Christmas is right around the corner and tablets are popular gifts to give. Some of those tablets are Apple iPad Mini, Barnes & Noble NOOK HD, and Amazon Kindle Fire HD. However, the Google Nexus 7 might trump them all.
In a recent report by Android Community, a cheaper version of the Nexus 7 may be true despite rumors on the device being silent. The news comes from a GLbenchmark for a tablet called the "ME172V." According to the article, the benchmark doesn't say it will be a new Nexus 7 but just another tablet ASUS is working on. Earlier in the year, there were rumors of a $99 Nexus 7 tablet, which would be good in time for Christmas shoppers. However, it's too soon to tell.
Google has some big competition. Apple's loyal customers would buy anything no matter the price. According to BGR, the giant tech company sold more than 3 million iPad Mini's and iPad 4's combined during their first weekend of availability. New orders for the Mini are still taking two weeks to ship because of steady demand, but Apple may solve the problem soon by seeking a third display panel manufacturer "to offset difficulties that AU Optronics continues to face."
Barnes & Noble is looking to increase sales of its new NOOK HD and HD+ tablets. The bookstore giant recently added a YouTube Santa video, which was 4,600 views, advertising Nook Catalog and Nook Scrapbook. The spot will be targeted to reach Pinterest users who are interested in scrapbooking this holiday season, according to Clickz.com.
This will appeal to a lot of users on Pinterest. Nook's Pinterest page has 15 boards, 142 pins and 3,000 followers, Clickz.com reported.
Amazon offered their Kindle Fire at a discounted price during Cyber Monday deals, and might have other deals for Christmas. The tablet has been a popular e-reader ever since it came out.
Specs
The Nexus 7 has a 7-inch HD display with a Back-lit IPS display and scratch-resistant Coming(R) glass with 1,280 x 800 pixels resolution. It runs on Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It has 8/16GB onboard storage and 1GB of RAM. It has a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera and features NFC and GPS. It has a 4325 mAh battery that runs up to 8 hours of active use. 16GB sells for $199, the 32GB Wi-Fi version sells $249, and the 32GB with Wi-Fi, HSPA+ and AT&T service sells for $299.99.
The new Kindle Fire HD 7-inch tablet comes in 16Gb or 32GB. It has a 1280 x 800 HD display with polarizing filter and anti-glare technology for rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle. It features Dolby audio and dual-driver stereo speakers. Amazon says that its dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi does 40 percent faster downloads and streaming compared to the iPad 3. It has a 1.2 Ghz dual-core processor with Imagination PowerVR 3D graphics core with free unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content. It also has reduced screen glare. It costs $199 for the 16GB model.
The iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch IPS LCD screen and run on Apple's new iOS 6 software. It is 23 percent thinner than the fourth-generation iPad. It has a display screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 and has a 35 percent larger display area than the Google Nexus 7, and is 67 percent larger to surf the Web. It has a A5 dual-core chip, 5 megapixel iSight camera on the rear of the tablet which can shoot 1080p HD video, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi support as well as the new Lightning connector available on the iPhone 5. It comes with a FaceTime HD camera and 10 hours of battery life. It has Wi-Fi that is twice as fast as previous generation iPads. It sells for $329 for the 16GB model.
Barnes & Noble's Nook HD features a 7-inch HD display with a "Fully laminated screen with no air gaps reduces glare and provides extra-wide viewing angles," according to Barnes & Noble. It has a 1440 x 900 pixel resolution with 243 ppi. It has 10.5 hours of reading and up to 9 hours of video. It has Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) and a Universal 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and an expandable microSD slow. Barnes & Noble claims it's "the best tablet for families" because users can create up to six NOOK profiles. The 16GB sells for $229.
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