Barnes & Noble spent a number of years going toe to toe with Amazon in the e-reader market and actually produced some pretty nice devices in the process. The last few years, however, have been pretty meager for the bookseller as far as hardware goes, with most of its announcements revolving around reading tablets co-branded with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab stamp.
The latest product from the company, not coincidentally announced a couple of weeks ahead of Black Friday, looks to be competing with Amazon on price, as well — a tough proposition when you’re going up against the reigning champion of consumer hardware subsidies. But well, at the very least, B&N has done a good job keeping the price down on the thing, priced the same as the Fire 7.
The banally named NOOK Tablet 7” is just $50. That price will get you a seven-inch Android tablet (Marshmallow) with all sorts of NOOK software loaded on its 8GB of storage (expandable via microSD). The display is a pretty meh 1024 x 600 (171 ppi) and there are two cameras on board — two-megapixel in the front, five in the rear.
The battery promises up to seven hours on a charge, and the rear sports a somewhat familiar soft touch design with a big NOOK “N.” All in all, pretty unremarkable specs at best, but hey, $50, right? It’s up for pre-order on the Barnes & Nobles site, and starts shipping on Black Friday.