Kindle Paperwhite vs Nook Simple Touch With Glowlight

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In the Kindle vs Nook war, one battle is between the Kindle Paperwhite, an e-ink reader from Amazon and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, an e-book reader from Barnes & Noble. The Nook has an advantage in price but the Kindle also comes in a 3G version and offers a wider selection of media from Amazon's ecosystem, including independent publishers.

Comparison chart

Kindle Paperwhite versus Nook Simple Touch With Glowlight comparison chart
	Kindle Paperwhite	Nook Simple Touch With Glowlight
	current rating is 3.09/5 1 2 3 4 5 (32 ratings)	current rating is 2.69/5 1 2 3 4 5 (16 ratings)

Manufacturer	Amazon	Barnes and Noble
Type	E-reader	E-book reader
Built in devices	Display and capacitive touch screen	Display and touch screen with built-in antiglare screen protector
Weight	7.5 oz.	6.9 oz.
Packaged contents	USB Cable, Battery	MicroUSB cable, Power adapter, Battery
Slot type	Nill	microSD
Display Type	6”	6” monochrome E Ink
Resolution	1024X768	600X800
Color Depth	-	4-bit (16 gray levels)
Features	Capacitive touch screen	Anti-glare
Flash Memory Installed	2 GB	2 GB
Maximum supported memory capacity	Does not allow memory expansion	32 GB
Supported Flash cards	Nill	microSD, microSDHC
Supported Text Formats	DOC, EPUB, HTML, MOBI, PDF, TXT	EPUB, PDF
Supported Still Image formats	JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG	JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG
Connectivity	Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi+3G	Wi-Fi
Price	Wi-Fi Version - $119-$139; Wi-Fi with 3G version - $179-$199	$119

The Kindle Paperwhite makes a good gift for serious readers.

Design

The bezel of Kindle Paperwhite is 77% shorter and hence the shadow caused by raised bezel is reduced.

Display and User Interface

The display size is 6” for both the devices. The capacitive touch screen of Kindle Paperwhite is superior when compared to the IR touch screen of other devices. The higher resolution of 1024X768 makes reading smaller fonts easier and images more detailed. The backlight provides excellent night time reading.

The Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight has a built-in antiglare screen. The integrated light in the Nook displays uniformly across the high-contrast Pearl e-ink touch screen which is great for night time reading. It also has hard page-turn buttons on the sides that is absent in Kindle. Kindle has 212 ppi compared to 167 ppi of Nook which makes the text sharper in the Kindle. With the backlight and high ppi as well as resolution, Kindle is a better reader.

Available Content

The Paperwhite has a built-in dictionary (tap and hold on a word to access it) and Wikipedia quick-search capabilities, and you can highlight sentences and passages, add notations, and share quotes on Twitter and Facebook. You can also translate passages between various languages.

Wireless Connectivity

Kindle Paperwhite provides either Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi with 3G. The 3G service from AT&T is free and can be used across the globe. The Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight does not support 3G but has Wi-Fi connectivity.

Borrowing

The Nook supports e-book lending and EPUB loans from libraries. Prime Members with Kindle Paperwhite can access Amazon Lending Library that lets you check out thousands of titles one at a time at no additional charge. The list has more than 200,000 titles, many of which aren’t mainstream, popular titles. You can also borrow e-books from most local libraries on the Kindle, as you can with other e-book readers.

Cross-platform Compatibility

In addition to offering a wider range of titles than competing online bookstores, Amazon lets you access the e-books you buy on almost any platform. Kindle apps are available for iPad, iPhone, Android phones and tablets (including Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets), and through any Web browser. In other words, even if you end up moving to different hardware platforms, you'll always be able to read your Kindle books. Beyond books, the Kindle can be used to read most magazines and newspapers as well by subscribing to a Kindle version. Amazon also offers a cool send to Kindle plug-in for Google Chrome that lets you send any Web page to the Kindle for later reading. With a Nook, you are locked into the Barnes & Noble ecosystem (e-books, newspapers, and magazines).

Audio

Though both the devices don’t support audio, the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight has a headphone jack for listening to audio books.

Reliability and Performance comparison

The Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight enables memory expansion while Kindle Paperwhite has no memory expansion slot. Though Nook has better hardware settings, is cheaper and lighter, Kindle makes a better e-reader.

Battery Life

The manufacturer claim for Kindle is eight weeks of battery life with the light on at half brightness, based on 30 minutes of use a day with Wi-Fi off which is twice as that of Nook with the same settings.

Price

The Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight is priced at $119. The basic Kindle Paperwhite costs $119 while the version with 3G is $179. It costs $20 more to get an ad free version.

Advantages

Kindle Paperwhite

The backlight provides excellent night time reading.
The display is paper white.
The capacitive touch screen is superior when compared to the IR touch screen of other devices.
The higher resolution of 1024X768 makes reading smaller fonts easier and images more detailed.
It has a built-in dictionary, built-in web browser and Wikipedia quick search capabilities.
It has a very good ecosystem for reading books, magazines and newspapers.
It has a reading speed calculator.
The bezel is 77% shorter and hence the shadow caused by raised bezel is reduced.

Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight

The integrated lighting enables easy night time reading.
The device has a microSD slot for memory expansion.
The anti-glare screen is built-in.
It is lighter than Kindle Paperwhite.
An additional power adapter cable is provided for charging the battery.
It does not have ads.

Disadvantages

Kindle Paperwhite

It does not allow for memory expansion.
It does not support audio.
It is heavier.
It does not have an additional power adapter cable
The ad-free version costs $20 more.

Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight

It does not provide 3G connectivity.
It does not support audio.
The rubberized bezel attracts dust and fingerprints.

References

About the Author

Nick Jasuja has over 15 years of technology industry experience, including at Amazon in Seattle. He is an expert at building websites, developing software programs in PHP and JavaScript, maintaining MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, and running Linux servers for serving high-traffic websites. He has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Engineering.