Quote:
Originally Posted by aagstn
The PW3 is my first time really going on board with Amazon. I loved the original Nook and Nook Color. However, I am nothing but impressed with the PW3. It is very responsive, has a great screen and the Kindle specific features like X-ray and Bookerly font are quite nice. It also integrates my side loaded content from Calibre pretty seamlessly with the books I have bought on Amazon. I gave the new Nook about 20 minutes and was not impressed. Interface was slower and the screen on the Nook seemed to have slightly worse contrast. All of this could get better with new firmware, but they can't fix the design. Waterproof is great, but the metal edges digging into your hand and that tacky looking front are not and there is no way I could live with either.
Another problem is how consumer unfriendly B&N has become. Amazon might be the evil empire, but they at least still make it easy for me to download my books to Calibre and make them DRM free.
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I had high hopes for this device - that maybe B&N would truly get it, and offer something that was consumer friendly. With this Plus, they had the opportunity to claim a niche market (at least in the USA) - an eInk device running a fairly recent version of Android with a 300 dpi resolution... why not let people (at least) sideload apps if they wish, or use Calibre? B&N went out of their way to try to close doors or make it difficult for their device to be used in such ways. Why not show some confidence and embrace these things? Make them a selling point? Or at least leave the doors open and let the word get out on the street? No. B&N continues on its consumer-unfriendly path. I agree that Amazon is far more consumer-friendly and more confident in their products.
This Glowlight Plus is a decent device overall. I used it for reading this afternoon. The page turns happen at a comfortable speed. There were a few times when I needed to touch the screen a second time to get the page to turn, but that wasn't a big issue. Text is sharp as you'd expect it to be. Contrast isn't as good as it could be, because B&N continues doing what they did in the last Glowlight. They make the background a darker gray than you'll find on the PW3 or other devices. Contrast suffers in comparison. If someone bought one as their first eInk device, they'd be perfectly happy with it. But the PW3 would edge it out in a comparison, even though I wouldn't use some features like X-Ray.
Rooting would make the Glowlight Plus more competitive with other readers - even give it an edge. But B&N could have built in that edge if they wanted to. They opened up their tablets to have Play Store quite some time ago. But not for their eInk device. Good thing I still have my Boyue T62+!
I'm not sure if I'll keep my new Glowlight Plus. I'm giving it a chance to make its case. I actually like the aluminum back and don't find it uncomfortable to hold at all. We'll see.