Kindle Paperwhite vs. Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight
Desktops
What's up Prizefight fans?
I'm Brian Tong and e-readers continued to be a red hot product.
So we're through on 2 CNET editor's choice e-readers into the ring.
It's a Prizefight punch out between the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite with special offers and the Barnes Noble Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, both priced at $119.
Our judges for this fight are executive editor, John "the Maltese" Falcone,
executive editor, David "the bad boy" Carnoy and myself "Ring A Ling A Ding" Tong.
Now, we'll take all 3 judges scores and average them out to the nearest 10 each round.
The final Prizefight score will be an average of all rounds within the same system.
We are going 5 rounds deep.
First up is design.
Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite streamline is designed with an all black border that takes design cues from the entire Kindle family.
Its minimalist design brings a soft rubber backside and it's about 20% thinner compared to the Nook, but a little heavier in weight.
Now, the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight has a unique e-reader design with rounded corners accented by a great border and a contoured body design that's more ergonomic and comfortable to hold.
We wish it was a little thinner, but its smaller footprint is still nice.
I like curves, but the judges overall give the Kindle Paperwhite the edge with a perfect five and then Nook Glowlight gets a 4.7.
Next round is navigation and interface.
The Kindle Paperwhite removes all physical bonds
except for a power bond at the bottom, the lack of a central home bond at the bottom means you always have to change your hand position whenever you wanna access your toolbar by tapping at the top or even turning on the built-in light.
That can be annoying.
Now, its all touch interface uses a capacitive touchscreen for turning pages with a swipe and it's overall a tad bit snappier to use.
Now since we're comparing the special offers' version, you'll always have a banner on your home screen and your screensaver so that can take away from the experience.
Now, the Nook brings both touch and physical control navigation.
When reading books, you can move through the pages by either touching or swiping the screen or using the physical controls on the side to turn pages.
Pressing the center brings up more settings and options.
The whole bond is the heart of the navigation, is the access and it brings up the main toolbar plus holding it down activates a Glowlight for reading and overall the feel and controls there are just better.
The Nook gets a perfect 5 and the Kindle gets a 4. So, if you're averaging 2 rounds, the Nook takes a lead next round's features.
-The Kindle's biggest feature is that the new screen with a paperwhite built-in light that's brighter and its LED a little more consistently plus its screen resolution is higher for slightly crisper text.
And my favorite reading feature is X-ray mode that breaks down important characters, locations, but it's not available for all books and time to read let you know when you'll finish a chapter.
Now, you won't find a headphone jack or these features anymore, but you'll still get an experimental web browser that I recommend you never use ever.
Now, another killer feature is Amazon's lending library and if you're an Amazon prime member, you'll have access to 180,000 books that you can borrow including the entire Harry Potter series and that's huge.
Now, the Nook Glowlight was the first e-reader to bring the backlit screen that's set the standard and it still works great, but it's a tad bit behind now that the Kindle is caught up and improved their screen resolution, but the Kindle can't match the Nook as the card expansion offers more and more content.
You can go into a physical retail store and with the selection of books for free,
a native e/pop support is a big deal for hardcore users.
It also comes with its own power adaptor.
You can't say the same for the Kindle that just have the USB cable and you won't have to look at special offers all the time.
Both the e-reader support overdrive for borrowing books from local libraries, they can both lend books to other users.
There's PDF reading support and social hooks for Facebook and Twitter.
This round's jam packed the features, but the Kindle takes with a 4.7 and the Nook gets a 4.3.
Next round is performance.
The Kindle brings up pretty ridiculous 8-week battery life with the backlight on.
And that's just dirty good.
It also has a high resolution screen and is slightly faster to navigate compared to the Nook.
Now, the Nook has a 1-month battery life with the Glowlight on and that's impressive, but just not as impressive.
The Kindle Paperwhite takes this round with a 4.3 and the Nook Glowlight gets a 4. So for averaging 4 rounds, we're tied at 4.5.
The final round that decides at all is ecosystem.
If you've ever heard the phrase, "[unk]." This is where Amazon shines.
Amazon has 180,000 Kindle exclusive titles and often offers slightly better prices where you'll pretty much find the top books on both stores.
Now, Amazon's lending library is also a huge differentiator if you pay for Amazon prime.
Both e-readers offer books, magazines, and newspapers and you can even download games on your Kindle.
Barnes and Noble just can't match the Amazon
and beat when it comes to content and the Kindle takes this round with a 4.7 and the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight gets a 4. So let's average out all 5 rounds and in a battle where the Nook Glowlight came out hitting hard.
The Kindle Paperwhite fought back hard taking the last 3 rounds and the new kid on the block takes this battle 4.5 to 4.4 and is your prizefight winner.
I'm Brian Tong.
Thanks for watching.
We'll catch you guys next time on another prizefight.
