Cheap Tablet Computers

The Amazon Kindle Fire versus the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

There are numerous cheap tablets available -- a quick look through Google Shopping will display more than 40 brands, but reviewers say that for the most part, inexpensive tablets don't provide nearly the performance or user experience of better tablets such as the Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, though their low cost could make them a good gift for kids or teens. With the increasingly crowded tablet marketplace, many professional reviewers are no longer covering budget tablets.

That said, two low-price, 7-inch tablet PCs have drawn positive attention: the Amazon Kindle Fire (*Est. $200) and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet (*Est. $250) . Analysts say both manufacturers will lose money selling the hardware itself but stand to make the money back on digital media purchases, thanks to the robust ecommerce ecosystems that are heavily integrated into the two tablets. So they're cheap, but are they worthwhile?

The Amazon Kindle Fire

One thing no critic is particularly impressed with is the look of the Kindle Fire. It's a simple black square with a glossy screen. Several reviewers comment on its similarity to the BlackBerry PlayBook, which wins no design awards. Build quality, on the other hand, is strong for a budget tablet, experts say. Likewise, the bright, clear 1,024-by-600-pixel, IPS display outshines those on other budget slates, although several critics note that it is prone to glare and isn't as comfortable for long reading sessions as the cheaper Kindles' E Ink screens. The speakers are both located on the same side of the tablet, so audio sounds a bit monotone, but experts report that the volume reaches high levels and is relatively crisp.

Under the hood, the Kindle Fire runs on a dual-core, 1 GHz, Texas Instruments OMAP4 processor and 512 MB of RAM. It also comes with a scant 8 GB of storage space, with only 6.5 GB available to users -- a fact that irks some reviewers, especially as the Kindle Fire is billed mostly as a media consumption device, and media fills up hard-disk space quickly. Amazon compensates for the diminutive drive by offering free cloud-based storage for any content you purchase through Amazon and up to 5 GB of free storage for outside content. Streaming music or video doesn't consume storage space, but it does require an active Internet connection. Be aware that the Kindle Fire is Wi-Fi only, with no Bluetooth or 3G/4G capabilities.

The Kindle Fire runs a heavily polished version of Android's Gingerbread operating system. Though that helps create an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand user interface, it also locks users out of the full Android experience, including Google's Play Store for apps, though Amazon's smaller app store is fully accessible.

The home screen consists of a few basic options at the top of the screen -- Newsstand, Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps and Web -- with a large, scrolling carousel-type interface of your most recently viewed content taking up the middle of the display. A small bookshelf-style area where you can pin your favorite apps and content is available at the bottom of the screen. Critics give the clean, easy to understand interface high marks overall, calling it simple and functional.

"I can't emphasize this 'ease of use' thing enough," Sascha Segan writes at PCMag.com, en route to giving the tablet an Editors' Choice award. "More than anything else, that's what's been holding non-iPad tablets back. Amazon cracked it. End of story."

It's easy to buy new music, movies, magazines and books from Amazon.com, reviewers report, and Kindle Fire comes with a free one-month subscription to Amazon Prime, which allows users to stream 11,000 videos at no extra cost. After that, an Amazon Prime subscription, which also includes access to a one-book-a-month lending library and free two-day shipping on all eligible purchases (some Marketplace purchases do not qualify) costs $80 per year. A much wider TV and movie collection is available with a la cart pricing, however.

While users can't tap into the general Google Play Store, a bevy of media streaming apps -- including Pandora, Hulu Plus, Netflix, MLB At Bat and more -- are available in Amazon's curated app store. Non-media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter and the Angry Birds game, are also available. All of the e-reader functionality found in the other Kindle models (find more details in our report on eBook readers) remain implemented on the tablet, although Wired's Jon Phillips says that magazine pages, which are typically designed to 8.5-by-11-inch size, "are rendered illegibly small" when scaled down on the Kindle Fire's 3.5-by-6-inch screen.

A basic email app and Amazon's Silk Web browser are onboard, but critics say neither is a knock-out performer, especially when compared against the iPad or iPad 2. Amazon says Silk taps into Amazon's cloud servers to improve browsing speeds; reviewers say they notice no such upgrade.

Overall performance is generally speedy, but the Kindle Fire suffers from occasional glitches. Laptop Magazine reviewer Mark Spoonauer sometimes needed to tap an app multiple times to get it to open, and he reports that Silk crashed twice. The keyboard also struggled to keep up with his keyboard commands from time to time. CNET reports that the multitouch display only registers two fingers; touching the screen with a third makes it stop responding. PC World's Melissa J. Perenson reports similar issues.

Lag is also an issue. "I said the Fire is very responsive, most of the time," Gizmodo.com's Sam Biddle says. "Most of the time, yes. But when it's not, it's awful."

