Sluggish touchscreen in HD+? Reviews say..

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HD+ owners, I am considering buying this device, but I have read the reviews at 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/nook-hd-plus-barnes-noble/1110060512?sort=3#reviews

and two reviews talk about: "Touch response is sluggish" and "The touch screen is sluggish", is it true? or just bad units?

Please If you have another tablet, compare both touch response..

Thanks.

[Swamprat]

I believe the review was based on units with a debugging feature enabled that slowed screen response.  Current units do not have this enabled and the screen response is not noticeably different from my iPad.

If you don't have a BN near you, Target, Walmart and Best Buy carry the HD+ and have liberal return policies so you can try them for yourself.  Target offers a 5% discount if you use their credit card.

[Long2Read]

I just bought an HD+ at Target on Friday and found that it does have times that it is sluggish. Sometimes using both the stock browser and Dolphin I have the screen lag, hang, and sometimes I have to reboot. The other "glitch" and this may be related to what Roustabout mentioned in another post, is that the sd card is "checking for errors" for an inordinate amount of time (like 30 minutes or more) that might account for this. Otherwise, I am mostly pleased with the HD+ especially when I compare it pricewise to everything out there in a 9" tablet. The screen is nice and I really mostly read, browse the web, email, and am looking forward to an occasional movie. Google apps are nice and I still have my rooted nook color but I have not really missed the Play store or Amazon App store that much (yet).

[roustabout]

The debugging issue was addressed on mine as soon as I registered it with BN - it picked up a critical update immediately.  I bought the unit on 11/2, so any consumer reviews should be on hardware that got the update (I was amazed at how fast it was delivered.)  

The screen can definitely be laggy at times.

Most of the time, it's not too bad nor too surprising - my desktop computer bogs down now and again when loading a complex web page, and that's the time I see it most often, with a few exceptions:

- the status indicator (top center of the screen) is always slow and unpredictable in its responsiveness

- if an SD card is in use, the device can become very unresponsive for long periods of time while it "checks the card for errors," even a card which it just finished formatting.  

The unusability of sdcards is disappointing.  It blunts one of the big advantages that the HD+ had  for  me.

Even so, the display and internal storage capacity stack up well at the price point, though I may sell the HD+ or give it away and move to something else.  

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Thanks for the replies. I am optimist, I think that custom roms will fix this.. by the way, maybe the system checking for sd errors is also draining the battery.. but all of these can be fixed with an optimized rom I guess

[5ivedom]

Skipped, I have two HD+s and both are fast.

I also have Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD and Surface Tablet and Hd+ is as fast as those.

I used to have an iPad and that was smoother. However, it was smoother than everything else too.

So, I'd say

HD+ with update = Nexus 7, Fire HD, Surface etc. in smoothness.

There are a few places where it lags a bit. Which is in longer screens with lists, and some webpages. That doesn't happen for me on Nexus 7.

Nook HD doesn't get that either.

I don't think it's enough of an issue to not buy the HD+. And that it will improve with software updates.

However, I'd recommend playing with one at a B&N or Target to make sure it works fast enough for you. Some people don't mind and some people seem to mind a lot.

[BFCoughlin]

I've had mine since the forst weekend they were out.  I do not find the screen sluggish at all.  It's certainly more responsive than the NC.  I have not had to re-boot the device since I got it after some initial issues with getting it to download my books on Day 1.  I am delighted with the HD+.  My only issues are the relatively minor on of a soft grey band on the right side of the screen (not a problem after I used the middle stting for margins) and the fact that I can't get it to sync highlights with my NC.  Not sure if it's supposed to, but can't find the answer.  Other than that, the thing is awesome.

[Lizah]

I don't find the touchscreen sluggish but I do find the web browser lags a bit. Just my two cents.

[LEChakan]

I've found that it can be sluggish when reading magazines. That's the only time I've had the screen stall for 10-15 seconds or so. The screen is magnificent. The features are, as well. And the price point? You can't beat what you get for the money. Nook HD+ is a no-brainer to me. If you've got an abbreviated budget and are looking for a fantabulous ereader, I recommend this one strongly.

