B&N $50 Practiscore tablet

[jester121]

The Barnes & Noble 7" android tablet is back in stock at stores, though not online. It was released in Nov 2016 and promptly recalled due to faulty chargers. Apparently that's been resolved.

 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nook-tablet-7-inch-barnes-noble/1124589342?ean=9781400501656

 

I bought one for evaluation, and so far it seems a decent Practiscore option if you don't want to go the more expensive iPad or Galaxy Tab route.

 

Some highlights:
 

• Battery life claim is "7+ hours of web surfing" which makes me thing it might get through a daylong USPSA match running Practiscore. I haven't done empirical testing, but it seems like the battery lasts pretty well, and there are some power optimizations built in that might help.
• It is a pretty vanilla Android OS, and it's simple enough to hide all the B&N crap software as well as the Google stuff that isn't needed.
• Touch sensitivity/accuracy seems fine for Practiscore, without the hassles of the Nook (dust, rain). Processor is plenty fast.
• The screen is pretty decent, even in bright sunlight. Not sure how it will fare with blazing desert sun coming straight down, but it seemed manageable for a sunny day. Has built-in features for "high contrast" and "inverse colors" to improve visibility in bright sunshine.
• It's 50 friggin dollars.

 

Downers:
 

• Likely impossible to use with polarized glasses -- at least the ones I was wearing were 90 degrees out of phase from the LCD screen, so I couldn't see anything at all. 
• It's not 25 dollars.

 

I'll update later with more feedback once I've done some further testing with Practiscore (hot, cold, battery metrics, etc.)

Edited February 24, 2017 by jester121

[euxx]

How does it compares to Amazon's $50 Kindle? Those are often on sale for $40...

[jester121]

Is that the Kindle Fire, the one that's been around for 3-4 years? Because that's the only one I've used, and that was sparingly. I'd say roughly equivalent to that one, but the outdoor screen performance may be better on the new B&N one. 

 

If there's a newer Amazon Kindle in the $50 range, I have no frame of reference to compare.

[euxx]

The $49.99 Fire 7" tablet was introduced Sep 30, 2015.
See this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindle_Fire

http://amzn.to/2m7bKDQ

right now there are promo code 2 tablets with 15% using promo code FIRE2PACK

 

There are also more expensive models:

Fire HD 8" $89.99 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_HD 

http://amzn.to/2lPky0p

 

and even more pricey Fire HDX been discontinued https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_HDX