Here’s a nice NOOK Tablet/Kindle Fire comparison from Gigaom. In short, Kevin Tofel says just about anyone looking to spend around $200 on a tablet will be happy with either device.
I haven’t seen a NOOK Tablet yet but spent about half an hour playing with a Kindle Fire over the weekend. Honestly, I can’t see what everyone is complaining about. It seemed like a pleasant device to me.