I’ve been wanting a tablet for a few months, even more so after CES ended and 100′s of tablets where debuted. The problem is, I don’t want to purchase a $600 tablet, only to be disappointed in a few months when something twice as good is released. Thus, I decided not to get the Galaxy Tab. The tablet era is just beginning and I simply refuse to be stuck in the past!  The device I dream about has not been created yet and I hope at least by next year I may be able to purchase it. But until then, I wanted something to hold me over.

My dear friend @thedudesandroid knew my tablet wishes and suggested I purchase a NOOKcolor. He had been using his rooted one a few days, and gave it his stamp of approval. Hearing such praise on a $250 device, I went out the next day and purchased one. I was very excited to see what I could do to make this device mine. That was almost a month ago, and I still have NO regrets!

Let me start off with, I did not buy this “e-reader” to read books from. Don’t get me wrong, if I was a book reader this would be the only way to go. However, I am not  so I bought it to use as an Android tablet, or as I have been calling it my “giant EVO”. I spent a few days with my NOOK before I rooted it. What really sets this E-Reader apart from others, is that it runs Android. Straight out of the box you basically can use the NOOKcolor for three functions: E-reading, listening to Pandora, and web browsing. Now beware, when you are e-reading there is no back button! Pandora however I was quite impressed with, it looks great on the 7 inch screen. You can tell by the UI that you are using Android, but instead of having a pull down notfication bar at the top of your screen.

One click notification bar

The NOOK has a one click notification bubble that is accessed in the lower left hand corner. As mentioned above, some screens do not have a back button option. Pressing the home key to go back, get’s quite old. The time with my unrooted NOOK was basically spent browsing the world wide web.  I fooled a bit with the Barnes and Noble store, and quickly lost interest. I wanted my gmail app, I wanted my twitter app, I wanted applications…I WANTED MORE.

My plan with my NOOKie was to always root it. I had been reading up on nookdevs.com for a few days and was quite comfortable in the process it was going to take to open up my tablet to the Android world. The root process took probably 30 minutes, and it was fairly simple. After the intial root, a few steps are required and these need to be followed very closely. After the steps are completed, the Android Market is open for your enjoyment. Youtube is also another perk after root, it is sized just for the 7 inch screen. It looks great and videos play flawlessly! Games are also great on this device! ToyShop has by far been my fav, and is a great example of what I hope to see more of for bigger screen Android devices.

Battery life on this tablet is incredible. It is WIFI only so it doesn’t have to constantly search for a tower signal, this saves tremendous battery juice. Shown above you can see that my NOOK had been unplugged 118 hours. This is light/moderate usage, pretty darn impressing!

After rooting, unfortunetly you will be running Android 2.1. However, there have been MAJOR accomplishes in the rooted NOOK world. Including being able to run Froyo (2.2) which many are currently doing. There also have been  reports of Honeycomb showing up! This is great because Android 3.0 is designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes! Since this tab comes with a very reasonable price tag, I can only expect great developmental achievements to come.

Are there better tablets out there? Of course. The nook does not have GPS, any type of camera, and of course you can not technically make phone calls on it. (You are able to enable bluetooth and use Skype.) To me, I am fine with that at this time. When the tablet I want to spend $600+ is released, I will be one of the first to purchase it. As of right now, I am just excited to have such a great sized screen that gives me a little bit more PC capabilities then my phone does. The bigger screen is great on web pages, and the on screen keyboard is function-able, I have written a couple articles from it. I am very satisfied with my purchase and the NOOK’s performance so far. I highly recommend this device and believe any gal or guy wouldn’t be disappointed in the money invested.

Your favorite website looks great on a NOOKColor

Stacie is the Associate Editor of AndroidGals and lives in Wichita KS with her geeky AndroidGuy Drew and their three puppies. She loves modding her Android devices and is a huge fan of CyanogenMod. She is involved in quite a few Android related projects including helping out with the Big Android BBQ, and any Android fun that comes her way. Away from the site she enjoys riding her Andy green Kawasaki ZX-10, or on the back of her and Drew's VMAX!

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