Month: January 2026

eReader Comparison: How does the iPad Mini 6, Nook Glowlight 4, and Amazon Kindle Colorsoft compare?

Apple iPad Mini 6 vs Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight 4 vs Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition

Over Christmas last year, I went haywire on updating our eReaders. Our Barnes and Nobel Nook was 13 years old with a battery that no longer held a charge. While our Kindle was newer by several years, it was still long in the tooth. The Apple iPad Mini 6 is a generation behind, but works well so we opted not to replace that. As such, I decided do an eReader comparison for those who aren’t sure which one they should get.

Apple iPad Mini 6 – $N/A (Mini 7 – $499)

The iPad Mini 6 has an 8.3″ screen, making it the largest of the eReaders reviewed. It is a full color tablet that runs any app in the Apple store. It is heavier than the other eReaders but makes up for that in its versatility and extra functionality. Battery life easily lasts most of the day, if reading, though it will require charging that night after a days use. It’s bright screen is suitable for outdoor use, however the screen can glare if the sun is directly behind you and the sunlight might lead to an overheated device (which happened to us). It is fast and reading through or highlighting in a book is a breeze.

Why would we pick the iPad Mini over the other eReaders? For one, it it more universal due to the app store, allowing us to use Kindle, Nook, Libby, and other apps for reading. If we get bored of reading, then we can use the iPad Mini to draw with the optional Apple Pencil Pro. Or check our email. Or reply to text messages. Or…, well, you get the gist. The price, however, makes it the most expensive. While our iPad Mini 6 is no longer sold, an equivalent (but faster and newer) iPad Mini 7 is currently $499.

My wife prefers the iPad Mini 6 over an individual eReader locked to a single store (aka, Amazon or Barnes and Noble), and her lack of patience is satiated by the snappy performance of the A15 Bionic chip. I dislike the weight of the iPad Mini for reading, though I do use it for other tasks such as listening to audio books.

Buy the iPad Mini if you need extra functionality and/or have a library of books across different apps like us.

Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight 4 – $149.99

The Nook Glowlight 4 has a 6″ e-ink black and white screen (7.8″ if you opt for the plus model), making it the smallest eReader of the three. It is light weight, has an adjustable back light for nighttime reading (adjustable in brightness and color, from cool white to warm orange). It’s interface is simple. However, it is showing it’s age, having been released in late 2021. It is no where near as snappy as the Kindle, and I have had some books freeze for up to a minute on it’s table of contents.

The physical buttons are convenient for turning pages and going one chapter forward or backward, however due to placement I tend to hit them on accident while adjusting my hands. Battery life is better than the iPad Mini; with the backlight on at medium brightness, I have gotten a weeks’ worth of reading before getting a battery low warning. Without the backlight, reading for weeks at a time is possible.

While the eReader supports EPUBs and PDFs, it is largely meant for one purpose: to read eBooks purchased through Barnes and Noble. It does not support other apps natively nor does it support eBooks purchased through Kindle. It also does not support audio books (though the Glow Light 4 Plus, does).

I prefer the Nook for its small and lightweight body, making it the most comfortable to read on when laying down. However, the pesky buttons sometimes get in my way, advancing or backtracking the pages and even chapters when accidentally pressed. Considering the price and it’s age, however, its a hard purchase to swallow. Our library is largely Nook based, so its either this or the iPad Mini.

Buy the Nook Glowlight 4 if your library is Nook based.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition – $279.99

Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition has a 7″ color e-ink screen. While the colors are limited and dull, especially compared to a tablet like the iPad Mini, it is a nice upgrade from the black and white e-ink readers and adds a splash of colorful fun to the reading and highlighting experience. While the weight is lighter than the iPad mini, it is heavier than the Nook, though I can tolerate it while reading in bed. The Kindle is noticeably snappier than the Nook Glowlight 4, but not as snappy as the iPad Mini.

There are no physical buttons to accidentally press, but if you like having said buttons, then this is not for you. Battery life appears as solid as the Nook, easily lasting a week with its backlight. Like the Nook, the backlight is adjustable.

The Kindle does not support EPUBS natively, requiring you to use the “Send to Kindle” feature to convert the file into a format readable by the Kindle. Unlike the Nook, you can technically use Libby via the “Send to Kindle” option, but like the Nook, there are no other native apps. The Kindle Colorsoft is meant for Amazon’s ecosystem of eBook purchases for Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible for audio books.

