Bookseller Barnes & Noble has lost a lot of money over the past several years, so to keep the Nook brand alive, the company has decided to stop producing its own hardware. That’s where Samsung comes in.
Released yesterday in the United States, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is a co-branded version of the popular low-end 7in tablet, featuring Nook apps and plenty of other bonus software and media bundled in for prospective readers.
Based on the impressions seen around the web, the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is effectively unchanged on the hardware front from the standalone model, featuring the same 1280×800 display (216 ppi) with 8GB of internal storage (with support for microSD cards) and a 10-hour battery.
It’s available in white and black, and sells for the same price in the States – $179 (about R2000) with the instant discount factored in. What might make this version a bit more appealing is the bundle of free content, which Barnes & Noble values at more than $200, including free eBooks, episodes of television series, and trial magazine subscriptions, plus a $5 Nook Store credit.
No mention yet of a release outside the United States, but unless you want to wait for the possibility of a local batch of media freebies (unlikely given how hard it is to get a standard Nook this side), the standard Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 accomplishes the same thing.
Source: Barnes & Noble
