Barnes & Noble's new $130 e-reader is water resistant, has a sharp display and an aluminum back

Although Barnes & Noble stopped making its own Nook tablets a couple of years ago following poor commercial success and is now selling rebranded Samsung Galaxy tablets with a custom Android UI, the company hasn't given up on hardware altogether. Earlier today, Barnes & Noble officially announced the Nook GlowLight Plus, a much-needed update to the company's e-reader series.

The original Nook GlowLight Plus, launched a couple of years ago, was updated in pretty much every aspect you can think of, and, at the price of $130 with no ads, the e-reader appears to hold its own against Amazon's competing Kindle e-readers.

Since the display is the number one attraction on any e-reader, it should be noted that the new Barns & Noble Nook GlowLight Plus features an e-ink display with a density of 300 dots per inch, an enhanced contrast, and better brightness dispersal. Barns & Noble claims that the display matches that of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, which is the main competitor of the Nook GlowLight Plus. Speaking of similarities, the new e-reader from Barnes & Noble also integrates a capacitive touchscreen, an upgrade over the infrared touch technology used by the entry-level Amazon Kindles and the older Nook GlowLight.

Although a better display was to be expected, Barnes & Noble took a lot of people by surprise today when it announced that the GlowLight Plus comes with an aluminum back and is also dust and water resistant up to depths of 3 feet for up to 30 minutes. The company says that customers want durable e-readers that they can use to read books at the beach and in the bathtub, and the GlowLight Plus directly addresses both these needs.