Impressions of the GL3 & Advice on Plus

[rcentros]

While looking at a couple Nook Glowlight 3s that the Spokane Goodwill store was auctioning, I noticed a Kindle Paperwhite 2 at $12.xx with only a couple hours left. So I put a bid on it and was surprised when I won it for $14.11, plus about $9 s/h. When the package arrived it turned out to be the Glowlight I bid on but didn't win. I'm in the process of exchanging it now but, meanwhile, I have a chance to test it.

On the plus side ...

• Great, clear screen.
• Even, consistent front lighting.
• Comfortable to hold and use.
• Fast page turning.
• Nice dark fonts.
• Page turn buttons.
• No problem with side-loading (the way I use it).
• (Surprisingly) a good store experience.

(On side-loading, it was as expected. I don't think I would have a lot of trouble with the Glowlight 3 because I don't care about collections or bookshelves and I don't side-load a lot of books at once.)

On the negative side ...

• "Laggy" for everything except reading
• Page turn buttons are noisy (clicky).
• No way to load custom fonts.

Surprisingly, the one feature I thought I would really like, night light mode (whatever Nook calls it), is something I don't really care for at all. I guess my eyes need contrast and the darker background seems to bring back the past problems I've had with "floating" fonts (a personal issue).

Well, that's about it. Except I have a couple questions about the Glowlight 3 as compared to the (original) Glowlight Plus.

Are the screens between these two readers comparable (except for the night light). I'm guessing the Glowlight uses capacitive touch since it's waterproof, but (other than that) are the screens about the same in clarity and lighting? I counted seven white LEDs in the GL3 and (and six orange ones), does the GL+ have seven white LEDs also? Since I don't really like the "night mode" I'm thinking of buying a refurbished Plus instead of the 3.

Thanks for any info.

[Pajamaman]

The buttons were annoyingly loud. Thought it was just mine.

[Sirtel]

I've never seen a Nook personally myself, but I just recently read an old thread here about the original Glowlight Plus, and there were complaints about its poor contrast. So I'd guess the Glowlight 3 has a better screen, as everyone seems to praise it. Of course only someone who has seen both personally can say for certain.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

The buttons were annoyingly loud. Thought it was just mine.

As mentioned in another thread, I didn't use the page turn buttons last night because I didn't want to wake up my wife. I didn't really check this out on the GL+ 7.8 when it was in the store. Hopefully they've done something to quiet them down a bit.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've never seen a Nook personally myself, but I just recently read an old thread here about the original Glowlight Plus, and there were complaints about its poor contrast. So I'd guess the Glowlight 3 has a better screen, as everyone seems to praise it. Of course only someone who has seen both personally can say for certain.

Okay, thanks for that. Contrast is important, especially since you can't side-load dark fonts.

[trence]

I'd recommend you use a different than stock reader on it, then you can load all the fonts you would like, set gamma for fonts, etc.

Clearest screen I've found yet.

https://github.com/plotn/coolreader/releases

That fork of CR has a nice screen refresh feature that works well for Nook.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by trence

I'd recommend you use a different than stock reader on it, then you can load all the fonts you would like, set gamma for fonts, etc.

Clearest screen I've found yet.

https://github.com/plotn/coolreader/releases

That fork of CR has a nice screen refresh feature that works well for Nook.

I'll look into Cool Reader. Thanks. When you write "Clearest screen I've found yet," are you referring to Cool Reader, the Nook Glowlight Plus or both together?

[trence]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I'll look into Cool Reader. Thanks. When you write "Clearest screen I've found yet," are you referring to Cool Reader, the Nook Glowlight Plus or both together?

Oh, I apologize. I meant the GL3, actually. I have gone through an embarrassing number of them this year looking for the sharpest contrast. Nova Pro, Mars, Poke Pro, Voyage. GL3 is the only one I didn't re-sell. Just my 2 cents.

If you try that fork of CR on GL3, click the option to set as E-reader, and it will allow you to choose the settings you want on a full black page refresh. I set it for every 5 pages with 200 ms length. Clears all ghosting, can set fonts, margins, etc.

