B&N unveils new Nook, makes e-ink sexy again

After the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet became the new e-readers du jour, B&N wants to go back to a device based on user-friendly reading.

The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight uses an e-ink display that makes reading easy on the eyes, preventing the strain that comes from looking at an LCD screen.

It also features a built-in light so users can keep reading at night, and don’t need to buy a bulky attachment. The device boasts 60 hours of continuous reading with the light turned on.

For a long time, Amazon’s Kindle was one of the hottest devices on the market. Its extraordinary battery life and the way its display was so easy on the eyes made it a true marvel in electronic books.

However, as the fervor in the tablet world started growing stronger and stronger, the online retailer shifted gears and built the Kindle Fire, an LCD tablet that is in some ways antithetical to the Kindle brand.

After all, Amazon had a whole ad campaign about how the Kindle is better because it doesn’t use LCD and it can go days and days without a recharge. The Kindle Fire is fully equipped with those apparent shortcomings.

Nevertheless, it seemed everyone was heading in the tablet direction. Barnes & Noble also seemed to abandon its e-ink Nook models for the more feature-rich Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

So it is great to see the original e-reader mold back in the limelight, and with new bells and whistles that make e-ink the star once again.

The new Nook is available for pre-orders now, and will begin shipping in early May.