HD/HD+: To buy or not to buy?

[fredlave]

I was in our local B&N store yesterday admiring the new Nook HD and HD+tablets. After debating whether to buy an HD+ and replace my 8GB Nook Tablet (which is running CM10.1 off a 𝞵SD card) I decided not to buy it for the following reasons:
1- my current Nook Tablet is very adequate for surfing the Net, reading Drudge and Fox News with my morning coffee and as an ebook reader.
2- though XDA developers has threads for rooting the HD/HD+, I did not see if CM10.1 could be run off a 𝞵SD card the way I can with my current NT.
3- I do not want to get into a cat and mouse game with B&N where their upgrades break the root and I have to scramble to re-root it.
4- for the same price as the HD/HD+ I can buy a tablet with similar specs that runs a hassel-free, upgradable, full version of Jellybean.
Is my logic faulty?
I understand that the HD/HD+ are not selling well. Is it time for B&N to replace their "custom" ROM with an unfettered full version Jellybean that will appeal to a wider audience.?

[Nahgem]

You can run CM10/10.1 off the SD card. I'm doing it on my HD+ (method 1, method 2)and it can be done on the HD as well, so you could avoid the rooting/update cat-and-mouse game if you wanted. However, development for those tablets doesn't seem to be as robust as for the original Color and Tablet. In fact, it's looking like it's stalled almost completely for the HD+.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by fredlave

I was in our local B&N store yesterday admiring the new Nook HD and HD+tablets. After debating whether to buy an HD+ and replace my 8GB Nook Tablet (which is running CM10.1 off a 𝞵SD card) I decided not to buy it for the following reasons:
1- my current Nook Tablet is very adequate for surfing the Net, reading Drudge and Fox News with my morning coffee and as an ebook reader.
2- though XDA developers has threads for rooting the HD/HD+, I did not see if CM10.1 could be run off a 𝞵SD card the way I can with my current NT.
3- I do not want to get into a cat and mouse game with B&N where their upgrades break the root and I have to scramble to re-root it.
4- for the same price as the HD/HD+ I can buy a tablet with similar specs that runs a hassel-free, upgradable, full version of Jellybean.
Is my logic faulty?
I understand that the HD/HD+ are not selling well. Is it time for B&N to replace their "custom" ROM with an unfettered full version Jellybean that will appeal to a wider audience.?

I'm probably over-critical.
But I found the build quality of Nook HD highly disappointing.
There are gaps between the plastic frame and the housing. You even can see them on some pictures in lots of reviews.
For one, I'm a bit worried about dust behind the display. And last but not least I really get annoyed by flaws like that, constantly have to look at those flaws and can't enjoy the reading.
Build quality of Nook HD+ on the other hand, surprisingly enough, is fine.

[livramax]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I'm probably over-critical.
But I found the build quality of Nook HD highly disappointing.
There are gaps between the plastic frame and the housing. You even can see them on some pictures in lots of reviews.
For one, I'm a bit worried about dust behind the display. And last but not least I really get annoyed by flaws like that, constantly have to look at those flaws and can't enjoy the reading.
Build quality of Nook HD+ on the other hand, surprisingly enough, is fine.

I agree -- the HD+ build feels solid like that of the Tablet, whereas the HD build feels cheap although it's probably not much worse than the Google Nexus 7. The one thing I don't like about the HD+ is its use of a proprietary USB cable.

[fredlave]

Thanks to all for the comments. I read some of the posts about rooting the HD/HD+ with an SD card in the XDA Forum. My NT is all I need right now but if B&N expands the OS or drops the price significantly I may buy one.

[kevinp]

I bought the HD+ to replace my 16 GB Tablet, which was running CM10. The main reason I bought it was the screen size. I can read a full-size magazine without having to pinch zoom and scroll around every page. I tried running CM10.1 on it, but just had too many issues. Now it's just rooted with Google Play installed. I bought it for $229 on Black Friday and I'm still very happy I did.

B&N will never offer an open ROM. The problem isn't with the tablets, it's with their limited eco-system. They may offer a lot of books, but they don't offer anywhere near the content that anyone else does. They will continue to lose sales until that changes (if it ever does).

[fredlave]

The minds of the decision makers at an organization like B&N are wondrous to behold. They would rather have 100% of nothing than 50% of something.

[allovertheglobe]

I just got an HD as an upgrade to the original Color and have to say I like it a lot.

