[fbrII]

First Impressions

I went and looked at the new Glowlight Plus at my local B&N store, so take this with a grain of salt, it is not a review, just my impressions looking at an actual physical unit at the store. For those of you who don't have access to a local store and are considering buying via the internet, it may prove helpful.

I was favourably impressed with the appearance of the unit. The lighting was very even and the text very crisp. A big improvement over the last generation Glowlight. Overall very comparable to a Kindle Voyage which I brought to the store so I could see both units side by side. The background is a little whiter on the Voyage but I did not see any issues with the screen or the lighting that would deter me from buying the unit. Physically the unit is both thin and light again comparable to a Voyage. I believe it weighs slightly more that a Voyage but again felt about the same in my hands. I thought the unit was physically attractive, more so that my Voyage, but then I like the white case.

The unit was responsive, no lags etc. The software seemed very basic, change font size, line spacing, margins etc., did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

Overall it looked to me like Barnes & Noble has a very respectable ereader with the Glowlight Plus with a lot of nice features at a good price. I'm on the fence right now. If the memory is not partitioned then I could be strongly tempted.

If you are a B&N reader and are considering upgrading over a previous Nook e-reader my guess is that you would be very pleased with the Glowlight + the screen resolution and lighting are significant improvements over the previous Glowlight model.