Back in November, Barnes and Noble announced the Nook Tablet featuring a Kindle Fire beating spec sheet so we thought we'd best take it for a quick spin when we spotted it on show at the CES expo in Las Vegas.

The Nook Tablet packs a TI OMAP4 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM and it whizzed through the tasks and apps that we set it with ease. We even managed to watch a bit of vintage Stuart Miles MegaWhat action using the YouTube app.

One thing we did notice straight away is that the Nook Tablet is rather long for a 7-inch tab. Its dimensions of 205.7 x 127 x 12.2mm make it a fair bit bigger than the Fire in tablet terms and we have to say it feels a bit of a chubster in hand.

That said, it looks rather nice although we're not really sure what the plastic loop in the bottom left corner is for. Maybe you could hang it up as some sort of neo-contemporary art. Or perhaps not.

The IPS display features vivid view tech that its makers claim gives "unprecedented viewing angles". We're not sure we'd go as far as "unprecedented" but it is pretty good; the resolution is 1024x600, which equates to 169ppi.

It also supports full 1080p video playback (not at that resolution, obviously) and features Netflix and Hulu support straight out of the box although the Wi-Fi connectivity was such that we didn't get to test these features.

We'll give it a proper run for its money some time soon but in the meantime we'll simply give it our nod of approval. It's out in the States now, costing $249.