Well, I happen to have four—count ’em—four tablets sitting on my dining room tablet at the moment, and they pretty much run the gamut, ranging from a pricey, full-size iPad 2 to one of the cheapest e-readers you can get.

Instead of burying you with details on every last tablet on the market, I’m going to give you a bird’s-eye view of the entire tablet landscape, from the best-selling iPad to the new (and bargain-priced) Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet.

So, which kind of tablet might be right for you—or for that special someone on your holiday shopping list? Let’s get started with…

Full-size, 8- to 10-inch tablet

Makes and models include:
Apple iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Xoom, T-Mobile G-Slate

The $499 (and up) iPad 2, with its 9.7-inch LCD display.

What it does:
A little of everything: surf the web, checks email, manages calendars and contacts, plays videos and music, edits documents, handles video chat, plays games. Might even replace your laptop, as long as you don’t mind working with a touchscreen keyboard.

Weighs about:
A pound and a half, give or take

Feels like:
A thick magazine

Features to look for:
Dual-core processors (meaning two processors on a single chip) for peppy performance; dual cameras, including one in front for video chat; microphone; memory card slot (Android tablets only); GPS; 3G or 4G wireless support

Number of apps:
Hundreds of thousands, either from the Apple App Store or the Android Market

How much:
$500 and up (or less with a two-year contract through a wireless carrier)

What’s great about them:
Big, roomy display, just the ticket for surfing the web and watching movies or TV shows; growing selection of tablet-formatted magazines and newspapers, complete with slideshows, videos, and other interactive goodies; on-screen keyboards that are almost as large as real ones; powerful work and productivity apps; all-day battery life

What’s not so great about them:
Expensive; way too large for a pocket, or even some purses; can be tiring to hold in a single hand; difficult to use outside due to glare-prone LCD displays; require daily charging, depending on how heavily you use them

Perfect for:
Movie lovers, magazine subscribers, news junkies, on-the-go corporate users who want to check email or do some light document editing on the road; anyone who enjoys surfing the web from their sofa

Premium seven-inch tablet

Makes and models include:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, BlackBerry Playbook, HTC Evo View 4G

The $400 Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus: small, but powerful.

What it does:
Just about anything a full-size tablet can do, including surfing the web, handling calendars and contacts, doing video chat, playing games, you name it. That said, the smaller screen on a mid-size tablet will make laptop-style activities like email and document editing that much more difficult.

Weighs about:
12 to 15 ounces

Feels like:
A mid-size paperback book

Features to look for:
Dual-core processors; dual cameras, including one in front for video chat; microphone; memory card slot (Android tablets only); GPS; 3G or 4G wireless support

Number of apps:
Hundreds of thousands, in the case of Android tablets; a few thousand for the BlackBerry Playbook

How much:
$400 and up (or less with a two-year contract)

What’s great about them:
You get most of the benefits of a full-size tablet, but in a palm-sized package; small enough to fit in a purse, or perhaps even the inside pocket of a blazer

What’s not so great about them:
Expensive; smaller on-screen keyboards that’ll cramp your style when it comes to email or productivity; less battery life than a full-size tablet (think seven hours rather than nine, on average); same sunlight-averse LCD displays as larger tablets

Perfect for:
Mobile mavens who’d rather not juggle a full-on, magazine-sized device

Budget seven-inch tablet

Makes and models include:
Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook Color and Nook Tablet

The $200 Kindle Fire: great for books, magazines, and videos, but weak when it comes to productivity

What it does:
Lets you shop for and read books, newspapers, and tablet-formatted, full-color magazines; plays videos and music; plays games; surfs the web and checks email

Weights about:
14 ounces, or a little heavier than a premium seven-inch tablet

Feels like:
A mid-size paperback book, albeit one that’s somewhat thick and heavy

Features to look for:
Access to an online book and magazine store (the Kindle Store in the case of Amazon, or the Nook store for Barnes & Noble); streaming video and music players; dual-core processors

Number of apps:
A few thousand, with no access to the larger Apple or Google app stores

How much:
$200 to $250

What’s great about them:
Very cheap compared to premium tablets; designed to make life easy for book and magazine shoppers; emphasis on video, music, games, and other entertainment

What’s not so great about them:
No built-in cameras means no video chat; no GPS for using location-based apps like Yelp; no 3G, meaning you’ll need a nearby Wi-Fi network to go online; needs a daily battery charge, depending on use; limited access to business-minded productivity apps; LCD screen that’s hard to read outdoors; no access to Google’s massive Android Market for apps

Perfect for:
Bookworms, magazine readers, and movie lovers interested in a multimedia tablet that won’t break the bank

Dedicated e-reader

Makes and models include:
Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, Sony Reader

The $99 Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, complete with a touchscreen.

