Nook HD+ tablet from Barnes and Noble

[okc_bel_air]

We are looking at buying a table for my wife so she can surf the web, facebook, and read email. The Nook is on sale this week for $149 for a 16g model.

Does anyone on here use one of these? We are looking at this instead of an iPad. Mainly for cost savings.

The new Nook HD+ now has full access to Google Play so you can use any android app on there market, this is a plus now.

Any thoughts?

[SoonerDave]

I would *not* purchase any dedicated Nook tablet right now. The Nook brand is not at all healthy, with B&N's own financial future very much in the air. There are numerous stories circulating about the probability that B&N will go private, and either sell off Nook or shutter it. B&N is selling Nook tabs at deep discounts just to get activations into their service and create a bit of an illusion of value in terms of number of Nook network "members" (for lack of a better term). Scariest thing in my view would be the fact that a possible suitor for Nook is rumored to be Microsoft, which is reason enough for me to stay away. I have no doubt MS would kill anything Android related and shove the Purple Flying Tile interface (or some variation thereof) down folks' throats.

If you want substantially the same capability without nearly the risk, I'd just recommend looking for a good Android tablet, and just download and install the Nook software. That way, if Nook disappears, your tablet is otherwise unaffected, and still perfectly good for doing all those things the Nook shouldn't care about, anyway.

My daughter has a Nook, and if I had to start over right now, that's precisely the path I'd take - one of the nice Samsung tablets would be high on my list.

There is a final alternative that might still rationalize buying one of the cheap Nooks - as her Nook is well out of warranty, my daughter has downloaded and installed ("sideloaded?") one of the third-party ROMs for it to get access to all the things the native Nook system either blocks or routes you to a more expensive alternative. In effect, it turns her Nook in to substantially a "regular" tablet. It isn't entirely "rooted," because she has to reboot the thing to get into the alternative ROM as she didn't want to blow away the native Nookware for the moment.

If you don't want to mess with that, then I'd go back to the first option - just pick up a nice Android tablet and grab the Nook software and see how it goes. Lowest risk option IMHO.

Just my opinion.

[SSEiYah]

Personally I'd rather have an "older model" aka clearance or refurb Android 4.0 10" tablet. If you sign up for some of the deal sites like slickdeals for example, they will email you when a deal is available depending on which keywords you supply.

For example, Walmart was offering Acer A210 with the Tegra3 for $180 about a month ago, A lot more "useful" apps available. $30 more and you can run thousands upon thousands of apps and it has a faster processor.

However if you are using it as an E-reader/web browsing only, the nook may be fine.

[okc_bel_air]

Interesting about B&N business right now. I have always been an android fan so I would rather stay away from iPad. Maybe this will push her toward the Galaxy Tab 2. $299 at Best Buy this week

[mkjeeves]

I won a nook color at a Christmas party. (Already owned an older Kindle that was a gift.) I didn't use it much until I rooted it, which makes it pretty much like an open android, where you can install the Nook, Kindle reader software and a bunch of other stuff. I use it quite a bit now but mostly for web rather than reading. I don't think I'd buy a proprietary reader myself but the older Kindle is really lightweight, thin and does well at it's primary function, to read ebooks.

[SoonerDave]

Interesting about B&N business right now. I have always been an android fan so I would rather stay away from iPad. Maybe this will push her toward the Galaxy Tab 2. $299 at Best Buy this week

Yeah, B&N tried mightily to poise Nook to compete with Kindle, but they just never had the muscle of Amazon. They had huge subscriber growth about two or three years ago, then it went flat, and with the brick-and-mortar book business model really in question, it could well be that model indirectly takes Nook with it. Nothing for sure at this point, but more than enough to make one wary.

I have not had much chance to play with a GT2 personally, so I can't vouch for it, but what I've read about it is almost universally favorable. If I were looking at a tab, that's where I'd start.

[windowphobe]

B&N just announced that they're getting out of the Nook manufacturing business -- but that the tablets will continue to be made, branded by B&N and the actual manufacturer. To me, this sounds favorable: they're cutting their losses on the hardware side, and will continue to profit from the content.

Barnes & Noble Will Quit Manufacturing Nook Color Tablets ? Consumerist

[SoonerDave]

B&N just announced that they're getting out of the Nook manufacturing business -- but that the tablets will continue to be made, branded by B&N and the actual manufacturer. To me, this sounds favorable: they're cutting their losses on the hardware side, and will continue to profit from the content.

Barnes & Noble Will Quit Manufacturing Nook Color Tablets ? Consumerist

That's been a long-expected move, and this announcement only makes it official. There are no formal announcements with any of those third parties, and B&N is curiously silent about any action on the part of its founder to buy back the original retail company and take it private, instantly orphaning the Nook. The other option, then, remains selling what's left of it to a third party, such as Microsoft.

The point is that there are decreasing options for the Nook's future. The decision to get out of the manufacturing business was inevitable. How they can compete with Amazon's sheer power for competitive, relevant content (book titles, magazines, etc) is the other 800-lb gorilla in the room. More broadly, B&N is not a particularly healthy company, regardless of the Nook's status.

While it may be a pessimistic view on my part, I just can't see a scenario where B&N and Nook are both around in their current form in even a year, perhaps less.

[zookeeper]

No big deal that B&N is leaving the branded "nook" tablet business. Warranty is still good and I say grab one while you can. I've read many reviews saying the 9" tablet from B&N, at this price, is an excellent deal. Hardware alone more than makes up for the OS and software currently on it. Rooting to a regular Jelly Bean ROM literally takes about 10 minutes and then you've got a current Android OS on a truly excellent piece of hardware. The problem before was they limited you to the Nook store, they have opened it up for Google Play and it's almost million apps now and that's before rooting it. Either way, it's hard to go wrong with the hardware and specs for only $149. Remember, we're talking 9" full HD.

Here's a review that's been making the rounds. Pay attention to the specs. Barnes & Noble slashes Nook HD prices | CNET News

[SoonerDave]

No big deal that B&N is leaving the branded "nook" tablet business. Warranty is still good and I say grab one while you can. I've read many reviews saying the 9" tablet from B&N, at this price, is an excellent deal. Hardware alone more than makes up for the OS and software currently on it. Rooting to a regular Jelly Bean ROM literally takes about 10 minutes and then you've got a current Android OS on a truly excellent piece of hardware. The problem before was they limited you to the Nook store, they have opened it up for Google Play and it's almost million apps now and that's before rooting it. Either way, it's hard to go wrong with the hardware and specs for only $149. Remember, we're talking 9" full HD.

Here's a review that's been making the rounds. Pay attention to the specs. Barnes & Noble slashes Nook HD prices | CNET News

Perfectly fair assessment, zoo. I was thinking in terms of folks who might not be quite so eager to jump into the rooting/custom ROM side of the equation. I wouldn't be adverse to rooting at all, so getting a full HD 9" Android tab for $149 on that basis could be a really good deal. Just so long as people know all the variables