Samsung Galaxy Nook Review
Computing has come a long way in the last few years. Starting with desktops evolving into laptops, it was difficult to see where the technology would move to next. Touch screen phones and e-readers became the norm, and humans being humans, people demanded bigger, better, and faster. South Korean technology goliath Samsung has recently teamed up with the American book retailer Barnes and Noble this year to produce a hybrid e-reader and tablet device named the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. Barnes and Noble is attempting to take over vast swathes of the market with its newest all-in-one product, but can it hold its own against the market leaders in the tablet field?
Technical Specifications
Keeping with recent tradition, this latest 
offering from Samsung is still running an Android OS, namely the latest 4.4 KitKat version. Anyone who has owned anything running this operating system, which according to IDC, was around 84.7 percent of the smart phone market share, will have no issues working it. The user interface hasn’t changed much over time, and people still love it. It comes with a seven inch screen; the same as a Kindle Fire, but coming in short compared to even the smallest of Apple’s iPads. Don’t take the smaller screen size as a representation of its quality though. It has a resolution of 1280 x 800, or 216 pixels per inch. Compare this to the data from Apple regarding its iPads, it falls short of the iPad Air (with retina display) and even the iPad mini (with retina display), as both of these come in at 264 ppi and 326 ppi respectively. It does however beat the regular iPad mini, whose resolution comes in at only 163ppi.
It also comes with expandable memory. As standard, it comes with only 8GB of internal memory, but has the capability of using a MicroSD card to boost it up to 32GB. Pretty standard in the tablet market, but ask yourself this. When was the last time you needed 128GB of storage? Humans are drawn in by large numbers, and will pay out the nose for it, even if it does mean it’s going to waste. If you do require more than the upgraded 32GB of memory, there is always the option to use remote storage. Having the use of Barnes and Noble’s cloud storage, anything you order from the Nook Shop is automatically backed up.
Battery Life
To be perfectly fair to this product, and all others in the market, it’s exactly the same. All of the tablets from Apple offer around 10 hours of battery life, with the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 having a little more at 12, according to Amazon. Considering the price of the product, 10 hours of battery life is a more that respectable.
Price
This really is where the Tab 4 Nook comes into its own. You get change out of $180. There really isn’t much more computing power you can get for this sort of money. The cheapest tablet from Apple is the iPad mini, costing around $300, and to be perfectly honest, you are getting less for your money despite paying over 50 percent more.
The Samsung Nook also doubles as an e-reader, as shown by the support given to it by Barnes and Noble. It beats the new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 by $200. Granted the HDX 8.9 does have a screen that is 1.9 inches larger that the Tab 4 Nook, but is it really worth paying over $100 per extra inch? Especially if you’re going to be using it primarily to read e-books, the lower price of the Nook wins out quite handily.
Speed
Given that the Samsung Nook is working as more than just an e-reader, it’s going to need some serious computing power to compete with the big guns in the market. Boasting 1.5GB of RAM and a 1.2 Ghz Quad-Core Marvell processor, it has more than enough power for your everyday activities, as CNet says.
Additional Extras
Another huge advantage of the Tab 4 Nook is that it uses the industry standard (aside from Apple) micro USB charger. As well as this, the Nook comes with some handy little trinkets. Front and rear facing cameras are equipped, but they are nowhere near the best quality, sitting at only 1.2 MP and 3 MP respectively. The Nook also comes with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities.
Conclusion
To be perfectly honest, there isn’t much more computing power you can get now for such a low price. It blows all of the Apple products out of the water and even the once industry standard e-reader, the Kindle, would struggle compared to this. You also have the added bonus of the Samsung brand name, which has been synonymous with quality on cell phones for many years, and will be reassuring to anyone who wants to part with their hard earned money. A top of the line product for a bottom end price, the Tab 4 Nook is a great buy.