If I want to get real work done on a tablet, I use my non-mini iPad (and presumably an equivalent Android tablet would be as good)

I wanted something light & relatively small mostly for consumption, primarily ebooks. And between the excellent screen, UI and optional antiglare filter it works great for that. I've read that the OS had some issues on release, but the current one works really well for me, I actually find it the most friendly UI I have used, and that includes iOS. The multiple user setup with great control over each one's permission is something I only wish Apple would finally introduce!

I can see some issues with the fit & finish (mine's fine though), but you won't have to worry about dust since the display is bonded to the glass, so nothing can get inbetween even with gaps in/around the case.

Most importantly, it lets you easily dump all kinds of content (epubs, movies, music) on the internal & SD card without requiring Nook services (if they ever go belly up) Also, you can run recent stock Android in the same event (I think a company called A2N offers a convenience version of this, for a fee of course) No company is going to willingly "open up" their proprietary device, you can't really hold that against B&N, but at least they never made it particularly hard so far.

Personally though I have not found the need to do so for what I use it...

[karpomatic]

I bought a HD+ and love it. I wish it had swype though. I guess I'm one of the few that like the BN OS.

[ucfgrad93]

I think with the adding of access to Google Play, the HD & HD+ are great values.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by kevinp

I bought the HD+ to replace my 16 GB Tablet, which was running CM10. The main reason I bought it was the screen size. I can read a full-size magazine without having to pinch zoom and scroll around every page. I tried running CM10.1 on it, but just had too many issues. Now it's just rooted with Google Play installed. I bought it for $229 on Black Friday and I'm still very happy I did.

B&N will never offer an open ROM. The problem isn't with the tablets, it's with their limited eco-system. They may offer a lot of books, but they don't offer anywhere near the content that anyone else does. They will continue to lose sales until that changes (if it ever does).

Well, it changed :-) ... now it has Google Play access ...

[Doc109]

Whale of a Mother's Day sale on now. $149 for Nook HD 8 GB and $179 for HD+ 16 GB. Good 'til April 12th.

I am a Kindle loyalist but for this kind of price, I may have to jump ship. And now I can read my Kindle books easily enough on the Nook (thanks to Google Play). If I de-DRM my Kindle books, I can convert them to ePub and read via the native Nook reader, which I like quite a bit.

This is the best deal I have seen in a long time.

[Xanthe]

Not to mention the fact that you now have the option of adding other readers like Cool Reader which allows you to use the native format once you remove the DRM.

Some examples:

Cool Reader: Supports epub (non-DRM), fb2, doc, txt, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, prc, mobi (non-DRM), pml formats.

Aldiko Reader: Support EPUB, PDF formats as well as Adobe DRM encrypted eBooks

Moon Reader: Support epub, mobi, chm, cbr, cbz, umd, fb2, txt, html, rar, zip or OPDS.

FBReader: Supports epub, rtf, fb2(.zip), mobi, and plain text file formats.

[Zoshka]

The default browser is now Google Chrome as well, and they install Gmail, so they suddenly went from an awful app device to leapfrogging over Amazon (it also has the Kindle app). I had an order in for the $179 Kindle Fire HD sale, but saw the Nook sale price and Google Play, and picked up an HD and sold my ipad mini, since I'm more interested in a sharp screen now for reading and movies. The other big bonus of the Nook is the SD card option, so I can watch all my burned Netflix DVDs on it.

Another nice thing I found is that I can email non-DRM epub books to myself on the Nook, download the attachment, and it will open up in the Nook reader.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Zoshka

The default browser is now Google Chrome as well, and they install Gmail, so they suddenly went from an awful app device to leapfrogging over Amazon (it also has the Kindle app). I had an order in for the $179 Kindle Fire HD sale, but saw the Nook sale price and Google Play, and picked up an HD and sold my ipad mini, since I'm more interested in a sharp screen now for reading and movies. The other big bonus of the Nook is the SD card option, so I can watch all my burned Netflix DVDs on it.

Another nice thing I found is that I can email non-DRM epub books to myself on the Nook, download the attachment, and it will open up in the Nook reader.

I'm tempted to do the same, but Nook HD has no 4G connectivity and that's a deal breaker for me.

I also prefer the 4:3 Mini's aspect ratio. But Nook HD resolution it's way better than iPad mini.