The Signature Edition comes in 32 GB of storage and has a Qi Charger for wireless charging, so if you do not need that much storage or wireless charging then spring for the cheaper base 2025 Colorsoft instead.

While I like the Kindle Colorsoft and while I certainly use it, I mainly have it just for the Kindle library I maintain. It is lighter than the iPad Mini, so it is more comfortable to use it to read in bed than the Mini.

Buy the Kindle if your library is Kindle based, or you use/have Kindle Unlimited and/or Audible.

Conclusion and Notes

All three eReaders support USB-C and all three do the job they are meant for wonderfully well. The Nook does support side-loading content via USB-C, whereas the Kindle ‘supports’ it but has an increased complexity so that the “send to Kindle” option is a better choice for compatibility.

There are also other eReaders out there, from full tablet to e-ink, such as Kobo, Onyx, and Remarkable (which double’s as a note taker). There are also a plethora of models to choose from within each make (Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Colorsoft, Kindle Scribe, Kindle Scribe Colorsoft… for example). While this article does not cover them all, I hope it helps those trying to decide what to buy.

“You are not set up to use this calling feature” Error in Microsoft Teams

“You are not set up to use this calling feature” Error When Selecting Call Queue Number as Caller ID in Microsoft Teams

So, you wanted to use Teams. You buy the licenses, assign numbers, set up your resource accounts and a main number. You want people to be able to make a call as that call queue, versus from the number they’ve been assigned. Great! Except, it doesn’t work. Your users dial a number and select the call queue as the call from number. They get an automated voice on the other side: “You are not set up to use this calling feature” they are told. They need to contact the administrator to enable the feature. So, they contact you, the administrator.

You check all the settings, caller ID policies, and more. Yet the problem persists. The call queue is set up correctly. The option to call using the resource account numbers under Assign Calling ID is there, after all. So why won’t it work?

The solution, apparently, lies not within the Teams admin center, but rather lies with the license itself.

To resolve, go into admin -> Billing -> Your Products -> click on the Teams Phone with calling plan license -> and at the very bottom, change the “Phone service Consumption” to status “on”.

This feature is off by default, as enabling this can potentially incur additional fees if you go over your plan’s limit. What that limit is, I have no idea!

That said, the feature now works as intended and users can now make outbound calls to their customers as the resource account instead of revealing their personally assigned numbers. As I continue to test this, I’ll update the article if I find any surprise charges.

I can’t take credit for this fix, however – /u/NATSupport over on Reddit found it and posted the fix here. I am thankful, as I was struggling to solve this issue as well.

Geekom GeekBook Pro X14 Review

I have always been a fan of thin and light notebooks, but never a fan of the lack of power they tend to leave on the table as a compromise. However, in recent years, such compromises have largely shrunk. From Apple’s MacBook Air with its powerful M series chips to a plethora of thin and light Windows laptops running Ultra 9s, such a gap has closed considerably. The GeekBook Pro X14 is no exception to the progress that has been made in this area.

Today, I am reviewing the Geekom GeekBook Pro X14, a 14″ laptop which promises a lot for a fairly affordable price.

So how does it hold up? Let’s find out.

It’s specs as reviewed:

Intel Ultra 9 185H
32 GB LPDDR5x
2 TB SSD
14″ 2.8K OLED with up to 450 Nits of brightness and 120 Hz Refresh Rate
2.2 Pounds
72 Watt Hour Battery

First Impressions

To start, while pulling the laptop out of its box, I was immediately struck but how light it is. Weighing in at just 2.2 pounds, this 14″ laptop is noticeably lighter than my 13″ MacBook Air. Of course, when comparing the sizes directly, the GeekBook is ever so slightly larger than my Air. It is also a hair thicker than the Air as well, but thanks to its feet on the bottom it sits significantly higher than the Air. The feet makes sense, as unlike the Air, it is actively cooled with a fan so the clearance is necessary for better heat dissipation.

There are several ports on the GeekBook; on the left is an HDMI 2.1 port and two USB-Cs (not thunderbolt). On the right is a USB A 3.2 port, headphone jack, and a camera shutter switch for privacy.

The lid opens easily and with one hand. I’ve had 4 pound laptops need both hands to open without it lifting the bottom as well, but this lid opens effortlessly.

The body has some wobble, as if the legs are not perfectly aligned. It is not very noticeable when typing, but pushing on the bottom right corner is. Geekom claims the body is coated with a material for more comfort, offering a different (almost plastic) feel than I was expecting of an all metal magnesium body.

