Barnes & Noble drops price of Nook with GlowLight e-reader by $20

Barnes & Noble has cut the price of its popular Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight e-reader by $20 as it faces competition from the launch of Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite, which starts shipping in October.

The Nook with GlowLight, slashed to $119 from $139, is now the same price as the Kindle Paperwhite, which Amazon introduced earlier this month. Target and Walmart stores now list the e-reader at the reduced price.

It’s a smart move for Barnes & Noble considering the strong interest consumers have shown in Amazon’s flagship e-reader.

Originally, the Kindle Paperwhite was supposed to ship on Oct. 1, but now if you pre-order one it won’t ship until the week of Oct. 22, due to high demand, Amazon says.

TechHive’s Melissa Perenson has had hands-on time with both devices and said the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight — the first e-ink e-reader to truly deliver on the promise of a built-in light source — set the standard for silky-smooth reading and shopping because it lets you read anywhere, whether you’re in bed or outside in bright sunlight.

That was back in April. Now that the Kindle Paperwhite is about to hit the scene, Perenson says Amazon pulls off a built-in light better, at least in a couple ways. “At its maximum output, the Kindle Paperwhite’s light is brighter and more even than on the Barnes & Noble Nook with Glowlight; plus, the Paperwhite has no obvious spillage from the LEDs along the sides,” she writes.

Choosing between the two isn’t a slam dunk, however.

Amazon’s e-reader comes with ads (you have to pay $20 extra to get rid of them), whereas Barnes & Noble’s doesn’t, and that will make a difference to some people. On the other hand, the Kindle Paperwhite can keep a charge for up to eight weeks, whereas the Nook with GlowLight offers a month of battery life if you use it about 30 minutes a day with Wi-Fi off.