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Battery
Barnes & Nobel claims that you can get up to 10 hours of reading time and nine hours of video time out of a single charge of the Nook HD+'s 6,000mAh battery, but a brief glimpse at the small print should tell you to take these claims with a pinch of salt.
These figures were obtained with Wi-Fi tuned off and power saving mode switched on, which cuts the screen brightness to less than half, effectively reducing the Nook HD+ to an extremely dim - and somewhat dumb - media player.
In moderate real life use, which involves cranking the brightness right up, leaving the Wi-Fi on and using the tablet for occasional web browsing, a little reading and the odd five minutes of gaming here and there, it's more than up to the task of lasting a couple of days like any other tablet.
We also applied our standard battery test of running a 90 minute 720p video with notifications and Wi-Fi on and screen brightness set to high, and seeing how much juice was left at the end.
The average result was around 77%, which is about par for the course, but works out to be far short of the nine hour best-case scenario that B&N quotes in its blurb.
Connectivity
There are no connectivity surprises with the Nook HD+. It's a Wi-Fi-only tablet with no 3G option, so don't expect to be able to download a new page-turner while you're sat bored on a beach this summer. Unless said beach has Wi-Fi connections, of course.
Bluetooth support is also included, as expected.
In terms of physical connections, we'll reiterate what a joy it is to have expandable memory in the shape of a microSD slot on the bottom of the tablet.
It really does open up the storage possibilities without adding a massive price premium. Alongside this is a custom 30-pin connection for charging and hooking up to your computer.
Again, we'll state what an annoyance this is when a standard micro USB port would have been easier on the eye and a whole lot more convenient.
As it stands, you'll have yet another charger to lug around with you on your travels.
