Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet 16GB, Wi-Fi, 7in - Silver

It's OK, but barely so.

The GOOD: Price, form factor, battery life. You can certainly read books!

The BAD: Very slow connectivity, even in my hotsy-totsy wireless environment; Klutzy interface... there is really no notion of "Go back"... it's been replaced by "Start over from scratch". Much of the time, you can't go back to a prior screen.

The DOWNRIGHT UGLY: Its sole purpose is to so unabashedly sell trendy books. movies, and magazines that it smacks you across the face. It's like an auto manufacturer saying, "Hey - it DRIVES. You want AIR CONDITIONING, TOO??"

This is an Android machine... sort-of. There are tens of thousands of Android apps out there, but don't worry none... you can't get most of 'em. You can only get what B&N wants you to have, and that's books, books, books... that they sell... oh, and music and video that they sell. And the occasional app that helps you buy more books, music, and movies that they sell.

Skype? Fuggedaboudit. YouTube [except on the browser]? Silly question. FAA Instrument approach chart / real-time weather apps? Silly boy! CPA Prep courses available on all of Android's other, "real", franchises? I laugh on you! Stanza [app for open source classical literature]? Huh? Nevah hoid ofit.

Then there are the bugs. I'll mention the top 3, to save space.

1) The roulette wheel tap of death... about 5% of the time [a huge number] a tap will take you ANYWHERE you want to go except where you expect. Pretty annoying after you've just typed in a long password for your bank access, and you suddenly get into the MOVIES menu!

2) Highlight hijinks... I'm studying to renew my flight instructor certificate. I laboriously downloaded the FAA Practical Test Guide to my desktop, then schlepped it over as a PDF [you can't do this natively], then tried to highlight. YES - you can highlight. NO - you can't highlight what you WANT. It randomly changes the highlight boundaries AFTER you take your fingers off! I gave up after 10 minutes.

3) Email adventures... I created an email account, downloaded from my server, deleted the junk, went to TRASH, deleted again, then went back to my IN box. The screen strobed 11 times, then all the junk was back in my IN box again! Four tries later, I guessed it was there to stay. This does NOT happen on my desktop, laptop, or iPhone, and it did NOT happen on my old company iPad. So email is largely useless on the Nook.

I "get it" about needing to make money, and I applaud B&N for trying to keep the stockholders happy. I also "get it" that they are historically a bookseller with no real corporate clues about this whole 21st Century thing. But come on, guys - there is a lot of marketing talent out there, and a few recent Wharton MBAs could have fixed you up over lunch! Nobody would accuse Steve Jobs of having shirked the whole money thing, for example. He opened his iPad up to all the apps that wouldn't crash it, and made a gazillion dollars selling iPads anyway!

You see, it's like this... if you LOOK like a smartypants innovator, people LIKE that, and then they don't feel so bad about buying your overpriced music. On the other hand, if you LOOK like a sleazy used car salesman, then the only diehard supporters you'll get are the ones for whom that makes no difference.

Yes, I know... for $200, you don't get phone, camera, magnetometer, aneroid sensor, or other infrastructure needed for some of the snarkiest Android apps. But I think they could have done MUCH, MUCH better!

I was a little concerned that the screen size would not really be conducive to web browsing or watching videos, but I am thrilled to say I WAS WRONG! This is a great mini-tablet. Needs to be rooted to gain full access to the android market; but well worth the effort required.

Taking photos with this device is not a priority for me, so I do not miss that feature.

The processor is lightening fast and the color is so superior to Kindle. It is light as a feather and the battery lasts forever. Wifi is easy to set-up, initiates a strong, fast connection. Be sure to buy an anti-glare screen protector, then you'll be able to read the content any where. Also, buy a good quality, HD storage card and you'll be set for a long time.

If you are thinking about buying a mini-tablet, get this one, you will not regret it.

This is not an iPad...but I didn't want an iPad, so it fits my needs perfectly. At $199 for the 8GB, this is a great deal for a very capable device. I leave my laptop at home most of the time now because of my Nook. It has changed my reading habits (for the better). I'm not an app wh0re, so not having a bazillion apps doesn't bother me. What apps are offered in the growing Nook app store is plenty for me, and there are a lot of useful ones there. There are a lot of free ones, and a lot more that are 99 cents. People moan about 99 cents like it's $50 dollars or something. If you whine about paying less than the price of a Coke for an app, then you probably don't need it. Sheesh.

Reading is a dream on this device. Web browsing is not quite at fluid as with my laptop, but it works very well. Netflix as an app isn't as smooth as I expected, but once a movie is playing it looks and plays amazingly! The fire and the iPad both lack an SD slot, and this feature makes the Nook significant. I have QuickOffice on mine, and it syncs with googledocs and dropbox automatically and works very well as a tabled office suite. My laptop no longer goes with me to meetings/trainings because of my Nook.

The people who are whining about the Nook not being open to the android market: Seriously? Did you bother doing some simple research before buying this device? For the price, the Nooks are a bargain, but of course you are tied to the Nook store. It's a simple business model that is not unique to B&N. If having an open tablet is that important to you, then spend more or just root your Nook. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't understand what they are buying before tossing money at the counter.

Not an iPad, the android system is lacking. The only good thing about it is the size and weight. You could only download books from B&N which is very limiting. Yes you can load music from your iTunes library but not any apps or movies. I have the new iPad , just save up to buy it and forget about the nook.

Seriously people? You're upset that you're locked into a device with proprietary software?

It's called revenue stream. You buy B&N's device, you get a decent tablet for dirt cheap by comparison to other tablets, and its primary purpose is to market B&N content to you. You either know this going in, or you're completely thick.

The fact is, many of the apps ARE free that allow you to access other services, like Pandora, Netflix, Hulu, etc. You pay for small-timer apps because that's the business model: app developers pay to get IN the market (Android, B&N, Amazon, etc.), so they have every right to charge you for their app if they want to. B&N doesn't require apps to be paid.

i'm not a terribly big fan of the actual hardware of the tablet (no camera, limp processor, etc.), but why so many people make such a stink about the software is beyond me. If you want more, pay more & get a full-fledged tablet. The Nook, Kindle Fire, etc. are media services devices. You pay less for the device so you'll pay more over time for content.