PANDIGITAL NOVEL

As the name indicates, the Pandigital Novel is primarily designed for use as an ebook reader and is priced accordingly – typically one-third that of an iPad and about the same as an Amazon Kindle . Downloading ebooks from Barnes & Noble is a snap with the Pandigital Novel and the on-screen look of the pages is excellent, although the screen itself can be a problem even in ebook reader function.

While the Pandigital Novel looks nice enough, weighing in at less than 0.75 pounds (0.3 kg) and measuring just 0.5” thick, the heavy glare-resistant screen unfortunately makes manipulation of “touchscreen functions” extremely difficult and the stylus is often necessary for use.

In other ways, too, the more traditional tablet functions take a backseat to ebook software and functions. The Android 1.5 operating system will not allow some video functions, and the Pandigital Novel tablet is powered by a Samsung ARM 11 processor backed by 128 MB of memory – meaning that downloading or uploading anything is notably slower than in most tablets. On the plus side is a easy and visually pleasing user interface to make things simple; extras include an SD card slot and a mini-USB port.

The rating for the Pandigital Novel tablet would be somewhere in the middle, combining as it does an above-average ebook reader with below-average tablet function performance – not a bad deal for the price, but definitely not up to the expectations of the tablet-first user.