How Much Storage Does Your NOOK Need?

How Much Storage Does Your NOOK Need?

For book collectors, more shelves is always the right choice. But what about when it comes to digital libraries? With eReaders and tablets offering billions of bytes of data even without external storage, it may be hard to believe you could possibly need extra data. A couple gigabytes of storage space can hold hundreds of books, so why would you need more shelf space?

When it comes to figuring out how much storage you need on your mobile device, it’s really a matter of what you’re using it for. If you use your eReader specifically for reading plaintext black and white content, then you may be set with just the stock internal storage; however, there are a few cases where an external card will work wonders on building the best mobile library you can.

Illustrated Tales, Graphic Novels and Long Reads

If your reading material is standard text, then you’ll be just fine on internal storage. However, if you get a little more illustrative in your content consumption, then you’ll probably want to pick up something external. While the NOOK Samsung Galaxy 4 tablet
comes with 8GB of internal storage, but CNET reports that about half of that is taken up by system files, pre-installed apps, and fun free content. The remaining 4GB won’t hold a lot of electronic graphic novels or fully illustrated novels; if you prefer works on the scale of the Lord of the Rings or War and Peace, you may also want to get some extra space to download and store your favorite reads without worrying about not having enough shelf room.

If you lean toward heavily illustrated books or long reads, then an extra 4GB micro SD card maybe be more than enough for your needs. However, if you’re into fully illustrated, large-scale novels and richly illustrated graphic novels, then you’ll want to opt for at least an extra 8GB of storage.

Going Beyond Reading

Here’s where the need for extra space really arises: because the new NOOK doubles as a modern tablet computer, running Android 4.4 straight from the box (that’s KitKat, for those of you who know your operating systems by name over number), it’s rare for the owner of one of these sleek eReader hybrids to use it just for reading. And why should they? Barnes and Noble offers a huge selection of audio and video media to add to your library at any time, why not take advantage of it?

When you first load up your Galaxy NOOK, in fact, you’ll note that there’s already some video content loaded up for you. Fresh from the box, Engadget reports that the device comes with about $200 of free content, including two year-long magazine subscriptions, a number of different book titles—both classic and modern—and at least one episode of a recent hit TV show, most notably NBC’s Hannibal. Barnes and Noble offers full HD video at 1080p, which is stellar for the eyes but can be a bit taxing for “shelf space.”

The NOOK Galaxy Tab 4 runs audio as smooth as its video, so you can also load it down with all the music you want for those long trips and boring waiting rooms. Whether you get the music off Barnes and Noble’s extensive audio library, from Google Play Music, or through your premium Spotify membership, this tablet eReader can handle whatever you want to take with you—it just takes a little help.

If your library is video or audio heavy, you absolutely will not be able to make due with the built in 8GB of storage available out of the box. The NOOK supports micro SD cards up to 32GB in size, so go all the way if you want to put your favorite movies, TV shows and albums on the shelf.

Making Storage Stretch

If you want to use your NOOK for multiple forms of media without investing in external storage to make up for the missing shelf space, there are a few tricks. Instead of downloading video and audio content, you can stream the media directly from the site or app in question; this requires a constant wireless connection, however, which will not only drain your battery faster but also limit where and when you can watch a video or listen to some music. However, since the device can run for more than ten hours standard, according to Laptop Mag, and over seven hours straight with full HD video playing, it almost seems like a waste of features not to keep a movie or two in your library.

The fact is, if you’re using your eReader for any form of recreation, you probably need to add a couple more shelves to your library. Even if you don’t feel it’s necessary from jump, there’s nothing wrong with expanding a little later down the line.