The Nook GlowLight 4 is a minor upgrade over its predecessor, providing better performance and a solid reading experience. Almost everything else about the device, on the other hand, runs from “underwhelming” to “disastrous.”
I’m not by and large certain who the main interest group is for the Nook GlowLight 4. I think, maybe, it’s kin like me, who have tenaciously clung to their unique Nooks or Nook Simple Touches for the last 10 or more years, however who will not get an Amazon Kindle out of sheer obstinacy. Past that, I’m experiencing difficulty concocting a huge segment.
Consider it. There’s not any justification for Nook GlowLight 3 proprietors to update, since the advantages over the past model are negligible. There’s not any justification for Kindle or Kobo proprietors to switch, since the GlowLight 4 is a more vulnerable gadget generally. There’s not any justification for relaxed perusers to get one, since their cell phone or tablet can satisfy a similar capacity nearly too. Regardless of whether you’re never going to budge on purchasing a tablet interestingly, there’s no specific advantage that the Nook can propose over its two nearest rivals.
NOOK GLOWLIGHT 4 REVIEW: SPECS
- Price: $140
- Display size: 6 inches
- Resolution (points-per-inch): 300
- Storage: 32 GB
- Battery life: Approximately one month
- Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.8 x 0.2 inches
- Weight: 6.0 ounces
- Ports: USB-C
- Wireless charging: No
- Extras: Color temperature, Barnes & Noble in-store perks
The best thing I can say about the Nook GlowLight 4 is that to peruse and effectively load it onto your gadget, you’ll have the option to peruse it in harmony however long you like. As an interruption free method for perusing books without stressing your eyes, the GlowLight 4 succeeds. That is reason to the point of giving it no less than a gentle suggestion.
However, there’s such a lot of that Barnes and Noble expected to fix from the GlowLight 3, thus minimal that really finished. Assuming that you really want to supplant an old Nook and can’t stomach the prospect of losing your library, this Nook GlowLight 4 audit will show it’s a fine gadget. In any case, however, you’d be a lot more joyful with one of the most mind-blowing Kindles or a Kobo.
Niche GlowLight 4 survey: Price and accessibility
Assuming you choose to purchase a Nook GlowLight 4, you basically will not need to place a lot of idea into which form to purchase. There’s one arrangement, which accompanies a 6-inch e-ink screen, 32 GB stockpiling and a USB-C charging port. It costs $150, however Barnes and Noble individuals can save 10%, wrecking the cost to $135.
Barnes and Noble additionally sells the Nook 10″ HD Tablet Designed with Lenovo for $130, yet this is a more conventional LCD screen tablet. It’s anything but a tablet.
Niche GlowLight 4 survey: Design
Assuming you’ve utilized a tablet whenever somewhat recently, the Nook GlowLight 4 should feel pretty instinctive. It’s a dainty rectangular gadget, about the size of a mass-market soft cover, yet all the same a lot lighter and more slender. At 6.2 x 4.8 x 0.2 inches and 6 ounces, it’s little to the point of reserving in practically any pack, and light to the point of holding for quite a long time while you read.
Like most committed tablets, the GlowLight 4 shuns the LCD screens normal to cell phones, tablets and PCs, picking rather for an e-ink show. Assuming you’ve never utilized an e-ink gadget, it’s tailor-made for vivid perusing. A static e-ink show doesn’t devour any energy. Thusly, tablets can keep going seemingly forever on a solitary charge (as long as a month, in the GlowLight 4’s case), and don’t wear your eyes out as fast as LCDs, which revive many times each second.
One significant benefit of the GlowLight 4 over equivalently valued Kindle and Kobo gadgets is its actual page-turn buttons. While you want to purchase super-premium Kindle and Kobo models ($180 and up) to get actual buttons, the GlowLight 4 incorporates them of course. Besides, you get these buttons on one or the other side of the screen, dissimilar to Kindle and Kobo, which put both actual buttons out of the way. The GlowLight 4 has a superior, more naturalistic format, and the buttons have a major effect, especially since it implies your screen will not be canvassed in fingerprints.
In any case, the GlowLight 4 resembles a conventional tablet. It has a power button on top, a USB-C charging port on the last, a “Alcove” logo on the back and very little else. The main large distinction from the GlowLight 3 is that the GlowLight 4’s case is marginally more modest, and the page-turn buttons are on the edges of the bezel rather than the middle.
Alcove GlowLight 4 audit: Interface
There are two fundamental parts to the Nook Glowlight 4’s point of interaction: the understanding experience, and what I’ll call “all the other things” — settings, lighting, purchasing new books, etc. As a rule, the GlowLight 4’s perusing experience is astounding, while at the same time “all the other things” goes from “fine” to “a bad dream.”
To give credit where it’s expected, I really incline toward the GlowLight 4’s center perusing experience to that of the Kindle. Not at all like the Kindle, which packs its books brimming with Goodreads and online media usefulness (Editor’s Note: which you can invest energy incapacitating, on the off chance that you’re similar to us), Nook books hush up. There’s nothing among you and the printed word. You essentially purchase or get a book, open it up, and read until you don’t really want to peruse. I likewise need to give Barnes and Noble credit for tackling the horrendous screen blazing and relentless burden times from the GlowLight 3. The GlowLight 4, similar to any great tablet, does unequivocally a certain something, and does as such quite well.
