Barnes and Noble NOOK Tablet 10.1" Smart Folio and Keyboard Cover Unboxing

on

NOOK Tablet 10.1 Smart Folio Cover with Tab

First up is the NOOK Tablet Smart Folio cover. I'm not sure about the name, but it turns out that this
cover is actually pretty smart.

It's a nice soft touch material, and very lightweight. The tablet fits very snugly into the corners of the bottom part of the case. Oh and the clasp is magnetic. Nice touch. It feels very nice in the hand and doesn't add much bulk or weight to the overall package. Naturally all of the ports, openings, speakers, and cameras are still fully usable.

Back to that smart feature. The Tablet knows when the cover is opened, and turns out the screen automatically. Same thing for when it's closed, the screen turns off. Pretty cool and handy.

Along with the nice blue in the image above, the Smart Folio is also offered in red and a cinnamon brown
textured look. It was honestly tough to choose between the blue and that cinnamon brown in the store. The blue just spoke to me I guess.

This simple cover comes in at $29.95. For that price, it feels like a decent buy. If you're planning on tossing your Nook Tablet into a bag, or sliding it on a table at all, I'd look into this slim little cover. Especially since I've noticed that the soft touch material on the back of the tablet is already starting to show some wear, and I've only had the tablet for two weeks.

Buy one for yourself directly from Barnes and Noble:

NOOK Tablet 10.1 Smart Folio Cover with Keyboard

Next up is the NOOK Tablet Smart Folio Cover with the Keyboard.

The first thing I notice is how heavy this thing feels compared to the Smart Folio cover from before. It also seems to have that magnetic clasp to hold it shut. It’s not made of the same material as the Smart Folio, it’s a bit less nice to touch. It’s not exactly scratchy plastic, but it doesn’t feel as soft as the Smart Folio cover.

But here’s the party trick: the keyboard. Let’s fold the back and attach the Nook Tablet. It has that same easy glide in that the charging dock has, but this cover has a very strong magnet to hold the base of the keyboard connected to the tablet. The hinge that props the tablet up on a surface is also incredibly strong and feels well built. Based on a quick size comparison with my hands, this keyboard is very small.

After a short typing test, here are some conclusions:

There’s no way around it. This is a small keyboard. However, once I got used it, my typing seemed just as quick and as accurate as normal (which is to say, quite slow and with a bunch of mistakes anyway). I could see using this to type up some notes, or even a short blog post or essay. I wouldn’t want to write the first draft of a novel on here though, just because of the limited size.
They keyboard is pretty quiet though, with very short travel as expected.

Now let's get back to that size. For comparison, I pulled out my Lenovo 500s 14” laptop with a near full size keyboard. The difference between them is massive. For something a bit closer in size (and price, actually), I found my Asus c201, an 11.6” Chromebook. The difference there isn’t quite as dramatic, but the Nook Tablet is still a good bit smaller.

This keyboard cover comes in at $39.95. That kind of money could get you any number of Bluetooth keyboards that will feel better and be just as portable. However, none of them will be as polished and nicely finished as this official accessory is. If you’re planning on doing a lot of typing on your Nook Tablet 10.1”, this cover makes great sense. It definitely feels like it’s worth the price based on the materials and practicality.

Buy one for yourself directly from Barnes and Noble:


Well that's all for this short unboxing. I hope you enjoyed this quick look at a few NOOK covers. Take a look at this article's accompanying video. Next up I've got a few devices on hand to do some real

world testing, and a back to back comparison with a Kindle Fire HD 10. Thanks for reading!



Comments

Post a Comment