Barnes and Noble NOOK Tablet 7" Unboxing and First Use

Another new NOOK Tablet? A worthy $49.99 competitor to the Kindle Fire 7?

It’s the newly released NOOK Tablet 7”. I picked this one up a local Barnes and Noble store earlier today, so let’s get it unboxed!

In the Box

Once we’ve got the pretty neat packaging out of the way, let’s see what’s in here. Included is obviously the Nook Tablet 7”. Then we have the quick start guide. Also included is the same chunky microUSB cable. The included charger looks to be a 5 Volt 1 Amp charger.

Tour

It feels like the same soft touch material in blue that’s on the larger Nook tablet 10.1", so that’s good to see. On the bottom, in portrait mode, there looks to be just a microphone. On the right there's a power button and volume up and down. The left is blank except for that little hidden MicroSD card slot. On the top there's the microUSB input, a reset pin switch, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the front you’ll find just the front facing camera. The back has the rear facing camera up top, some regulatory info on the bottom, a small Nook logo in the center, and that rear firing speaker.

Specs

This tablet is running Android 8.1 Oreo Go Edition, surprisingly, with a Security Patch as of October 5th, 2018. It actually received that update on first boot. This smaller Nook tablet is actually running a more powerful chip than the Nook Tablet 10.1. It’s the MediaTek MT8163. That's a quad core ARM Cortex-A53 (the Nook Tablet 10.1 were Cortex A35s, remember) running at only a maximum of 1.3GHz. The Cortex A53s are about 25% faster per clock, so it’ll be interesting to benchmark this one. The on board GPU is a Mali T720 MP2, which is about on par with the PowerVR GE8300 of the NOOK Tablet 10.1”, but it has a lot less pixels to push around. This system on a chip is paired with 1GB of DDR3 RAM. The on board storage is 16GB, with 12.2GB free on first boot.

The screen is a 7" IPS LCD with a resolution of 1024x600. WiFi is a healthy 802.11 a/b/g/n dual band, so both 2.4 and 5GHz support, which is impressive. The Bluetooth is 4.0.

The tablet has two cameras. The front camera is 0.3MP and can shoot video at a maximum of 480p and the rear camera is 1.9MP and can shoot in 720p. There’s a single rear firing speaker and the battery is listed as 3,000 mAh.

OS: Android 8.1 Oreo Go Edition (Oct 5, 2018 Security Patch)

SoC: MediaTek MT8163

CPU: Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.3GHz

GPU: Mali-T720 MP2

RAM: 1GB DDR3

Storage: 16GB (12.2GB available)

Screen: 7" 1024x600 IPS LCD

WiFi: 802.11a/b/g/n dual band

BT: 4.0

Cameras: .3MP Front (480p) and 1.9MP Rear (720p)

Speakers: Mono (rear firing)

Battery: 3000mAh

First Impression

On first boot, of course, I got hit with a security update (which is good thing…). But besides that, moving around the UI, installing a few apps to check the specs, and doing some internet speed tests, this little tablet feels pretty snappy. It’s also very small and feels quite premium, just like the Nook Tablet 10.1". It’s very light, and almost pocketable.

Here it is compared to my current daily driver, the Blu Vivo XI (11), a 5.9” smartphone some would say is a knockoff iPhone 10. The Nook isn’t much larger. In fact, if the bezels were smaller, this could be considered a phablet. Oh, how phones have grown, remember when 4.5” phones were considered large?

Accessories

I also picked up a cover for this one, and I felt like it wasn’t special enough to warrant its own video, so here it is. Nothing nice like the smart folio or keyboard cover of the larger Nook Tablet 10.1, but this is a $49 dollar tablet after all. Having said that, the color options they had on these covers was pretty impressive. I walked away with this very attractive orange, and I think I made the right decision.

Buy

Barnes and Noble NOOK Tablet 7"

Price: $49.99

Buy one directly from Barnes and Noble: 

• $49.99

I hope you enjoyed this short unboxing and first look at the Nook Tablet 7". Check out the accompanying video for a look at the tablet and case. Stay tuned to read more about this brand new smaller Nook Tablet. I've also got some full reviews of the Nook tablet 10.1 and Amazon Fire HD 10 on the way. That's all for this one, so thanks for reading!