Barnes & Noble Nook HD vs Kindle Fire HD

Earlier this week, Barnes & Noble unveiled its next line of tablets, the Nook HD and Nook HD+. Along with its recent launch of Nook Video, consumers are seeing a new Barnes & Noble that looks poised and ready to make a bigger splash in the tablet market.

Previously, the Nook did not sell as well as its direct competitor, the Kindle Fire from Amazon; but how will it fair this time? This holoday season, the Nook HD is going to have to go up against the recently-announced Kindle Fire HD. This will leave gift buyers scratching their heads trying to decide between them.

Here's a complete chart that showcases how the specs of these tablets are going to compare, with the third-generation iPad included for good measure:

The Verdict

Barnes & Noble Nook HD+On paper at least, there won't be a huge gap between the Nook HD/HD+ and the Kindle Fire HD; however, the Barnes & Noble offering will provide slightly better features. The Nook series is going to offer faster processors, better screen resolution, a sleeker package, and -- most importantly -- expandable memory.

There will be some downsides to the Nook as well: it won't include a camera (meaning no video chat functionality) and there won't be a 4G LTE option, both of which will be offered on the Kindle Fire HD.

While it seems these tablets are going to offer good utility for their prices, there is still a noticeable gap between the featuresets of Barnes and Noble's and Amazon's offerings and the high-end tablets, such as Apple's iPad 3.