Just to chime in with the rest of you guys, I switched from my Nook HD+ to a Lenovo Yoga 2 10.1 last month and I believe my money has been well spent. Full HD display, no lag whatsoever, and tremendous battery life. I got about 8 hours of comics at 70% brightness, 4 hours of reading at 20% brightness, 2 hours of web surfing on WiFi at 50% brightness, and finally (the kicker) 9 hours of HD movies at 80% brightness, all on a single charge of the 9300 mAh battery. The rounded edge is a great help at holding the tab for extended periods of time. Expandable storage is good to have and every model comes with a SIM slot.
Only downside is that it costs a bomb as compared to other budget Android tablets. At it's current price of 29k (Flipkart) one is put into the quandary of putting in a few more and getting a higher range tablet like the basic iPad.
As for the original question of whether the Nook HD+ is still a VM tablet - well it is, but only and only when you don't want any more high end gaming, office and productivity abilities, and will restrict the use to all round media consumption with books, comics, and videos only. At 12k it ain't worth it, at 6k it is.