Kindle Paperwhite and Nook GlowLight Similarities
- Both ebook readers have 6-inch E Ink screens.
- Both come equipped with frontlights to better illuminate the display in lower lighting, and both offer adjustable brightness.
- Same price of $119, although the Kindle comes with ads that cost an extra $20 to remove.
- The homescreen layouts are similar, both offering list view and cover view with the same sort or organizing features and collections.
- Both have 2GB of internal storage (about 1GB usable on the Nook, and 1.25GB on the Kindle).
- Both have touchscreens (different tech, though).
- Similar font choices and sizes and layout adjusting options.
- Access to library ebooks.
- Highlights, notes, search, dictionary look-up, sharing via Facebook and Twitter, generated table of contents, bookmarks, free cloud storage of ebooks.
- Both have WiFi.
- Both connect to their respective stores for content.
- Similar battery life.
- 1 year warranty.
Kindle Paperwhite Advantages
- Supports Amazon’s ebooks and periodicals.
- The lighting is whiter and more uniform, although not perfectly uniform.
- The LED lights are more hidden and thus less distracting.
- The Kindle Paperwhite uses a higher resolution screen than the Nook that makes everything appear sharper and clearer.
- Support for Kindle Games and Kindle Apps.
- The Kindle Paperwhite has a basic web browser for visiting web sites and downloading PRC, MOBI, and TXT ebooks (the GlowLight Nook has a hidden web browser and there’s a reason it was hidden—it’s terrible).
- X-Ray feature analyzes a book’s contents with references from Wikipedia and Shelfari.
- Reading progress feature analyzes reading time and estimates how long it will take you to finish a chapter and the whole book.
- Landscape mode.
- Can set different dictionaries.
- Better PDF support, but neither device is very good in that regard.
- The ads (Special Offers) aren’t all bad; you get coupon deals otherwise unavailable, and sometimes free credit to spend at Amazon.
- Optional free 3G wireless (works for Amazon, Wikipedia, and Shelfari).
- View popular highlights and public notes other readers have left in the book.
- Annotations backup.
- Partial page refresh can be turned on and off.
- Contrast darken feature for PDFs.
- Search Wikipedia from an ebook.
- Borrow 1 free ebook per month for Prime Members.
- Supports multiple languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, and Portuguese.
- Highlight words and paragraphs in ebooks to get translations into dozens of languages using Bing Translator.
- Send to Kindle apps and email address makes emailing ebooks and documents to the Kindle Paperwhite easy.
- Can have ebooks from public libraries wirelessly delivered (Nook has to transfer via USB).
- Kindle Panel View for comics and manga (I’ve yet to see this actually work yet, however).
- Optional auto-wake, auto-sleep cover accessory.
- Thinner design.
Nook Touch with GlowLight Advantages
- Supports B&N’s ebooks and periodicals as well as ebooks with Adobe DRM sold from a wide selection of ebook stores.
- Supports the most widely used format: EPUB.
- The Nook has a microSD card slot and supports cards up to 32GB.
- The frontlight can be turned off (the light stays on ever so slightly on the Kindle Paperwhite even at the lowest setting).
- Physical buttons: there’s an "n" button that brings up a menu and turns the GlowLight on and off, and buttons on each side for turning pages.
- Can fast scan through pages by holding the page buttons down.
- The GlowLight Nook Touch can be rooted to run Android apps (the Kindle app even works, among many others; in fact a good share of the advantages above for the Kindle get nullified with a rooted Nook Touch).
- No screensaver ads.
- Comes with USB wall charger.
- From my experience the infrared touchscreen is slightly more responsive than the Kindle Paperwhite’s capacitive screen; both are really good but with the Kindle I find myself having to tap things more than once to get a response occasionally.
- Design is more comfortable to hold.
- LendMe feature makes lending certain ebooks easy, and can be done directly from the Nook Glow itself.
- Set custom screensavers.
- In store customer support.
- Option to set screen timeout by 2, 5, 15, and 60 minutes.
- Turn on and off publisher defaults.
- Free in store reading (read certain ebooks for free at Barnes and Noble stores for up to one hour a day).
- Lighter by half an ounce.
Kindle Paperwhite vs GlowLight Nook Touch: Specs
| Kindle Paperwhite | GlowLight Nook Touch | |
|---|---|---|
| Screen | 6-inch E Ink Pearl with Paperwhite | 6-inch E Ink Pearl with GlowLight |
| Resolution | 1024 x 758 | 800 x 600 |
| Touchscreen | Capacitive | Infrared |
| Processor | ? | 800MHz TI OMAP 3 |
| Operating System | Linux | Android |
| Storage | 2GB, no memory card slot | 2GB, microSD card slot |
| Wireless | WiFi, 3G optional | WiFi |
| Web Browser | Yes | No |
| Page Buttons | None | Yes, 2 both sides |
| File Support | AZW, PRC, MOBI, TXT, PDF | EPUB, PDF |
| Audio | No | No |
| Battery | Up to 2 months | Up to 2 months |
| Weight | 7.5 ounces (213 grams) | 6.95 ounces (197 grams) |
| Dimensions | 6.7″ x 4.6″ x 0.36″ | 6.5″ x 5″ x 0.47″ |
| MSRP | $119 – $199 | $119 |