What it does:
Lets you shop for and read books, newspapers, and magazines

Weighs about:
5-8 ounces

Feels like:
A thin, very light paperback book

Features to look for:
“Electronic paper” display that doesn’t need a backlight; Wi-Fi and/or 3G wireless support; touch-sensitive screen (on pricier models)

Number of apps:
A few dozen games, most of which are pretty basic

How much:
$79 to $150

What’s great about them:
Very cheap; amazing electronic-paper display lets you read outdoors, even under direct sunlight; battery life is measured in weeks rather than hours; very light and easy to hold; capable of storing thousands of books; latest Kindle and Nook models boast touchscreens

What’s not so great about them:
Sluggish, black-and-white display is far too slow for video; magazines and newspapers are delivered in plain-text format; save for an “experimental” web browser on the Kindle, no real email or productivity apps; non-illuminated display means you’ll need a light source to read in the dark

Perfect for:
Bookworms who love curling up for several uninterrupted hours of reading, free from distractions like email, video, or web surfing; vacationers who don’t want to worry about charing their gadgets or who’d rather not lug paper books around; sunbathers who want to read by the pool

Still not sure what kind of tablet is right for you? Post your questions below!

The post iPad, Nook, Tab or Fire? A field guide for first-time tablet shoppers appeared first on here's the thing.

Also this week: 5 iPhone apps that’ll get you off the sofa, manage your diet, and wake you up in the monring; 7 questions to ask yourself before buying a new phone; and Facebook has a change of heart about letting users sort their News Feeds in chronological order.

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Wednesday marked the first “end-to-end” test of the national alert system, which could be used in case of an earthquake, tsunami, or even a terrorist attack. Read more…

What’s the difference between a Kindle screen and an iPad screen?
One display isn’t better than the other, really; they just do different things in different ways. Read more…

The post The new Nook Tablet; 5 iPhone apps that’ll make you sweat; how to pick a new phone (week in review) appeared first on here's the thing.

But how does the Nook Tablet really stack up to the Fire—or, say, more traditional e-readers like the Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Nobile’s own Nook Simple Touch?

Read on for a few key things you need to know about the new Nook Tablet, starting with…

It’s (almost) the same size as the Kindle Fire, and a little smaller than the iPad
Measuring seven inches diagonally, the Nook Tablet’s display is precisely as large (or as small, depending on your point of view) as the one on the upcoming Kindle Fire, and it’s a couple inches smaller than the iPad 2’s 9.7-inch screen.

Measuring 8.1 by 5 by 0.48 inches, the Nook Tablet’s shell is slightly thicker than the Fire’s 0.45-inch girth. But at 14.1 ounces, it’s also a bit lighter than the 14.6-ounce Fire.

It’s more of a multi-function tablet than a single-purpose e-reader
Like the iPad, the Fire, and the Nook Color before it, the Nook Tablet will surf the web, check your email, play music, display the weather, and yes, even let you read books and magazines from Barnes & Noble’s mammoth (as in 2.5 million volumes) online Nook store. That’s opposed to the smaller, lighter, and cheaper Kindle ($79 and up) and Nook Simple Touch ($99), which are pretty much dedicated e-readers.

You’ll have a hard time seeing the Nook Tablet’s screen outside
The Nook Tablet has an LCD display, same as on the iPad and the Kindle Fire. That means while you’ll be able to watch movies and TV shows and scroll web pages on the Nook Tablet, you’ll also have a tough time seeing its display in the great outdoors, particularly under a bright sun.

It’s $250 less than the iPad 2, but $50 more than the Fire
While the $249 Nook Tablet will be one of the cheapest tablets around (compared, say, to the $499 iPad 2) when it debuts later this month, it’ll still be a bit pricier than the $199 Amazon Fire.

It packs in more memory than the Fire, and it (supposedly) has better battery life
Yes, the Nook Tablet costs more than the Fire—but you’ll also get twice the storage, with Barnes & Noble promising 16GB of on-board memory plus an expansion slot for an optional 32GB microSD memory card.

Barnes & Noble is also claiming up to 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video on the Nook Tablet with a single charge, versus 8 hours of reading and 7.5 hours of video on the Kindle Fire. Whether those numbers hold up after real-world testing, however, remains to be seen.

It runs apps, but can’t access Google’s Android Market
Like the Nook Color before it, the Android-powered Nook Tablet won’t have access to the hundreds of thousands of apps in Google’s Android Market. That said, Barnes & Noble says it’ll offer “thousands” of apps customized for its new tablet, including apps from Netflix, Hulu, and Pandora, along with games like Angry Birds and Scrabble.

You’ll be able to watch videos from Netflix and Hulu
So yes, the Nook Tablet with ship with the aforementioned Netflix and Hulu Plus mobile applications. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll have to subscribe to Netflix ($8 a month) and/or Hulu (ditto) before you start streaming movies or TV shows. The Amazon Fire, meanwhile, will stream movies and TV shows via its $79-a-year Amazon Prime service, which also offers free two-day shipping for purchased items from Amazon’s online store.

Its predecessor, the Nook Color, just got a $50 price cut
You can now snap up last year’s Nook Color, which also comes with a seven-inch color LCD screen, for $199, or $50 off its original $249 sticker price. That said, you’ll have to settle for a less-robust version of the Nook Tablet’s processor, and you won’t get access to Netflix or Hulu. Update: Netflix just announced that its mobile app is, indeed, coming to the Nook Color.

It hasn’t been reviewed yet
So, which of these two bargain-priced tablets—the Amazon Fire, or the Nook Tablet—should you get? (At $499 and up, the larger iPad is in a different category.) Well, neither the Fire nor the Tablet will go on sale until later this month, meaning we’ll have to wait a bit before reviewers get to take a crack at them. Stay tuned.

Have more questions about the Nook Tablet? Let me know!

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