Nook Tablet Available for Pre-order, Release Date Set for November 17

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Earlier today Barnes & Noble launched its first official tablet, the Nook Tablet, previously known as the Nook Color 2. Unlike its predecessor, the new device comes with some raw power under the hood. This is a real tablet, meant to fight the Kindle Fire this holiday season, but also other devices including the iPad.

The Nook Tablet was leaked last week, a few days ahead of its official launch, so we were hardly surprised by the specs and features of the device. But the same question I asked you a few days ago comes to mind, is the Nook Tablet worth the extra $50 you’d pay for it in case you chose it instead of the Fire?

The device is available for pre-order for $249 starting today, and it will ship to your door by November 17, when the device is expected to be launched. By comparison the Kindle Fire costs $199 and it will released two days ahead of the Nook Tablet.

Before pre-ordering the device you may want to go over the hardware and software characeristics of the device, which are neatly mentioned in the official Nook Tablet videos below. At the same time, we also have the full specs and features sheet for you:

• 7-inch IPS LCD touchscreen display with 1,024 x 600 resolution
• 0.48-inch profile
• weight: 0.88 pounds
• 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP4 processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB memory
• microSD storage up to 32GB
• Wi-Fi b/g/n
• Microphone and speakers
• 3.5inch headset jack
• up to 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video battery life
• Support for a variety of eBook formats, documents and files
• Android OS with Nook Color UI on top
• Hulu & Netflix preloaded

What’s very interesting in these demo videos is that Barnes & Noble doesn’t mention Android OS at all during the presentations. And there’s no reference on the official website regarding the Android version the Nook Tablet runs. Similarly Amazon didn’t focus that much on Android when introducing the Fire, but that’s understandable because Jeff Bezos had its engineers create a new Android mobile platform unlike what’s available so far. Barnes & Noble probably didn’t do the same thing.

So, what will you choose this holiday season, the Nook Color or the Kindle Fire? Or maybe something else?