The instructions say it needs to be plugged in to turn it on for the first time, so I did just that and pressed the power button. Within moments, the laptop came to life and I powered through the set up screen. However, be forewarned, it took over an hour to update the laptop during the set up process.

Keyboard – 10/10

The keyboard feels familiar to that of my Air. If you do not like the keyboards of the newer M series Macs, then you won’t like this. However, I’m a fan, so this keyboard feels right at home for me.

There is no keyboard flex, something I dislike on laptops made of plastic (which is to say, most of them). Overall the body is sturdy when typing.

The power button does have a built in finger print reader, which is accurate and fast to unlock Windows.

Touch Pad – 6/10

Ouch! Not sure if its this specific unit I have, but the track pad is stiff along the entire center. I have to press hard (or tap) if I want to select something. The right and left click fine. Precision wise, scrolling wise, and feel – it is among the better track pads I have used for Windows Laptops. The stiffness really hurts the overall feel of the laptop otherwise. I am curious if any other owners have the same issue.

Speed – 9/10

The Ultra 9 185H is definitely a power house of a processor, but it is also now two generations old. I don’t hold this against Geekom, as there is clearly a price advantage to using these processors. Further, with an Intel CPU shortage in full swing, it may have been a strategic decision to do this.

For day to day tasks, office work, web surfing, I’ve not had any issues. The 32 GB of RAM offers plenty of overhead for these tasks. For photo editing, it is quite honestly, good enough. For video editing, 64 GB of RAM would be nice for larger more complex projects, however this machine has no upgradeable RAM as it is soldered to the motherboard. With the RAM shortage, this again may have been a strategic decision.

The SSD seems to speed along fine despite being PCI-E 4.0 rather than 5.0; I doubt anyone will notice any performance issues there as I certainly don’t.

Gaming – 7/10

Update 1-25-2026: The Intel Arc chip in this thing is more capable than I had expected, but as I had figured, it is not the best for AAA gaming. I tested Minecraft, Space Engineers, Star Trek Online, and Star Citizen.

Minecraft: Frames varied depending on location, chunk loading, etc., but I was as low as 30 FPS but as high as 114 FPS. The game was overall playable. I played max settings, max render, max Chunk Simulation Distance, etc..

Space Engineers: FPS was between 30 and 40. High settings and full resolution.

Star Trek Online: No FPS counter here, but the game play was smooth at max settings and resolution. However, at 2.8k, the GUI was tiny – very, tiny.

Star Citizen: Would not launch due to a driver issue with the Intel Arc. Further reading on this issue, the game did run before until an update on Star Citizen broke it about a month ago. The fix is a driver update, which does not yet exist.

Screen – 10/10

The 2.8K OLED screen is quite simply, gorgeous. For entertainment consumption, it is practically perfect. It’s 120 Hz refresh rate is also nice, though falls short of some gaming screens. I do not have a calibration tool, but the colors look accurate enough. The 450 Nit brightness is enough for me to work perfectly fine outside with a partly cloudy day. It may struggle in direct sun, however (something I have not been able to test due to weather).

Speakers – 7/10

Despite promising high quality speakers, the sound is… tinny. Playing sound at max volume, alongside my M2 MacBook Air (also at max volume), the difference is very noticeable. My Air is far richer and fuller than the GeekBook. However, the sound is passable and will certainly be fine with streaming content. But for those who prefer fuller, richer sounds, I’d suggest headphones or external speakers.

Camera 8/10

The 1080p webcam is great and works well in well-lit areas. The physical camera privacy switch on the right side, next to the headphone jack, works as advertised.

Microphone – 8/10

The built it Geekom PC Manager program offers three optional modes – “Capture Voices in Room”, “Remove Ambient Noise”, and “Clear Voice”.

Capture Voices in Room: Seems to capture (almost) everything as one might expect. My wife, sitting about 10 feet from behind the laptop could be heard mostly, but when she lowered her voice some the microphone did not register her voice until she spoke louder.

Remove Ambient Noise: Did not work well at all. With my wife speaking at a distance, her voice came through warbled and distorted with ambient noise penetrating through. So if you are in a conference call and need someone near you to be heard, do not use this option.

Clear Voice: Seems to be slightly better on the pick up and clarity, but you can hear mouse clicks and typing as well, but no noticeable ambient noise.

