The other big advantage--or, some would say, caveat--to the Kindle Fire is Amazon Prime. In addition to free two-day shipping on most of Amazon's physical product offerings, Prime offers members access to a growing library of Netflix-style on-demand streaming movies and TV shows (a subset of Amazon's full offering), plus the ability to borrow some e-books for free. Of course, all of that "free" stuff comes at a price: $79 per year. Many find it to be the retail deal of a lifetime, but--like Xbox Live on Microsoft's game console--it does mean users need to factor in a yearly premium to fully unlock the value of Amazon's tablet.

But Barnes & Noble has some alternatives to Prime. For one thing, it has hundreds of brick-and-mortar stores where customers can get hands-on with its products, and return for tech support (not unlike the Apple Store). Also, because Barnes & Noble doesn't have as many in-house digital-media services as Amazon, it's seemingly more willing to partner with other providers (including Netflix and Hulu) to close the gap. Amazon, on the other hand, might be reluctant to offer apps for its tablet that compete against its own services. (The Kindle Fire release is days away, but the extent of its curated app library remains largely a mystery.) The Barnes & Noble e-reader Android app, for example, is not available through Amazon's app store (though the same is true for Amazon's Kindle app on the Nook Tablet).

Still, specs are fun, and much easier to parse than the intricacies of e-commerce, Android app availability, and brand loyalty. To evaluate how Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet stacks up against its closest competitor, the Amazon Kindle Fire, on raw specs, check out the handy chart below.

We'll revisit this comparison once we get more details on the apps and services available on both devices. In the meantime, let us know in the comments below which 7-inch tablet (if either) you're planning on buying.