[taosaur]

I found the display units at Target running 2.0 sluggish, but after I updated them to 2.0.2 it was much better. Touch response now is outstanding, and now that I have Google Play and root I'd be tempted to leave the stock software in place even if custom ROMs become an option.

[5ivedom]

Taosaur, are you able to download and install apps from Google Play? I thought there was a restriction against installing apps from any source other than B&N.

[cindylee60]

strangely, the only time I have trouble with the touchscreen is on these forums. sometimes the lag is so bad here I just give up and go surf somewhere else, and then my HD+ works wonderfully!

Does anyone else have issues only with the B&N forums?

[Sandan53]

That is the only time I have this problem.

[roustabout]

My HD+ picked up the update to 2.0.4 today.  The browser seems a lot faster / less stuttery so far, which is nice. 

Something I think is pretty interesting - on the stock browser, I'm getting Sunspider benchmarks of around 1030 - that's a very good mark on that test.  On Chrome, I'm getting more like 1394, so the stock browser is running faster than Chrome, which I think is interesting. Lower scores on this test are better;  the Chrome mark is comparable to at least Sunspider mark I've seen for the Fire HD 8.9, so the stock browser is doing much better than the amazon stock browser is.  (Sunspider is notoriously browser-sensitive, so it's not a useful tool for much more than comparing browsers, but it is interesting for that since so much of what I at least do on the device is browser based.) 

I still have viable root, which is good.  I was updated, which surprises me, because I had set one fota (over the air update) value to 'manual,' so I will need to look into the settings for manging updates a bit harder.

5ivedom, you can enable unknown sources using sqlite, IIRC you need to load /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/settings.db and get into secure, then change the value of ' install non market apps' to 1.  That's part of the process for getting the Play store running;  there's more discussion on XDA.

there is a similar field in one of the BN databases that turns out to be unneeded as far as I can tell. 

[5ivedom]

Thanks roustabout.

[LEChakan]

I've had my HD+ for a week, and find that the screen is sometimes unresponsive to touch. I've even had this problem with the Nook pen stylus I laid out $20 for. 90% of the time, the screen is perfectly responsive, but there ARE times when it just sits there, with me tapping, tapping, tapping a book or another icon, until EVENTUALLY it kicks in. I don't know whether this is software or hardware related. I'm thinking about returning it for another.

Lisa

[LEChakan]

Just noticed that I've a "message" icon in the upper middle of my screen. No matter how many tiems I tap that icon, it doesn't open the messages. I'm about set to return this unit. However, just noticed that there's been an update to the software. Can someone please advise me what version the NEW software is. I have version 2.0.4 on my unit. Curious if this is the latest.

[Michael_the_Wr…]

2.0.4 is the latest update, as of 11-26-12.

As for your complaint about the touchscreen, I have noticed this but not to the point where it bugs me so much I want to return my device. I have the HD+ and only once in awhile do I have to tap multiple times to get something done. Mostly, it happens using the stock browser but if I wait, instead of tapping again, it'll work. When I switch over to Dolphin it doesn't happen. I've been trying to keep my screen clean, as I don't use a screen protector. I don't know what causes it but at least I can answer the question about the latest update. I have a friend with an iPad that has the same complaint as you if that makes you feel any better.

[LEChakan]

I'm now wondering if the problem is made worse by putting ON a screen protector.

Lisa

[5ivedom]

LEChakan, 2.0.4 is the latest software release. However, someone on another thread mentioned there is a Ultraviolet fix in 2.0.5 and that's going to arrive in a few days.

A screen protector would make it worse if you got some dirt trapped between the protector and the screen. Then everytime you tap there are two taps - one where you tap and one where the dirt is trapped. So it messes up touch.

That may or may not be the issue since I see across the 5-6 threads you've discussed your issue on that people get it even without screen protectors.