The Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight and Kobo Glo HD are affordable high resolution e-readers. Both of these units were released in 2015 and are being heavily promoted for the upcoming holiday season. What are the main differences and is one better than the other?
Both of these e-readers have a 300 PPI e-paper display with a resolution of 1440 x 1080. One of the primarily differences is that the new Nook employs a capacitive touchscreen display, so you can use a stylus, whereas the Kobo utilizes Neonode IR.
The new Nook Glowlight Plus utilizes a waterproof design, which basically results in being able to read in the bathtub and makes it rather immune to spills. If you want a waterproof model from Kobo you will have to shell out extra money to buy the Kobo H2O.
The purpose of the video comparison is to give you a sense of the differences between these two devices. We evaluate shopping for e-books and how their digital bookstores are arranged. One of the big takeaways is that Barnes and Noble takes pre-orders for e-books, but Kobo does not. Additionally we look at the e-reading experience in regards to EPUB and PDF files and compare the front-lit displays.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.