I know that most people don’t give a flying fig about Nooks these days, but B&N has finally put their Nook ereaders on sale for the holiday shopping season. They had the Lenovo Nook tablets on sale for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but Nook ereaders were full price during that time.
Now all Nook devices are on sale at B&N, including the 6″ Nook Glowlight 4 and the 7.8″ Nook Glowlight 4 Plus. The Nook Lenovo tablets are on sale as well. All are $20 off so it’s not like some major sale, but it’s better than nothing.
Nooks do have nice hardware with the page buttons and larger bezels that provide more space to hold them by, but the software has always been a bit underdone, so to speak. If you can get along with the software and B&N’s imposed limitations they can still be nice ereaders.
B&N discontinued their cheaper Glowlight 4e model earlier this year so now they only sell the one 6″ model. It was released 3 years ago so it’s kind of surprising they haven’t replaced it yet, and they could probably stand to lower the price by more than $20 at this point.
The 7.8″ Glowlight Plus was released in 2023 so it hasn’t been around as long. Even at full price it’s less expensive than other 7.8″ models, but that size seems to be fading out. There are a lot more 7″ models these days, but not many in the 8″ range.
I wonder if Barnes and Noble is ever going to release a Nook with a color E Ink screen, or if they’re just going to stick to selling Nook tablets for color content.
The Lenovo Nook tablets aren’t anything special. There’re just a regular Lenovo tablet with a Nook app installed, but at $129 they’re a lot cheaper than most ereaders with color E Ink screens, aside from the Kobo Clara Colour, but it has a smaller 6″ screen.
According to B&N’s website, their Nook sale runs through December 31st. The fineprint also states that the offer cannot be combined with a Premium Member discount.
I picked up a Glow 4 a week ago and it’s been fine. I don’t need much more than buttons and warm light so it’s perfect for me. Is it a different user experience from my Voyage? Yeah it is but getting over that and understanding the Nooks quirks the Glow 4 is solid.
It could be my warm light but even on max warmth it’s not very warm. My Glow Plus 2019 is noticeably warm toned at the same setting.
I’ve tried a Glow Plus 4 a week ago in a store – it is light and buttons feel fine. My Kobo Forma battery is getting old and I would need replacement sometime soon. Kobo Sage is much heavier and battery life was not good when I tested it.
I’m planning to give Nook Glow Plus 4 a try – will check how it would work with with Moon reader and Kindle reader apps.
I would be interested in hearing if Moonreader and Kindle apps are workable on these devices.
Trust me, if you want to run Android apps you’d be much better off with a Boox (especially one with BSR) than a Nook. The Glowlight 4 can runs apps if you put in the time, but the Android version is older and there aren’t any optimize or contrast settings like with Onyx’s devices. Without that Android apps are going to look bad and there’s going to be a lot more ghosting and flashing.
So dumb that only the Lenovo tablet was on sale during Black Friday… missed opportunity. And how the Premium Membership doesn’t stack with the discount.
If I were B&N, I’d want to get NOOK devices in the hands as many people as possible. Maybe they also know that the software experience is less than ideal 😂
Every couple of months I give my Kobo ereader a go and am like yes, this is great… but I have a large library of NOOK books and like how I use stamp rewards for ebook purchases.