I also set all screen zones in CR (except center) to advance to next page, so you can hold with either hand and tap anywhere on screen to go next. That is nice, especially when it's late with the clickiness of the buttons.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by trence

Oh, I apologize. I meant the GL3, actually. I have gone through an embarrassing number of them this year looking for the sharpest contrast. Nova Pro, Mars, Poke Pro, Voyage. GL3 is the only one I didn't re-sell. Just my 2 cents.

That's a pretty strong endorsement for the GL3. Maybe it would be best just to get that one. I know the screen is great on the "borrowed" one I will have until (I guess) Monday (tomorrow). Apparently whatever mechanism Goodwill has for sending return labels doesn't work on weekends as I still haven't gotten it.

Thanks.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by rcentros

While looking at a couple Nook Glowlight 3s that the Spokane Goodwill store was auctioning, I noticed a Kindle Paperwhite 2 at $12.xx with only a couple hours left. So I put a bid on it and was surprised when I won it for $14.11, plus about $9 s/h. When the package arrived it turned out to be the Glowlight I bid on but didn't win. I'm in the process of exchanging it now but, meanwhile, I have a chance to test it.

On the plus side ...

• Great, clear screen.
• Even, consistent front lighting.
• Comfortable to hold and use.
• Fast page turning.
• Nice dark fonts.
• Page turn buttons.
• No problem with side-loading (the way I use it).
• (Surprisingly) a good store experience.

(On side-loading, it was as expected. I don't think I would have a lot of trouble with the Glowlight 3 because I don't care about collections or bookshelves and I don't side-load a lot of books at once.)

On the negative side ...

• "Laggy" for everything except reading
• Page turn buttons are noisy (clicky).
• No way to load custom fonts.

Surprisingly, the one feature I thought I would really like, night light mode (whatever Nook calls it), is something I don't really care for at all. I guess my eyes need contrast and the darker background seems to bring back the past problems I've had with "floating" fonts (a personal issue).

Well, that's about it. Except I have a couple questions about the Glowlight 3 as compared to the (original) Glowlight Plus.

Are the screens between these two readers comparable (except for the night light). I'm guessing the Glowlight uses capacitive touch since it's waterproof, but (other than that) are the screens about the same in clarity and lighting? I counted seven white LEDs in the GL3 and (and six orange ones), does the GL+ have seven white LEDs also? Since I don't really like the "night mode" I'm thinking of buying a refurbished Plus instead of the 3.

Thanks for any info.

I own the glowlight 3 and I am waiting for Nook Glowlight Plus 2nd edition to arrive in the mail. I've seen them side to side though and the capacitive touch screen compared to the infrared screen, of the gl3, makes the latter somewhat clearer/sharper. I don't really care about that because to me it is negligible. I read mostly non-fiction and even my epubs that are not pdfs tend to have more graphics than the fiction books most people read. What I read is on the mathematics and techie side of things so the extra screen realestate makes a difference.

I think , I am not sure, the plus is faster and probably not due to software optimization but I think the gl3 has 500 gigs of ram and the plus has 1gig and the plus might have a newer processor even though it is at the same gigahertz. Gigahertz is not even a good proper measurement of processor speed , anyway, MIPs is a better measurement.

I don't really care if the Nook store goes out of businesss since I guess google play has more books than even amazon and I already have a huge DRM stripped library since I have been using eReaders since the SONY days.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

...I have a couple questions about the Glowlight 3 as compared to the (original) Glowlight Plus.

Are the screens between these two readers comparable (except for the night light). I'm guessing the Glowlight uses capacitive touch since it's waterproof, but (other than that) are the screens about the same in clarity and lighting? I counted seven white LEDs in the GL3 and (and six orange ones), does the GL+ have seven white LEDs also? Since I don't really like the "night mode" I'm thinking of buying a refurbished Plus instead of the 3.

Thanks for any info.

