Kindle Paper White review : Mobileread users

[xendula]

Oh no. These lighting issues reports just burst my bubble. I will be dreading opening my box when it finally gets here (still says "shipping soon", and I also ordered as soon as it became available for preorder).

Wynand32 &wildgift, can you guys post pictures?

[sparklemotion]

All of the reviews I read online said how even the lighting was so I'm a little surprised by the user reviews. Hmm... that's a little concerning.

Originally Posted by wynand32

Not sure why I'm reporting this, but mine is B024 for wifi only with SO.

Now, about the device itself, a quick report. I've been playing with mine today (ordered it as soon as it was available online), and it's a nice device. I'm coming from an original Nook 3G, and the Kindle PW is thinner, lighter, and the screen is mostly nicer. Some early observations:

1. There's much more ghosting than I expected and than I'm used to from the Nook. Maybe it's a characteristic of newer e-ink screens that they ghost more but change page more quickly. Perhaps if I configured the Kindle to refresh with each page turn I'd not see the ghosting, but man--it's much more noticeable to me than I expected. And I'm assuming for the moment that mine isn't faulty and/or there's not going to be an early update to fix a known issue. As it stands, text starts out nice and sharp after a page refresh, but it does get progressively worse for the next (5, I guess?) page turns.

2. My unit has pretty splotchy front-lighting. First, there's pretty obvious light bleed at the bottom where the LEDs are, although it's actually more that where the LEDs shine into the matrix there are some dark spots. It's odd--must be the way the thing is designed. Then, there are some brighter areas on the screen, clearly where there are flaws in the lighting mechanism. I might be returning this one and getting a new one if it seems like this isn't a common problem. The lighting still looks nice, but it could clearly look nicer. Perhaps this is an early build issue that will get resolved.

3. I left Nook because B&N pretty much stopped supporting the Nook 3G, particularly in terms of syncing. Simply put, the thing stopped syncing about a year ago, and B&N has done nothing to fix it. Imagine my consternation, then, when the new Kindle PW refuses to sync the last page read after a few hours. Nothing I've tried short of deregistering and re-registering has fixed the problem--all of my other devices (Android tablet, Android phone, iPad) will sync no problem, but the Kindle PW won't send or receive the last page. It's driving me crazy.

So, some early-adopter issues, apparently. I think it'll be a great device once the kinks get worked out, but I'll probably be replacing mine. I'll be interested to hear if anyone else is having the same issues.

On most Kindles they come set to do a full screen refresh only on every 5th or so page. cannot remember how often. But you can change this to refresh after every page and that usually clears up the ghosting. It will turn pages a tad slower, but it is a better screen.

I noticed the light shadows at the bottom of the screen in one of the video reviews I saw this morning. I'm really concerned about that since I'm a bit OCD and that will bother me. In the review it seemed worse at lower light settings.

[Wildgift]

How does one post a pic here? I will but don't know how.

[kasumi]

All these tech blogs repeat the same things over and over.
I bet they just received the Kindle in their mail and pulled our their cameras and started shooting videos without even spending a few minutes really READING with it.

All those things they say I can pretty much get the information from amazon.com.

What I REALLY want to know:

1. How does the Paperwhite screen compare to the other kindles with the lights completely off?

2. How is the new home screen like? All I can get are glimpses of what seems like 6 book covers per page. I've got a hundred books, how am I supposed to navigate and find my books? Any folder options?

3. I want to get a comparison of the Paperwhite with lights on in the dark versus say...a tablet at minimum brightness. Are both about the same brightness? Will the Paperwhite be less eye-straining? If they're around the same, then I could save $50 bucks and just get a $69 Kindle and use my tablet to read in really low light settings.

4. Can recommendations in home screen be turned off? I'm putting up with ads already, I don't need MORE ads under the disguise of 'Recommendations'
5. This one probably for devs: Can I substitute the Cloud part with my own e-library cloud? Or add my personal book catalogue to the store?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Wildgift

How does one post a pic here? I will but don't know how.

You can link to a web image using the image icon in the editing toolbar at the top of the thread posting window, or you can scroll down past the thread text to where it says Manage Attachments and click there to add images from your PC.

[Wildgift]

Here you go. See what I mean about the beams? Otherwise, the look and feel is awesome. The menu is great and feel of the screen is great too.

I found the video review where I saw the light shadowing at the bottom of the screen. It is about 1 minute into the review located on the Verge website and it looks just like the photo shown in @Wildgift's post above.

Verge Video Review

......

[twowheels]

Given the unevenness of the light on my K3 cover I think that I'll be able to live with this small amount of variation at the bottom.

[Wildgift]

Another pic. Shadows at location number...

[wynand32]

As an update, the blotchiness I was noticing actually isn't in the lighting mechanism. It was something on the screen, maybe oil from my finger, or something else. I wipe my screen with a microfiber cloth, and now it's much clearer. Must be an artifact of how the lighting worked that the blotchy locations looked brighter, but they come and go now as I wipe the screen.

The light bleed at the bottom of the screen is not that terrible. It's noticeable, but nothing that detracts from the experience. It might also be variable, and something that they'll work out as they produce more units. I wouldn't return mine because of it, probably.

Right now, my biggest problem is that the syncing isn't working. I even factory reset mine, and syncing worked one time. But once I moved elsewhere on other devices, syncing broke again. At this point, the Kindle PW is completely out of sync with my other Kindle apps, and it's driving me batty. They MUST fix this one pronto.

[sparklemotion]

Thanks for the pic. I can understand that might bother some people, but I doubt it will be a deal breaker for me personally. Especially considering the unevenness of the annoying clip on lights I have been using for so long now. Can't wait till tomorrow when I can try it out first hand.

[sucah]

Thanks for all the posted review, I want to ask about the touch responsive. I read that the touch is capacitive, so if this true, the screen will only response with capacitive stylus like iPad or finger.

[wynand32]

Originally Posted by Wildgift

Here you go. See what I mean about the beams? Otherwise, the look and feel is awesome. The menu is great and feel of the screen is great too.

Yep, that's about what mine looks like.

Originally Posted by wynand32

As an update, the blotchiness I was noticing actually isn't in the lighting mechanism. It was something on the screen, maybe oil from my finger, or something else. I wipe my screen with a microfiber cloth, and now it's much clearer. Must be an artifact of how the lighting worked that the blotchy locations looked brighter, but they come and go now as I wipe the screen.

The light bleed at the bottom of the screen is not that terrible. It's noticeable, but nothing that detracts from the experience. It might also be variable, and something that they'll work out as they produce more units. I wouldn't return mine because of it, probably.

Right now, my biggest problem is that the syncing isn't working. I even factory reset mine, and syncing worked one time. But once I moved elsewhere on other devices, syncing broke again. At this point, the Kindle PW is completely out of sync with my other Kindle apps, and it's driving me batty. They MUST fix this one pronto.

Just to clear up what you mean by sync, are you talking about Whispersyncing from the Amazon cloud, and if so are you using WiFi or 3G?

EDIT: My Touch sometimes gets out of sync with my iPad and PC apps, but this is not a fault of the Touch. It is a fault with the apps and if I delete the out of sync book from the iPad or PC app and re-download it it will get back into sync. Amazon needs to do a lot of work on their apps!