I bought the first nook color, when it came out, rooted it, and used it as an Android tablet until I was given a good trade-in value toward the purchase of a Kindle Fire. I haven't used a nook device in a few years.
Recently however, I was looking to get a high quality 7" Android tablet. Although I have a Kindle Fire HD 7 and Samsung GTab 2 7.0, they both felt just short of what I was planning for. There was an update to the GTab that helped things a bit. I then rooted it and removed much of the bloatware from it. It made a significant difference. And the microSD slot has proven time and time again to be a necessity for me.
But I had been reading how the nook HD (w/Google Play) rivaled (and in many ways exceeded) the first gen Nexus 7 (which received unanimously high praise for performance).
Just as I had decided to settle on the GTab I ran across an ebay auction by a liquidator that was selling factory overstock nook hd units for $89 w/free shipping. I had to buy one.
It arrived Saturday. From everything I could see, this thing was brand new. Got it all set up and configured with the apps that I typically use on my Android devices.
The screen... wow the screen! Absolutely beautiful. Video, reading, image viewing, just stunning. I don't fall for the ppi numbers game but I'm impressed with the pixel density. (not that the GTab and KFHD were bad, just that the HD is noticeably better)
Performance is as impressive. This is the first Android device that I've owned that rivals the smoothness and responsiveness that I've come to expect from iOS devices.
Installing apps from Google Play works fine. Though I may need to tweak things to allow installs from the Amazon app store.
The nook HD UI is actually not bad. It is pleasing to the eye and offers the ability to place app shortcuts on the desktop. Although I can install an alternative launcher and have it fully functional, I don't think that I will (at least not yet).
I think that B&N struck a nice balance between wanting their own UI experience and not straight-jacketing users. Compare that to Amazon's KF UI.
Wanted to share this experience in case there were some who are considering the HD as well, or maybe forgotten that these things are still around.
