet.

Barnes&Noble Tablet runs on a highly customized version of Android v2.3 Gingerbread and comes with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, etc. integration.

Quite expectedly, the Nook Tablet doesn’t have access to the proper Android Market, there’s just the Barns&Nobles proprietary content and app store.

The Nook Tablet will compete directly with the Amazon’s Kindle Fire and costs $249. Barnes&Noble is already taking pre-orders, while the first units will hit the retail stores at November 18.

The Nook Color’s firmware will be soon updated with similar one to the newly announced Nook Tablet, so both gadgets will have fair access to all available services and stores. The Nook Color is now available for $199.

Finally, the smallest Barnes&Noble reader had also been updated (and renamed). It is now called Nook Simple Touch and has 25% faster E-Ink display, crisper text and longer battery life. It has a new price too – just $99.

If you want to know more and place an order, just hit the source link below.

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