The buzz was palpable before the Fire and the Nook Tablet hit the market last month. In particular, analysts speculated that Amazon was creating the first real competition for the iPad, whose April 2010 launch basically created a new product niche.
The excitement faded with word of the new tablets' screen sizes: 7 inches diagonally vs. the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. But maybe it shouldn't have. A closer look at the Fire and Nook suggests that the two booksellers have cemented a new niche of their own, halfway between a smartphone and what iPad has already come to define as a "full-size" tablet.
What do the two tablets deliver? A few specifics:
Display. Building on their origins in e-book readers, the Fire and Nook each offer customizable touchscreen displays that are great for reading books, newspapers, or magazines as well as for watching movies or TV or browsing the Web.
Both allow users to easily vary font sizes and to switch away from the standard black text on white background to suit different lighting conditions and tastes.
Barnes & Noble touts the Nook's advantages for video, including a laminated screen "with no air gaps" that developer-relations director Claudia Romanini says minimizes glare while making it easier for more than one person to see the screen.
Amazon counters Nook's antiglare screen with the Fire's "antireflective treatment," which seems to show more smudges than the Nook when the screen is asleep. But awake - and despite a corporate-sniping war over whether Nook has a significant edge in video resolution for Netflix streaming - both screens offer impressively crisp and sharp displays.
