The specs for Barnes and Noble's new tablet was leaked a week ahead of its official announcement and it looks like it's aimed as a direct competitor to Amazon's Kindle Fire.

For starters the new Nook Tablet looks like its predecessor the Nook Color but it has a faster dual-core OMAP4 processor and a bigger internal storage of 16Gb as well as a microSD slot for expansion purposes. Users can now slap at least another 32Gb of storage with another microSD card. In comparison the Amazon Kindle Fire only has 8Gb of storage and no expansion slot.

The new Barnes and Noble tablet will have a 7 inch tablet with 1024 x 600 screen resolution like the Amazon Kindle Fire. Both tablets will have the same IPS technology found on the iPad. The Nook tablet can connect over Wi-Fi and will have at least 4 hours of video playback with Wi-Fi on and 8 hours if it's off. Barnes and Noble has slimmed down the new Nook tablet by .9 ounces and made it thinner by about .02 inches.

Price of course is one of the major reasons why the Amazon Kindle Fire has been getting a lot of attention. Amazon is going to sell its tablet for only $199 when it comes out on November 15. How does the Nook Tablet match up against the Kindle Fire in terms of price? Barnes and Noble have priced the Nook Tablet for $249 which is fair considering it does have better storage. Consumers will have to decide if they want to shell out an additional $50 for more storage. And to further fire up the competition, Barnes and Noble is dropping the price of the original Nook Color for $199.

Of course content will be the deciding factor on why consumers will get these two tablets. Amazon is offering its extensive Amazon store for the Kindle Fire but Barnes and Noble is offering Netflix and Hulu Plus services as well as access to content from providers other than Amazon.

Remember the specs are leaked and Barnes and Noble hasn't commented on how accurate the specs are to the new Nook. Once the Nook is officially announced next week, we can find out how much of these leaks were actually true and how the Nook can shape up against its closest competitors, the Amazon Kindle Fire and Apple's iPad 2.