We had been enviously waiting for a long time for lighted e-ink e-book readers with high quality illuminated display. True, those high-priced color screen Tabs enormously out there in the market stay our top priority, but to have a sense of reading a book in low-lit conditions without a lamp hanging from the sheath reader was one of those things that needs a different technology.
Amazon has recently entered to offer this technology as standard on the new Kindle Paperwhite, which came several months after the release of Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. Barnes & Noble is arguably the biggest rival of Amazon when it comes to the selling of E ink based e-readers.
Both are offering the same e-reader, but the prime difference lies in the technology used to illuminate the screen. Kindle Paperwhite and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, both seems to cost $119, so it’s hard to choose one. As and since, both brands are battling on the verge of e-reader supremacy for generations, we have come up with this comparison so that you can make wise decision while getting one closer to your eyes.
Kindle Paperwhite and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight Comparison
For a quick review, we do have a comparison chart below:
Screen and Display
The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight from Barnes & Noble’s, unveiled in April this year, is essentially a backlit version of Nook Simple Touch. The patent pending GlowLight technology in Nook offers the first e-ink based optimized illumination whose background lights up with a gentle glow, making reading in bed practical. The very first E ink e-reader of its kind features 6-inch touchscreen display with 16-level grayscale, resolution of 600-by-800 pixels. and 167 ppi density, and Best-Text Technology, which specially optimizes each letter for ultra crisp words. The Company doesn’t emphasize much on how display works internally, but it’s just a set of LEDs mounted on the top of device, slotted in between bezel and display that lights-up the display.
On the contrary, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite has an improved and patented built-in light technology from Amazon which greatly improves the display. Technically, Kindle Paperwhite 6-inch e-ink display has higher contrast, higher resolution of 768-by-1024 pixels. (not mentioned by Amazon) and 212 ppi density, and an LED lighting system to which CEO Jeff Bezos mentioned four years R&D alone on front-light Screen Technology at the launch event. Its proprietary e-ink display has lighting uniformity and evenly balanced whiteness across the entire display. The Paperwhite display is based out of an optical fiber flattened across the screen, coupled with nano-imprinted light guide that ensures perfectly even distribution of light throughout the screen.
Both e-readers are capable of Touch Screen Display, but only Amazon Kindle Paperwhite offers Capacitive Touch Screen.
Here is the catch, Kindle Paperwhite’s lighting is sharper, brighter and more evenly distributed than the Nook’s. The Nook’s eight LEDs mounted on its top creates minor discrepancies at the top and bottom of the page, which however doesn’t distract while reading, but noticeable at first glance. At high light setting, the black letters of the text show less contrast on Nook’s display. Kindle Paperwhite, has some spots too but only at the bottom edge, however the lighting is far better and uniformly distributed throughout the screen than Nook’s.
DIMENSIONS and DESIGN:
Both devices sports a sleek look – Kindle Paperwhite is significantly slimmer (9.1mm), however a bit longer (169mm) than Nook’s height (165.1mm). Most importantly, Nook’s got a soft design which makes it more comfortable and secure to hold as it’s more lighter (197g) than Kindle Paperwhite (213g). The Nook gets an advantage here in terms of handling.
MEMORY:
Nook Glowlight offers 2GB in-built memory and that’s expandable using a microSD card. Paperwhite also has 2GB internal memory (enough for 1,100 books), but lack of expandable memory is a turn off. While, Kindle has its proprietary unlimited Cloud Storage for Amazon contents, storing contents on Paperwhite won’t be an issue.
CONNECTIVITY:
Nook Glowlight comes with Wi-fi as an only connectivity option (for $119), while Paperwhite comes in two versions – Wi-Fi version for US$119 and Free 3G version for $179.
A single charge on Kindle Paperwhite lasts up to eight weeks, based on a 30 minutes reading per day with Wi-Fi off and even when the lights on. Nook Glowlight promises a battery life of upto two months without the lights on, but even if you turn on the light and read daily for 30 minutes, the company promises one month battery life.
Charging time for both e-readers is nearly same – 4 hours for Kindle Paperwhite and 3.5 hours for Nook Glowlight.
While not the case with Nook, Paperwhite doesn’t include a charger (though charged off a laptop), you got to spend $10 extra in order to get a Power Adapter.
Pricing
The cost for Kindle Paperwhite is dizzying – $119 for Wi-fi version with ads, $139 for Wi-fi version with no ads and more expensive $179 for Free 3G model; none of them comes with an Adapter. Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight has a clear price of $119, including Power Adapter.
Wrap-up
We do have a clear winner here. Summing up all the features discussed above, Amazon has managed to create an awesome E ink e-reader, Kindle Paperwhite. Still, some users will be annoyed with ads on Paperwhite (only comes when you are not reading), but if you are more concerned about the display of the page than any other factor, Kindle Paperwhite should be an obvious choice over Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight.
About the author: Steve Johnson View all posts by Steve Johnson
Steve hails from Connecticut and living in Los Angeles, CA. He has done his Bachelor’s in Information Sciences. He is completely nuts about new age laptops and touch smart phones. He is working full time with PC-Tablet and writes critical articles and reviews on the same subjects with immense flair.
Source:
http://www.pc-tablet.com/7712-kindle-paperwhite-vs-nook-glowlight/