Barnes & Noble Nook HD+

The Nook HD+'s design just says "book" more than other tablets. It's smaller than competing large tablets, at 9.5 by 6.4 by .45 inches (HWD), and lighter at 1.16 pounds.

The Nook HD+'s 9-inch screen is even higher resolution than the Kindle Fire HD 8.9's, at 1,920-by-1,280-pixels, and colors seem better saturated, but they're definitely in the same class.

The Nook HD+ runs $269 for a 16GB unit and $299 for a 32GB model, and both tablets support MicroSD memory cards up to 64GB. System files take up about 3GB of the internal storage

The SD card slot indicates that the Nook HD+ would be a great device on which to play your own videos, but format support is slim: H.264 and MPEG4 files only. Unlike on the Kindle Fire, you can't download any additional codecs of video players from the app store to beef up file support.

In standard Nook fashion, the lower left hand corner is cropped, with a metal ring set into it. On the bottom panel, there's a MicroSD card slot and a charging port. This tablet is beautifully and sturdily built.