I’ve always had a soft spot for the Nook. Barnes & Noble’s e-reader was more than just a rare competitor to Amazon’s steamrolling Kindle, it was a nice device with an interesting design — and one of the first in its class to now standard technologies like front lighting.
But good readers never really die, they just go into extended hibernation and people forget all of about them. And also they sometimes die. Anyway, it’s clear that the Nook division ultimately wasn’t the sort of exit strategy Barnes & Noble was hoping for (no one, it seemed, could predict Amazon), but it continues to release products here and there, including the bigger, better Nook GlowLight Plus.
The new reader maintains the classic Nook soft touch style, coupled with a considerably larger 7.8 inch screen featuring the titular front lighting. Bulkiness has always been a bit of an issue with the Nook, and that’s almost certainly more so the case with the larger footprint. It’s a sacrifice for a more comfortable device, and the price is certainly right though, at $199.
That includes 8GB of built in storage and your standard works-for-weeks-at-a-time battery. The physical page buttons, which Amazon has since come back around on are here, as well. Oh, and the new Nook is waterproof for all of those summer reading misadventures.
It his B&N stores on Memorial Day and will available online Wednesday May 29.
