Today Barnes and Noble officially announced the upcoming release of a new Nook ereader.
The Nook Glowlight 4 is a refresh of Barnes and Nobles’ 6-inch Nook. It replaces the Glowlight 3 that was released four years ago.
Not a lot has changed with the new model. They added a USB-C port and upgraded the storage capacity to 32GB.
The press release says it has a “sleeker, smaller lightweight design”, but they neglect to list the weight anywhere on the product page. It measures 6.11″ x 4.72″ x ? compared to the Glowlight 3 at 6.93″ x 5″ x .38″. It still has page buttons on both sides of the screen, but they’ve been moved to the edge on the new model.
The Glowlight 4 has a 6-inch 300 ppi E Ink screen, and they’re using the newer screens with improved contrast so that’s a big plus. It also has a frontlight with adjustable color temperature.
Unlike the larger 7.8-inch Nook Glowlight Plus, there’s no mention of the new Nook being waterproof or supporting audio. With 32GB of storage you’d think they’d add support for Nook audiobooks, but apparently not.
The new Nook Glowlight 4 is getting released on December 8th. It will be available in B&N retail stores and online for $149.99, and B&N members can get 10% off.
Here’s an interesting quote from the press release:
“Barnes & Noble is now investing significantly in our NOOK line of products. The GlowLight 4 is the second NOOK device to launch this year as we set about to bring a new family of devices to our customers and to reinvigorate NOOK in the coming months and years,” said Barnes & Noble CEO, James Daunt. “The team is working steadfastly to develop new NOOK products, and we are delighted to see such a strong pipeline of innovation into 2022.”
It’s good to see B&N sticking with Nooks moving forward. When the new ownership took over there were lots of questions about Nook’s future, but now it looks like Nooks are here to stay. Hopefully they’ll keep developing the software and adding new features.
How many Nook engineers will it take to finally reduce those laughably enormous bezels? At least one more, apparently.
It is good to see them still in the game though.
Agree. I’m a bezel fan but those are obnoxiously large!
To be fair, the bezels have shrunk some. But yeah, comparatively speaking, they are still a bit chunky.
I’m happy to see this. I’ll purchase one to support them (and to support my eink device addiction). There are a lot of things I wish they would improve, such as the size of the bezels John mentioned, adding in a “dark mode”, and easier public library borrowing process, to name a few.
Competition is good though! And I love the feel of the Glowlight Plus material. A smaller reader at my bed stand is what my Christmas present will be this year.
Nothing wrong with wide bezels on the Nooks. I find they make holding the reader much more comfortable than holding my Kobo Clara HD . The Nooks also have much more responsive touch controls. than the clunky touch controls on my Kobo Clara HD. Setting up a book with customize fonts, line spacing, and borders is a breeze on a Nook . On the Kobo Clara HD it is a horror show. I am quite happy with both of the Nook’s I have. I doubt I will upgrade to the newer model.
When I was looking at a Nook, B&N employees said custom fonts could not be put on the Nook. Do Nooks support custom fonts?
No. Nooks do not allow custom fonts, at least not with current firmware.
I very much like my Nooks and do like the chunky bezels more than the ones on my Clara.
But to say Nook handles line spacing, margins and font sizes better than Kobo does is just delusional.
On B&N’s ability to run a successful business:
The Nook is an America-only product. Who the F thought it was a good idea to release the new one the Wednesday after Cyber Monday and Black Friday. How many of you all went out and bought Kindles, Kobos, Galaxy Tabs, and iPads in the last month?
✋.
Affected by chip shortage/supply chain issues perhaps?
✋
Nooks order button is now alive.