The budget tablet market just became a three-horse race as Barnes & Noble has just unveiled two brand-new tablets, the 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch Nook HD+.
Both tablets are expected to go on sale simultaneously in the US and UK in November, with pre-orders expected to take place in early October - currently Barnes & Noble will only release the tablets in the those territories, though, if the launch goes we’d expect it to launch in other territories soon after.
The Nook HD has quite a few things going for it; it boasts the highest resolution display on any 7-inch tablet, coming in a 1440 x 900, which is 243ppi and is way above anything you can get from Google or Amazon.
The 7-inch tablet is also a lot lighter that the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire 2, weighing just 315grams. Inside you'll find a snappy 1.3GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a selection of storage options from 8GB to 16GB.
Barnes & Noble have priced the Nook to go toe-to-toe with Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD. The 8GB version will cost £159 ($199) and the 16GB version will set you back £189 ($229) and will come in Snow or Smoke, which black and white to normal folk.
The Nook HD+ is the premium of the two tablets and sports a stunning full-HD 9-inch display with 1920 x 1280 resolution.
The processor has been given a boost compared to its sister and will come with a 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and both tablets will be running a modified version of Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
The Nook HD+ offers larger storage options with a choice of 16GB and 32GB, but both tablets offer expansion via microSD, which isn't available on either the Nexus or Kindle Fire 2.
Both tablets come with Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth, plus both can output full HD, 1080p video to a screen of your choice.
The Nook HD+ has a competitive price tag, with the 16GB version arriving at £229 ($269), and the 32GB going for £269 ($299).