Happy belated New Year everyone! This artical has been long overdue on my part, but I’m happy to present to you my review of The Nook Color! …Well, more or less. After receiving the gift on Christmas Day, I immediately flashed it with the Cyanogenmod, turning my once simple Nook Color into a fully functioning android tablet. The Nook Color makes a great android tablet at a cheap price. For $199, you get the following specs:

• 7 inch VividView capacitive touch screen at 1024×600 resolution
• 800MHz ARM Cortex A8-based, 45nm OMAP3621 processor
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Standard microUSB port for charging and book transfer via cable
• Dimensions of 8.1 x 5.0 x 0.48 inches and 15.8 ounces
• and lastly, a micro sd card slot.

The touch screen is smooth and responsive, the device itself is fast, and the entire experience feels very natural. It’s big enough to be considered a tablet, and small enough to fit in my jackets’ pocket. It takes a decent amount of wear-and-tear too (I can’t BEGIN to tell you how many times I’ve dropped it already). If you’re looking for something higher-end, you can throw your money at a new samsung galaxy or an iPad 2 – but in my opinion, the Nook Color makes a fantastic alternative to the other, more expensive tablets available (I’ve also heard some good things about the kindle fire; another reading device). I don’t see myself buying a real tablet device any time soon.

If you’re interested in doing the same to your Nook Color, you can check out the Cyanogenmod at the link above, or do some other research. I know there are other methods and different OS’s you can install. The device is easily recoverable since you can always load from microSD, so don’t worry too much about messing up your Nook. Just be cautious.

[review pros=”Device is relatively fast and inexpensive, a great alternative to available android tablets” cons=”No physical buttons for ‘back’ and ‘menu’ options, smaller than most official tablet devices. No option for 3g since it’s supposed to be a reading device – but most of these things are insignificant annoyances.” score=85]