Hey buddy, I read this yesterday and intended to answer. I have a Plus and a 3. The screens on both are very good. The 3 is slightly clearer as the Plus does use capacitive touch. I think the difference is minor, but it exists. If I can remember when I get home, I can take a picture of them side-by-side, though I'm not sure how helpful it will be. The difference may not be noticeable in a picture. From what I remember, the difference isn't glaringly noticeable side by side.

The Plus is more stable and quicker than the 3. I put it down to software optimization, but Raphi says no and likely has done more research than I have.

Aside from the Plus feeling more stable than the 3, the software is the same on both. So if anything on the GL3 annoys you, it'll likely annoy you on the Plus.

One bugbear that barryem has mentioned and I've noticed a few times myself: The home 'n' button isn't a button on the Plus. It's capacitive (due to waterproofing I guess). Because of that, I have returned to the home screen when I accidentally hit the home button.

Otherwise, I think the Plus is a wonderful reader. I thought the pebbled bezzle would annoy me and I wound up loving it. I only wish there were more internal space. I carry waaaay too many books on my reader and filled the 2.5GB

Incidentally, Goodereader says the Plus has five white LEDs and the 3 has seven. I haven't counted them myself. Every ereader I've had since the Simple Touch with Glowlight has been good enough for me lighting wise.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Raphi'Elohim

I don't really care if the Nook store goes out of businesss since I guess google play has more books than even amazon and I already have a huge DRM stripped library since I have been using eReaders since the SONY days.

Thanks. I'm looking to buy books more from non-Amazon sellers (not because I hate Amazon, but I just don't think one company should have all the business). Is DRM still easy to strip out of Nook books?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Hey buddy, I read this yesterday and intended to answer. I have a Plus and a 3. The screens on both are very good. The 3 is slightly clearer as the Plus does use capacitive touch. I think the difference is minor, but it exists. ...

Thanks. I think I'm tipping towards the Plus, since the main new feature in the GL3 (besides the keys) is the night light mode and, though I tried to get used to the orange light last night, I (so far) can't make myself like it. One big plus on the Plus (for me) is the flush screen. I think the 5 LEDs (instead of 7) would be fine, but the GL3 really does have a nice screen. Still going back and forth on it. Thanks for weighing in. I was hoping you would because I knew you had both and that you liked the Plus. I'm aware of the issue with the capacitive home button, the Tolino Vision has something similar. Although, in later firmware, they built in a two-second delay option and (in the last release) they've given you the option to turn it off completely. It would be nice if B&N would look into doing that, the delay, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Thanks. I'm looking to buy books more from non-Amazon sellers (not because I hate Amazon, but I just don't think one company should have all the business). Is DRM still easy to strip out of Nook books?

No it is not easy. I can't give you the exact steps, because that is against the forum rules, lets just say I had to pull a hash file from the nook, using adb and fastboot, after doing doing some unix busybox kung-fu changing the permissions, then saving the file as .b64 extension then running an sqlite3 database command on it and then finally entering it into the DeDRM plugin in Calibre. I mean it wasn't that hard for me because I am a techie but for a non-techie it would be bewildering.

I mean getting your encryption key is non-trivial but you only have to do it once after that it is super easy because calibre just automatically strips it off.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Anyway, I just got mine today. First impressions :

1.)Software is slightly different at a higher version release that automatically upgraded to it when I first turned it on. My glowlight 3 does not have this new update and it makes the interface a bit different in certain modes and it is slightly less buggy.

2.)Buttons don't click as loud as the gl3

3.)Has 1 gig of ram instead of 500gs me for running extra stuff if you root it and the rooting process is the same as for the gl3. I don't necessarily advise rooting this one compared to the gl3 because I temporarily bricked the plus until I restored a file,factory reset it and rebooted it all using adb. Even if you don't root it the 1 gig of ram makes it run faster than the gl3 because unlike a pc without an SSD the hard drive is not the bottleneck per se as much as a platter based old school pc hard drive.

4.) Bigger screen is better for me since I read math books and technical books with symbols that are even in epub form not even pdf.