Here’s a crazy idea. What if Amazon basically took the Nook Glowlight 3 and used it as inspiration for the next new Kindle?
The Nook doesn’t get much attention anymore, but the Nook Glowlight 3 actually has some nice things going for it. If the Kindle name was on the front instead of Nook, I think it would be a lot more popular.
Granted the overall design of the Nook is on the bulky side, but it could be streamlined some more.
What makes the Nook Glowlight 3 better than the current Kindle Paperwhite is the extra hardware features.
First off, the Nook adds physical page-turn buttons on each side of the screen. Personally I much prefer ereaders with page buttons. It’s just more comfortable for me to keep my thumb resting on a button rather than moving it to swipe the screen every 30 seconds or so.
Secondly, the Nook’s frontlight color can be adjusted. It has the option to use a cool blue frontlight or a warm yellowish orange frontlight. The color can also be adjusted to mix between the two if you just want to soften the blue color a bit at night to add a touch of yellow.
Another slight advantage for the Nook is the fact that the screen looks a bit clearer and sharper than the screen on the Kindle Paperwhite. This is because the Nook uses an infrared touchscreen instead of capacitive. The latter slightly degrades the clarity of E Ink screens, as does any extra layer over the screen (including frontlights).
Lastly, the Nook Glowlight 3 has twice as much storage space as the current lineup of Kindles except the new Oasis now that the sideloading restriction has been removed.
Kindle software has a lot more going for it, but if I could run Kindle software on the Nook Glowlight 3 I would rather use it over the ever-popular Paperwhite.
Here’s my Nook Glowlight vs Kindle Paperwhite comparison review from last fall for a closer look at the two in action.
If Amazon released a new Kindle with same features as the Glowlight 3, I’d actually be pretty happy with it.
I always thought the twilight 3 compares best with the Voyage, making it a bargain. I’d wholeheartedly support this move.
I wish the Nook and Kindle would bring back the music function.
The Screen on the Nook is much better than my Paperwhite 3. I would say that Amazon adopts the Infrared screen and ditch the Capacitive because it really is that big of a deal to me. The background is whiter, the text is inly black with better overall contrast.
I do not like how Amazon implemented the font weight adjustments with their latest software, I think they did a terrible job because it’s too dark with a single incremental move, not to mention it increases the size and line spacing and is slightly blurrier. Aside from that yes I agree they need to adopt the comfort light because it really makes a big deal on the eyes when reading in my opinion.
It would also be nice to make it 7 inches, I totally disliked the new Larger Oasis I thought it was a bad device with the design, the screen and lighting issues, the sharpness along the edges, the bad covers, the uneven weight distribution, the slickness, the coldness, the clicky buttons, I could go on and on.
I totally agree. I bought a new Oasis a couple of months ago but after several times trying to read on it, I gave it up. Too bad, I pad 230 euros fort it. Now I keep using my Voyage and I hope Kindle will release a bigger Voyage with adjustable color light. And if it would have an infrared screen, I would really be happy. Because as you wrote a time ago: the screen of the old Kobo H2O (the first model) is the best screen ever on an ereader. I really wonder why infrared screens aren’t used more frequently on ereaders
Nathan, how many e-readers do you own and use? What do you do with them after you’ve reviewed them?
I usually have like half a dozen in various sizes laying around that I switch between, but I don’t like keeping stuff I don’t use, especially considering the battery wears out, so I usually sell them on eBay as I get newer models. Then later I regret it when I want to use them again. I wish I would’ve kept one of the smaller 4 or 5-inch models I used to have. They were great for portability and I wrongly assumed more small models would get released eventually but that never happened.
What I’d love to see in a new Kindle would be color changing light for night reading. And flush glass like the Voyage.
Don’t care about buttons, don’t use them, don’t want them, clicking a button over and over creates pain for me. And gunk accumulates around them, making it harder to keep a reader nice and clean.
I wish they’d made the Oasis 2 without buttons, more like the Voyage form factor but with color changing light.
I always liked the form factor of the NOOK Simple Touch over the Kindles… plus you could replace the battery!
I looked at the Glowlight 3, but did not purchase. I wanted the choice of a bolder font- or fonts- than what the Glowlight 3 provided. Amazon now provides that choice of bolder fonts- which shows that at least sometimes Amazon listens to its customers.
However, the Glowlight 3 fonts were an improvement over the Glowlight Plus, which had thinner fonts than the Nook Simple Touch.
Used to love nook but side loading library books was a pain. I love my paperwhite because WiFi gives me library books seamlessly. Don’t care about colored lights. Wish they could get an even lighted screen with page turners on the new paperwhite,
I am a tad surprised that Amazon has not adapted the orange hue yet. Its one think I like about my Nook. Yes the Nook can be slimmer but feels fantastic in your hands