Barnes and Noble - NookColor Android Tablet Review - Page 4

Got it last night, and after a fair bit of struggling, got CyanogenMod 7.1.0 rc1 and the Google Apps up and running.  Some impressions:

- Music player plays 16/44 FLAC files but doesn't know what to do with 24/96.

- Volume limit is way too low, though the headphone output is pretty noisy (I get a fair amount of hiss when entering the music app, though it goes away once the music actually starts).  Can't get DeaDBeeF installed since the Nook Color isn't supported. EDIT: Downloaded "Nook Color Tweaks" from the Market.  Improves volume, though sound quality is still merely serviceable.  Not expecting much more than that, though.  Heh.

- Netflix had to be installed by downloading the app directly, since it didn't even show up in the app store.  Kinda works, though there seems to be some playback speed issues on the first try. EDIT: Tried again, and it just seems to be a buffering issue.  Starts with video garbled and too slow, then video speeds up until it syncs back up with the sound, and becomes nice and clear after about a minute.  Pretty slick!

- Pandora installed and ran just fine.  Sound quality sucks, but it's never terribly good with that bitrate.

- The arrangement of the interface in Gingerbread is not very good, which has always been one of my big issues with Android.  iOS really has the usability down to an art... An art that Android has yet to grasp.  We'll see how things change if/when Honeycomb gets open sourced.

- The screen, web browser, and overall feel of the device are everything I'd hoped for.  I wasn't expecting streamlined interface perfection, nor good sound quality for music.  I have my iPhone for the first and my other equipment for the latter.  If I can get the MoboPlayer to handle the majority of my downloaded videos, and get Netflix playing nicely, then I'll have everything I need from it.  It's pretty **** slick for the price.  Not regretting it so far.  :)

I've had mine since April and use it often.

In terms of usability: 1 out of 10

With Stock software: 4

With Custom Rom (like CM7): 10!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't tried MIUI yet.  I like the idea of a better organized, iOS-like layout.  It just seems like it lacks the stability and polish of CM7.  And it was such a pain to get CM7 up and running that I'm wary of messing with it.  Heh.

I'd say that with CM7, usability is about a 7.5, maybe 8.  There's still quirks and layout issues.  But man is it pretty, and seems surprisingly stable.