Avoid these popular E Ink e-readers now that their support is dead and buried

Grabbing a second-hand e-book reader is a great way to save a little money on a device that, being completely honest, doesn’t age all that much. While smartphones tend to slow down or easily become obsolete, e-readers will plod on for years and years. But even though this is the case, e-book readers still come to the end of their lives, and should be avoided as a result.

That’s now true of a grand total of seven Barnes & Noble Nook devices, which reached the end of their lives in June 2025. That doesn’t mean they’ll spontaneously combust, but it does mean they’ll no longer get updates or, most importantly, connect to the bookstore at all. That means they’re much harder to use as e-readers, and should largely be avoided.

The discontinued Nook devices to avoid

Thankfully, they’re all really old

It’s been a long time since Barnes & Noble discontinued any of its Nook e-readers, as the only time it had done so was for the Nook First Edition, released all the way back in 2009. However, quite a number have now reached end-of-life status, meaning they will no longer get updates, connect to the Nook bookstore, or sign in to new accounts. The following Nook e-readers are now end-of-life, as of June 2025:

• Nook Color (2010)
• Nook Simple Touch (Released in 2011)
• Nook Simple Touch w/ GlowLight (2012)
• Nook Tablet (2012)
• Nook HD (2012)
• Nook HD+ (2012)
• Nook GlowLight (2013)

On the plus side, if you have any of the devices above, you’ll still be able to read anything you’ve already got on there, and any account you’re signed into will stay active. But you still won’t be able to buy anything new, download anything else, or sign into different accounts. You will be able to sideload new e-books, so your devices aren’t entirely dead. However, they might as well be where the second-hand market is concerned. If any of the above devices are on your shopping list, make sure to strike them out now.

Still, these are some pretty old devices, even for e-readers. My very first e-reader was a Nook Simple Touch, and it bit the dust a long time ago, the touchscreen having died long before it was discontinued. If you’re more fortunate than me, then you may still be rocking one of these Nook devices. But if that’s true, and you aren’t just going to use it to read some old favorites, I would recommend upgrading to something more recent. The Kobo Clara BW is our current favorite e-reader, and it’s absolutely worth the cost to upgrade.