The tablet war has taken a new twist as the Barnes and Noble Nook HD+ and Nook HD tablets look set to take on the likes of the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Fire HD here in the UK.
The entry-level model of the range is the Nook HD, which weighs in at 315g and measures 194.4 x 127.1 x 11mm in size.
Like the Amazon Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7 before it, the Nook HD is a 7-inch tablet but differs by virtue of having the best resolution of all, coming in at 1440 x 900 pixels and at 243ppi (pixels per inch).
Powered by a dual-core 1.3GHz Texas Instruments processor and backed by 1GB of RAM, you’ll find there will be two variants on offer, one with 8GB and a second 16GB version.
The battery is claimed to last up to 10.5 hours when reading and capable of handling up to 9 hours of video playback.
The Nook HD is set to cost £159 (inc. VAT) for the 8GB version and £189 (inc. VAT) for the more generous 16GB version. Set to launch in the US late in October, it will go on sale here in the UK in November.
Barnes and Noble also announced the Nook HD+, which is a larger version with 9-inch display that boasts an impressive 1920 x 1280-pixel resolution. The Nook HD+ has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and comes in two storage sizes, 16GB and 32GB.
With Wi-Fi built into both the Nook HD and the Nook HD+ you’ll be able to access over 3 million books, magazines, and newspapers, which includes over 1 million free titles, and have them downloaded in seconds to your device.
Sadly, no UK launch date has been set for the Nook HD+ so we’ll have to content ourselves with the entry-level version for now.