I am an avid lover of the e-reader and have been for almost a decade. I've mentioned it here before but my first e-reader was a Barnes & Noble Nook and it was only recently that I got on the Kindle bandwagon. I always liked the idea of supporting Barnes & Noble over Amazon so I figured buying my e-books from them was a good way to do it.
However, my Nook has gotten ignored in the past few years because the model I had was kind of old and I've been reading a lot of ARCs from Netgalley on the Kindle Paperwhite. I knew I had to eventually upgrade my Nook and I was waiting for the right model to come along. This summer I saw the Nook Glowlight 4 in person and I felt it was too small for my liking; it looked smaller than my Kindle so I didn't get it.
Thank goodness I waited because just a few weeks after I saw it in the store, Barnes & Noble announced that the Nook was getting a huge upgrade in the form of the Nook Glowlight 4 Plus - a bigger and better version of their e-reader...literally, bigger because it's about the size of my iPad mini but much thinner.
I immediately pre-ordered it and thanks to my Barnes & Noble rewards membership, I got a little bit of a discount. *That's another reason I've been keen on B&N recently -- the $40 a year membership also got an upgrade and I'm able to get free shipping on every order, earn rewards, and get discounts on all items. It's such a good system.
I waited about two months for the Nook to arrive and it showed up on my doorstep in early September. Since then, I haven't read anything on my Kindle. This is my favorite e-reader ever, and one of my favorite tech gadgets of all time.
The Nook Glowlight 4 Plus is a major upgrade in every way from previous Nooks, and dare to say, any other e-reader.
It's display is 7.8 inches long, with a glare free screen & flush front so holding the Nook and reading is incredibly easy and pleasant. It's waterproof and has the Glowlight technology so you can read no matter the light situation. It adapts the light around you to make reading off the screen easier.
One of the main reasons I wanted this is because of how large it is, and even though you would think a large e-reader is cumbersome, I have to say it makes reading a lot more fun and easy on the eyes. I feel like my eyes aren't straining to read small text, it fits more comfortably in my hands, and all around it's a better experience versus smaller devices.
It's also incredibly slim... like paper thin which is so nice and luxe feeling. You can definitely add a pop socket on the back if you want but I like holding it just how it is.
The buttons are super fast and very smooth so turning the pages isn't such a chore as I find it is on other devices, most notably my old Nook. The touchscreen is also a lot faster and smoother than anything else I've used.
One of the more notable features of the Nook Glowlight 4 Plus is the ability to play audiobooks. Yep, you heard that correctly -- you could listen to audiobooks on your Nook. I know the Kindle has that ability as well but it's innovative for Barnes & Noble, and I think this has more space to hold more audiobooks so that's a plus.
The one con of the Nook is that I love it so much, I didn't want to use my Kindle anymore but I wasn't sure how to get my ARCs on the Nook. Netgalley makes it so easy to just send the books straight to your Kindle account...but, after a little bit of research and a few hours of playing with computer applications I figured out how to transfer epubs to the Nook. You just need Adobe Digital Editions and maybe an Android File Transfer application to get your Nook hooked up to your laptop.
As I was writing this, I did realize that unlike the Kindle, my ARCs expire when they are not read in an timely fashion so I was a tad disappointed about that. I might need to do some digging into how to fix this. Either way, I don't really care -- I will continue to love on my Nook! Other than that, I have no cons. It holds a charge, it fits in most bags, it's very easy and fun to use and it makes me excited to read!
If you read the reviews on Barnes & Noble, almost everyone says that this is going to give Kindle a run for it's money and I couldn't agree more. I wish I could transfer over all of my Kindle books to the Nook and exclusively use that... and I will probably only buy Nook ebooks going forward.
The Nook Glow Light 4 Plus is the best gift to give a reader this holiday season. The book lover in your life will so appreciate a beautiful, new e-reader that is sleek, fast, and easy to use.
xoxo
B
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