Three days ago Good e-Reader broke the news that Barnes and Noble was extending their partnership with Samsung and going to release the Galaxy S2 for Nook. It looks like I was right and the Nations largest bookseller announced the news officially today.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 for Nook is available today for $400, which is a bit on the pricier side. The tablet features an 8 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels with 320 PPI.
Underneath the hood is a Octacore processor featuring a Quad-core 1.9 GHz & quad-core 1.3 GHz. There will be 3G of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage and an SD card that supports up to 128 GB of extra memory. You will be able to take pictures via the rear facing 8 MP camera or employ the front-facing 2 MP camera for video conferencing.
What is surprising about this new tablet is that it continues to maintain exclusive Samsung branding and does not even have the Nook logo anywhere on the hardware. If you were to put the stock Samsung Galaxy S2 8.0 from B&N and the Samsung branded one side by side, you wouldn’t notice any difference.
Barnes and Noble is making this tablet their own, in the same way the did with the Samsung Galaxy Tab for Nook 7 and 10 inch models released last year. They have a number of customized apps on the home screen, such as a library, e-book reader and digital bookstore. This apps are entirely unique to this tablet and aren’t available on Google Play.
Barnes & Noble offers all customers who purchase a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK to choose complimentary NOOK content including: three books from a selection of 20 great titles featuring favorites such as The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates, Think Big, Act Bigger by Jeffrey Hayzlett and On A Night Like This by Barbara Freethy, and three magazines from a selection of more than 25 popular publications such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Food Network Magazine. Customers will also receive a $5 credit to help them get started as they explore the expansive NOOK Store through this promotion that runs through the end of the year
This is the best tablet Barnes and Noble has ever released, in terms of overall specs and hardware performance. One of the advantages you will have purchasing this from the bookstore is that if you have any questions, concerns or warranty issues you can bring it right to the shop you purchased it from and get immediate support.
The question is, will you buy this $400 tablet from Barnes and Noble?
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
