Barnes & Noble has added a pop of color to its smaller e-reader, announcing an Ocean Teal version of the NOOK GlowLight 4. The hardware is the same and it still costs $149.99, but this new finish lives up to its name as a much-needed style refresh — if only to tide us over until the company releases its next crop of NOOKs in 2026.
What’s New: Ocean Teal Comes to the NOOK GlowLight 4
This release is a facelift that lets the 6-inch reader show its face on shelves and gift lists. The Ocean Teal shell makes the NOOK look friendlier and more contemporary than its classic black cousin, reinforcing the idea that Barnes & Noble is riding out the holiday sales period with NOOK as it currently exists.
Familiar specs for day-to-day reading and daily use
This is the same midrange e-reader you already own, just with a teal shell. It’s equipped with a 6-inch, 300ppi E Ink screen for clear text, an adjustable front light with both a cooler and warmer setting akin to Night Mode on Kobo’s e-readers (more about that later) and a scratch-resistant screen. There are physical page-turn buttons that flank the bezel — a differentiation many book lovers continue to favor, particularly for eyes-up reading.
Storage is still a healthy 32GB, plenty for thousands of e-books. Connections include Wi‑Fi and USB‑C charging, and battery life is rated in weeks of typical reading use. The software remains focused on reading, with Barnes & Noble’s store and library syncing, rather than the heavy note-taking or stylus features of larger e-notebooks.
How it compares in the midrange e-reader segment
The GlowLight 4 puts it up against smaller models, like Amazon’s 6-inch Kindle and Kobo’s Clara series. Amazon’s Kindle lineup now goes with 300ppi across the board at this display size, but uses touchscreen-only navigation on its entry-level model. Kobo’s Clara 2E ups the waterproof ante and adds OverDrive for library borrowing, while the newest model — the Clara Colour — brings color E Ink to a very similar footprint. Barnes & Noble matches all that with double the storage of many competitors, and those dedicated page-turn buttons — though not waterproofing or color panel choices.
If blissful reading comfort in a tiny device is required, 300ppi is still the sweet spot right across the industry. E Ink Holdings is still working on tweaking front-light evenness and contrast, and most 6-inch readers hover around the same benchmark. That places design, ecosystem and ergonomics — such as the buttons on the NOOK — at the heart of the decision.
Why a color refresh now for the NOOK GlowLight 4
The teal version comes as NOOK hardware slows to a crawl. Barnes & Noble’s last major 6-inch refresh arrived some product cycles ago, and this light-touch update stretches out the shelf life while keeping the line looking fresh for gifting. It also fills the void as the market turns to new panel technologies, such as color E Ink and faster controllers.
Observers of the industry will have spotted that color E Ink has been gathering steam, with Kobo and PocketBook devices already adding drama to their displays, along with an upcoming range from Onyx using E Ink Kaleido 3 for even deeper colors and crisper text. And where color remains a niche — comics, magazines, textbooks — it’s an area of ongoing evolution. A temperate cosmetic update allows Barnes & Noble to maintain a tried-and-true form factor while figuring out where, if anywhere, color, waterproofing and — dare we imagine? — annotations make the most sense for its customers.
A peek at the next NOOK and what to expect
Barnes & Noble has announced that new NOOK devices will be coming out in 2026, establishing expectations for the first real overhaul for its e-readers in years. If it follows broader trends, the enhanced GlowLight 5 would feature a color E Ink display option, better front-light uniformity, waterproofing or even a lighter design. (Depending on how many readers value simplicity, we’d expect the brand to offer modern features that exist in harmony with the minimal, book-first experience that characterizes the GlowLight line.)
Who should get the Ocean Teal NOOK GlowLight 4
If you crave a value-priced reader with physical buttons and plenty of storage, the GlowLight 4 in Ocean Teal is a no-brainer. Especially enticing as a gift because of its fresh color and no-nonsense setup. For new features — color, waterproofing or stylus support — the better bet is to wait and see what the next generation NOOKs due in 2026 look like, or just experiment with some of the new color models available from competitors at present.
For now at least, that tweaks one of the most accessible e-readers with a little personality without much fussing with what it already does well: provide an interruption-free reading experience in a compact package — that's quite comfortable to hold.
