Putting Kitkat on the Nook HD+

[tornadog]

I got a used HD+ off cowboom for 75 bucks. While I like the minimalistic UI, I am wondering if putting the kitkat will give me access to anything better from google? Have any of you tried this?

 

[cmdrdredd]

The main benefit is the play store and access to the thousands of apps there.

 

[swanysto]

^ what he said.

In my experience the battery life is not as good with kitkat on there, and every once in a while, it restarts when I try to use it while it is plugged in.

 

[Ravynmagi]

The main benefit is the play store and access to the thousands of apps there.

Stock Nook includes the Play Store, Google Apps, and all the Android apps now.

 

[Ravynmagi]

The really awesome thing about Nook tablets is you can install a custom ROM onto a micro SD card, boot off that, and leave the stock image on the internal storage untouched, basically allowing you to dual boot between stock Nook and the a custom ROM.

You will need a good micro SD card with fast 4K read/write performance to not slow down the custom ROM on the SD card too much. Most Sandisk microSD cards would be a good choice for this.

One good benefit of using a custom ROM on the Nook HD+ is being able to pair a bluetooth keyboard. Nook's stock UI has a bug that doesn't allow you to to pair BT keyboards or any device that requires a pair code.

Nooks stock UI isn't all that good in my opinion, you can add a third party launcher on stock Nook, like Nova and it helps. But it still doesn't fully resolve the stock UI weirdness. So putting a custom ROM on the Nook HD+ really helps it feel like a familiar Android device.

Standby battery life has improved with CM11. But I don't think it's still as good as Stock Nook. So that'll be a sacrifice.