[evanft]

I'll go ahead and jump in on this discussion.

The Nook HD+ is a nice piece of hardware. The screen is gorgeous, it's not too big, and it's generally a responsive device. You probably won't find a better screen or at $250, let alone $180.

That being said, it's not a device I could easily recommend without some massive caveats:

- It's stuck on Android 4.0, which came out about 18 months ago. Android 4.1/4.2 Jelly Bean brought many enhancements to the OS, not the least of which was a noticeable improvement in overall performance.

- While they did just release an update to allow access to Google Play, many apps apparently aren't compatible with the device. You also can't sideload apps, which makes this even worse.

- It's a heavily skinned version of Android, and I think it's vastly inferior to stock Android or even Touchwiz.

- Barnes and Noble isn't exactly in the best shape right now. How much customer support can you expect in the future?

- Gaining root access is much more difficult than other Android device.

- Practically no development support. CM10.1 is running on it, but it's not exactly stable or bug free.

Unless you really, really need that screen size, I would say to just wait for the updated Nexus 7 that is likely to be announced in a couple weeks. It'll likely be $200, have a 1080p screen, and be much more powerful than the HD+. It'll also ship with an unmolested version of Android 4.3, putting it even further ahead the Nook in terms of software.