Microphone Effects Disabled: Definite difference in clarity and ambient noise came through (such as the laptop fan). I’ve opted to keep the effects enabled with Clear Voice as my preference.

Battery – 7/10

I’ll admit my bias here, after being spoiled by my M2 MacBook Air’s battery life, I find any Windows Laptop… lacking. The GeekBook Pro X14 comes with a 72 Watt Hour battery, promising up to 16 hours of life. Currently, as I type and browse the internet with max nits on the screen, I have used 22% over the course of an hour and a half. Windows tells me I have 2 and a half hours remaining before it needs to be charged again. This aligns with some of the other Windows laptops I have used for work. Obviously, you can get a lot more battery life out of a laptop by turning the brightness down.

By turning my brightness down to half (whereas I’ve had it maxed before), Windows says I will get up to 5 more hours out of it. I see no reason why someone can’t squeeze a full day’s productivity out of this (gaming, photo, and video editing aside). I am always suspect of claims of long battery life (regardless of the brand).

Note: I have an Anker Nano ii 65 Watt charger that I tested with this unit. It would charge for a minute and then stop. The charger that came with the laptop, also 65 Watts, works fine. I suspect a compatibility issue with the Anker and the GeekBook Pro, as the Anker Nano ii works fine with my other laptops.

Bloatware – 7/10

There is only one program on this laptop that could be considered bloat, and that is the Geekom PC Manager. It seems fairly light weight and has some useful functions, such as tracking heat, adjusting microphone profiles, and updating/installing drivers, and more. I’m usually not a fan of bloatware of any kind and immediately remove it, but this seems reasonable to keep if you want, especially as some function simply opens Window’s settings. Otherwise, of course, you are always free to remove it.

Warranty – N/A

The GeekBook Pro X14 comes with a one-year warranty, plus an additional one-year warranty when purchased through the geekompc.com website. I gave the score the N/A due to not having needed to use it, so I can’t comment on how well it’s honored.

Price – 9/10

The current price is $1249 (as of January 2026). The initial price, $1,299 appears fair for the unit as far as I am concerned. However, a few days after I purchased the laptop, the price was dropped by $50 and a 10% coupon was offered in addition to that. Go figure. However, the price of the Ultra 5 model was increased by $50, so be aware of this. Even without the coupons, at $1249 (as of January 2026), I consider the price fine, especially for it’s OLED screen. Keep in mind, these are claimed as “sale” prices, however, I’m not sure if the price will change all that much (though it may with the increased prices of computer parts and due to the CPU and RAM shortages).

The Ultra 5 125H model comes with a 1 TB SSD and is priced at, currently, $1049.

Overall – 7/10

I have some complaints – the rocking body when flat on a table (and I’ve tried different tables/surfaces), the tinny sound, and the track pad issue results in a final overall score of 7/10. I really want to give it a higher score – its weight is incredibly light for it’s size, the keyboard feels great to type on, and the screen is stunning. Still, despite the score, I will absolutely recommend buying this if you are in the market for a new laptop and want something light and portable but powerful and capable for a decent price.

As I have only gotten to use the laptop shy of a week, I plan to update as I go, as I will be using the laptop more and more.

Updates

Update 1-29-2026: I fixed the finger print reader issue very easily. I removed my finger prints and PIN, uninstalled the finger print reader in Device Manager, restarted, then opened the Geekom PC Manager and selected PC Optimization -> Drivers -> Repair Finger Print Reader Driver which reinstalled the driver. I did not reach out to support. I then added my finger print back in and re-setup my PIN and it’s been working fine ever since.

Also, I updated a typo in the date at the beginning of the article and clarified the N/A score under warranty.

Update 1-25-2026: As part of the testing, I opted to update the BIOS to the newest version. Now, as always, if you don’t need to update the BIOS, then you don’t NEED to update the BIOS. However, I decided to do this to be thorough.

Updating the BIOS appears to have broken Windows Hello / the finger print reader, as when used after rebooting, I get a Pin cannot be used right now and a flashing / refreshing screen, preventing me from using a password, pin, or finger print. Or anything else for that matter, as it refreshed several times a second. The only fix I have found thus far is to restart and NOT use the finger print reader, rather opting to just use my password instead. I will update once I have a fix.

Notice: This review was written on a Geekom GeekBook Pro X14 purchased through the geekompc.com website. Links to the website and laptop are strictly for ease for my readers and are not affiliate linked. I have received no compensation for this review.