It’s hard to look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook and not think of it as a sort of surrender. Barnes & Noble gave the hardware and tablet business a better-than-college try, often pushing technology boundaries to some acclaim, but little notice. Its newest tablet is really just a middle-of-the-road, multi-function tablet with a very affordable price tag.And perhaps that’s good enough.
When Samsung unveiled the Tab 4 last April, few took notice. It’s a pretty standard 7-inch Android 4.4 "KitKat" device with a solid Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core CPU, a 1,280 x 800 screen and two very average cameras: 3 megapixels on the back and 1.2MP on the front.
In the new Nook, Barnes & Noble added a widget that duplicates some of the features found in the old and more powerful Nook HD, but more or less leaves alone the rest of the Android platform and standard Samsung software touches you’ll find on most of their tablets.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook Full Review:
When opened side-by-side with Samsung’s far sexier Galaxy Tab S (8-inch), the interface similarities are unmistakable. Ultimately, this is more a Samsung product than it is a Barnes & Noble one.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Surface:
When you wake the device using the power button on the right-hand edge, you get a lock screen that also features whatever Barnes & Noble profiles you’ve built. I’ve lauded previous Nooks for their inviting home screens and the easy way they let you create and manage multiple accounts, especially those for your children. The new Nook pays lip service to the old idea. The new Nook pays lip service to the old idea. All the original design touches are gone, at least when you open the Nook with your account selected, you see only your content selections.
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My Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook came preloaded with two accounts: one for an adult named Evan and another for a child named Tyler. His home screen only shows his Nook library with whatever child-friendly titles, I assume, dad Evan made available to him. The problem, though, is the device didn’t seem particularly locked down for Ty. He could still access apps, the camera, the Chrome browser and even settings. I would have liked to have seen more obvious parental controls, kind of like what I used to find on the more full-featured Nook HD.
Of course, I really shouldn’t expect that kind of Barnes & Noble Nook experience any more. This is a Samsung tablet. It’s quite easy to move or hide the Nook Widget and apps (Library, Shop, Search, Today) and I was even able to install the Amazon app from the included Google Play store. It pains me to say it, but the Amazon interface is much slicker than what Barnes & Noble offers in the Nook widget.
In the Barnes & Noble book widget on device’s home screen, you have a smallish content library that you can page through four items at a time. In the Amazon Android app, you get the same attractive and animated carousel you’ll find on any of the company’s Kindle Fire HD devices. You’ll get a much better Nook experience once you select the Nook Library icon on the widget. That’s how you access Nook’s animated carousel, with larger icons and an organization and look that is, at least, more reminiscent of the old Nook HD.
That library, by the way, gives you access to all your Nook content including books, magazines, movies and TV shows, newspapers, catalogs and any local files you’ve stored. While the device comes with just 8GB of storage, you can add more via an easily accessible microSD slot.
Search lets you perform a universal search across the device and the Nook shop, though I’d rather not have to open an app to do it. The device comes with Samsung’s “S Voice,” but that doesn’t know how to perform a universal search.
Content
Barnes & Noble is mostly out of the hardware business, so its primary concern is selling you content. With its icon right on the home screen, you’ll have instant access to the Nook Store, which includes millions of books, hundreds of magazine subscriptions and an impressive array of movies and TV shows.
Even though the Nook’s screen is not the highest resolution you can get on a 7-inch device, books, magazine, movies and TV shows all look decent, though I noticed that, due to what’s termed “licensing restrictions,” a number of movies like Divergent and The Lego Movie could not playback in HD on the Tab 4 Nook. As a result, The Lego Movie looks a bit muddy on playback, though I’m not sure your child would notice or care.
The book-reading experience is, as you would expect, excellent and, if you take the device into a Barnes & Noble book store, you can use free Wi-Fi and read, for free, digital versions of on-the-shelf books while you’re in the store.
There really aren’t any whiz-bang features here like the ability to see who any character is at any point in the book like you can with Amazon Kindle Fire HDX’s X-Ray feature.
And while Barnes & Noble will offer you free device support if you bring the Nook into one of their stores, you won’t find anything like Amazon’s Mayday 24/7 video support built into the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook.
Good enough
With its middling features and not-quite-fully-integrated Nook widget and app suite, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook can’t compete with the forward-leaning Amazon Kindle Fire HDX or mid-size tablet-market-leading Apple iPad Mini.
Yet, I still like it. A typical E Ink-based reader from Barnes & Noble or Amazon costs anywhere from $69 to almost to $120 for the backlit model with the most storage. For $60 more you can get a full-blown tablet that can handle everything from textbooks to movies and even action games. It’s a pretty sweet deal.
If you want an affordable, light, sharp-looking, reading-ready tablet for your back-to-school teen, this could be the right choice. Just don’t let her see an iPad mini or Kindle Fire HDX.
Arnes & Noble Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook:
The Good:
Lightweight • Good reading and content-consumption experience • Affordable
The Bad:
Average specs • Nook software doesn't feel fully integrated
The Bottom Line:
Barnes & Noble's new Nook won't break the bank, but it also doesn't break any new ground in features or performance. It's a good budget, mid-sized tablet.
BARNES & NOBLE, GADGETS, GALAXY TAB, MOBILE, NOOK, REVIEWS, SAMSUNG, SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 4, TECH
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