The perusing point of interaction is generally great also. At the point when you’re in a book, you can tap the screen to leap to far off pages, or to choose a specific part. You can likewise change text dimension, text style, edges, line dispersing and defense. You can search for watchwords, add bookmarks, feature and make notes.
You can change the nominal GlowLight with two fast menu taps, and you can likewise actuate a supportive Night Mode. This moves the Nook’s shading temperature throughout the day, from cool blues toward the beginning of the day, to warm oranges around evening time. This may assist you with dozing better in the event that you read just before bed; if not, it’s adequately simple to switch off.
I have just two objections here. The first is that Amazon lets you sideload your own text styles to the Kindle; while the Nook, then again, offers seven textual styles, and that is everything you’ll get, except if you root the gadget. The GlowLight include is additionally less exact than I’d like, since you need to drag a slider around rather than determining discrete levels. You can’t save your beloved lighting levels, and there’s no versatile brilliance. Both of these were gives last time around, and Barnes and Noble had a lot of chance to address them.
Past that, you can sort out your books on the Library screen, play with show choices in Settings, read bits of suggested books in Readouts, or Search for books, both in your library and in the Barnes and Noble advanced retail facade.
Alcove Glowlight 4 survey: Content
Purchasing new books is adequately straightforward. You basically open the store, observe the book you need (you can look, peruse, or get individualized proposals) and pay for it through Mastercard or gift voucher. New books download to your gadget consequently, and with 32 GB stockpiling, you can store a huge number of books. (I’m not by and large certain why Barnes and Noble increased the capacity from 8 GB to 32 GB, as standard book records seldom surpass 10 MB, however more stockpiling is never something awful.)
While Barnes and Noble’s shop isn’t exactly just about as rich as Amazon’s, you’ll have the option to observe what you really want, given that you like books that have been on paper at some point over the most recent 20 years or somewhere in the vicinity. Barnes and Noble promotes that it has more than 4.5 million books on offer, from works of art to New York Times smash hits, and I’ve never experienced an excess of difficulty observing what I expected to peruse, from ’50s science fiction to shiny new lit fic. You can even drop into a Barnes and Noble store and read essentially anything however long you stay, similar as lifting a book up off the rack and sitting with it for a little while.
Notwithstanding, I would be neglectful on the off chance that I didn’t make reference to the most common way of sideloading content to a Nook. A while ago when the Nook appeared, its open EPUB document design was a major aid over the Kindle, with its walled-garden MOBI records. EPUB similarity was especially useful for downloading from nearby libraries, something that the Kindle didn’t propose by any means.
Presently, in any case, the tables have turned. While the Nook keeps on depending on old-fashioned Adobe Digital Editions innovation and side-stacking through USB links, Amazon has cooperated with library projects to permit remote credits. Indeed, even the in any case unexceptional Kobo has outperformed the Nook, as you can peruse Overdrive library books right from a Kobo gadget.
Alternately, attempting to get library books on the GlowLight 4 was some way or another — against all possible chances — surprisingly more terrible than attempting to acquire them on the GlowLight 3. Last time around, the Nook would not perceive that my library advances were substantial; this time, I was unable to get my PC to perceive the Nook by any stretch of the imagination.
Assuming you run into inconvenience attempting to sideload books, Barnes and Noble offers obsolete investigating exhortation that faults Adobe; Adobe offers obsolete investigating guidance that faults Barnes and Noble. Neither one of the organizations has made the slightest effort to work on the cycle over the most recent couple of years. Without reiterating the entire hopeless interaction, it took full resets of both the GlowLight 4 and Adobe Digital Editions before they began playing pleasantly together. And, after its all said and done, the Nook would in any case in some cases demand that I wasn’t shooting the gadget appropriately, so it needed to erase all of my sideloaded records in counter.
As I told one more Tom’s Guide proofreader after I squandered an entire morning on this interaction, “I haven’t purchased an actual book in north of 10 years, however babble like this is to the point of making me return.”
Niche GlowLight 4 survey: Battery life
One region where the Nook GlowLight 4 completely experiences its true capacity is in the battery life office.Barnes and Noble cases that the gadget can endure as long as a month on a solitary charge. This is clearly reliant upon a huge load of various variables, for example, your understanding pace, your lighting choices, your Wi-Fi availability, etc. However, most importantly you will not need to charge the gadget all the time. That is something worth being thankful for, taking into account that it’s normal for significant perusers to establish themselves before a book for a really long time at a time.
The main metric I can offer is that when I originally got the GlowLight 4, I charged it to 100 percent. After seven days, in the wake of perusing rarely with the light at half-strength and the Wi-Fi off, I brought it down to around 75% charge. That is in accordance with Barnes and Noble’s gauge, in spite of the fact that I envision it will begin depleting quicker once I plunk down for a long distance race meeting.
Alcove GlowLight 4 survey: Verdict
At the point when I looked into the Nook GlowLight 3, the three issues that bothered me were the sluggish burden times, the unending screen blazing and the close difficulty of sideloading content. Barnes and Noble has fixed the initial two issues, while keeping the interruption free perusing experience flawless. Notwithstanding, sideloading is as hopeless as could be expected, and that is a major issue when an open record design is your greatest benefit over the opposition.