All in all, most reviewers say the Kindle Fire is well worth the $200, as long as you realize it is more a media consumption device than a full-fledged tablet. It does have its flaws -- the lack of GPS, connectivity ports, Bluetooth, 3G, a camera or an SD card slot are specifically mentioned -- but experts say the Kindle Fire delivers polish and content for a price that's mainstream enough for many consumers. Tablet users who need more versatility or bigger data-crunching chops should look elsewhere, however.

The Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

Reviews are also generally positive for the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. The base version costs $50 more than the Kindle Fire, but it doubles the memory and storage space of its competitor (to 1 GB and 16 GB, respectively). An 8 GB Nook Tablet (*Est. $200) is also available at the same price as the Kindle Fire. Barnes & Noble's marketing department has been quick to point out the memory and storage advantages, but early reviewers say the increased storage space has a major caveat: Only 1 GB of it is available for user content. Three of the 16 GB are reserved for system use, while 12 GB is set aside for content you purchase directly from Barnes & Noble and its anticipated music and movie partnerships. A microSD card slot allows you to add up to 32 GB of supplemental storage, but the limitation  rankles many critics.

"It was misleading of Barnes & Noble to promote and represent the Nook Tablet as having 16GB of storage when in fact the company shipped the tablet a rounding error shy of a full 1GB that consumers can actually access," PC World writes. However, Barnes & Noble is allowing Nook Tablet 16 GB owners to bring their tablets into the brick and mortar stores and have their hard drive repartitioned to create more room for personal content. After the alteration, the tablet has 8 GB of personal storage and 5.5 GB of space dedicated for Barnes & Noble content.

Physically, the Nook Tablet gets a consensus thumbs-up. "Easily the most attractive 7-inch tablet on the market, the Nook Tablet makes the Kindle Fire look like a chunky obelisk," Avram Piltch writes at Laptop Magazine. The rounded, silver aesthetic pleases critics, who also say the soft rubber on the back is extremely comfortable. It's lightweight for a tablet at 14.2 ounces.

Reviewers universally report that the mono speaker is weak and detracts from music and movie-watching, and Laptop Magazine reports that laying the tablet on a flat surface muffles the sound more. Visually, the screen uses the same 1,024-by-600-pixel resolution as the Kindle, and it earns high marks for clarity, viewing angles, color and black levels, but once again, some of Barnes & Noble's advertised claims leave critics calling foul. In this case, it's Barnes & Noble 's claim of "HD movie and TV shows."

"The lowest-quality format for HD video is known as 720p. That means that its picture is composed of 1,280 by 720 rows and lines of pixels (tiny dots). The Nook Tablet simply doesn't have enough pixels to show that," David Pogue writes at The New York Times. Barnes & Noble countered that the Nook Tablet can decode 720p and 1080p video and display them at the tablet's resolution for an improved picture over standard definition content, which Pogue concedes. "But all sides can agree on one thing: the Nook Tablet cannot, in fact, display full high definition," he writes.

Hulu Plus and Netflix are onboard for streaming video. There are no offline video or music options available from Barnes & Noble.

The user interface is solid, critics report, calling it snappy, responsive and efficiently laid out. Like the Kindle Fire, it also contains a carousel of recently used items and shortcuts to major content types, including music, movies, books, etc.. Finding apps can be a bit difficult, TechCrunch.com's John Biggs writes, because of the heavy integration with the Barnes & Noble ebook store, which contains more than 2 million ebooks; searching for an app by name often results in a flood of book results. The curated Barnes & Noble app store only has around 3,500 apps -- most of which carry premium prices -- the apps reviewers search for often aren't included among those book results.

The Nook Tablet works great as an e-reader. Experts say it's on par with the Barnes & Noble Nook Color (*Est. $200) , which we cover in our eBook readers report, in terms of clarity. Illustrated magazines, comics and kid's books look especially good on the Nook Tablet's colorful screen. Kid's books also contain an interesting feature called Read & Record, which allows users to read the onscreen words and have the tablet record it for future playback. That way, children can listen to their parents reading the story, even when their parents aren't around.

As with the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet is at its best when used for ebook reading or media consumption, critics say. "Users looking to do real multitasking, lots of e-mail, and superior web surfing and social networking should opt for a 7-inch tablet with Android 3.2 Honeycomb such as the … Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus," Piltch writes at Laptop Magazine. On the budget front, most reviews give the Kindle Fire the slight edge thanks to Amazon's superior movie and music selection, although CNET's David Carnoy notes that the Nook Tablet and its microSD slot could appeal more to consumers who don't have consistent Wi-Fi access or don't want to live with their head (and content) in Amazon's cloud.