Barnes & Noble has a new Nook in the works. The American book retailer filed regulatory documents to the FCC earlier this week showing the new device, called Nook Tablet 7. The documents reveal some of the specs, but there is no mention of its price or release date.
The leaked Nook Tablet 7 comes as a revamp of the company’s original line of e-readers. Barnes & Noble had a brief experience developing its own devices before turning to third parties like Samsung for hardware manufacturing.
Several tech outlets are championing the Nook Tablet 7 as a direct contender to Amazon’s Fire tablet. The upcoming device does not look like a plain old e-reader. The information indicates the Nook 7 is a budget eReader with high-end specs.
Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet 7: Specs and Design
The Nook Tablet 7 gets its name, allegedly, from its dimensions. The new tablet by Barnes & Noble measures 7 inches, and it packs a display of at least 5 inches judging by the leaked images.
Although there are no details on screen build materials or resolution, the FCC filings do reveal some of the upcoming Nook Tablet 7’s specs.
The Barnes & Noble device will have a quad-core MediaTek MTM8163 ARM Cortex A53 processor and a Mali-T720 GPU. This chip configuration is the same seen on the latest Amazon Fire HD 8.
A 3,000 mAh battery will power the Nook Tablet 7 upon release, taking up to three hours to charge through a micro-USB port.
Other features include a microSD card slot for storage expansion, allegedly up to 128 GB. The Nook Tablet 7 also supports dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The model Barnes & Noble introduced to the FCC is all black, and it has the signature Nook logo in the back. The tablet has front and rear facing cameras, a mono speaker, and a 3.5-mm headphone jack.
Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet 7 will add Google Play Store support
The book giant has always developed its e-readers and tablets based on Android. The Nook lineup runs on a customized version of the OS, optimized for electronic book reading.
The new Nook Tablet 7 will run on Android as well, presumably Lollipop or Marshmallow. However, it is known for sure the Barnes & Noble device will add support for the Google Play Store and its selection of e-books.
The company’s Nook App Store was taken down back in March, so Google’s alternative is a suitable option for the American book retailer.
There is no specific information on when Barnes & Noble will release the Nook Tablet 7 or how much it will cost. Tech enthusiasts expect a launch date close to the holidays, just in time to take some edge off the Amazon Fire lineup.
Source: FCC