Classic org Nook v. 1.5 screen v. Pearl screen

[boswd]

took my nook out for a field trip today to best buy to compare the new darker text courtsey of the latest update (v1.5) to the Sony and kindle's Pearl screen. I have to say the nook's screen held it's own.
Looked good

What are other's opionions? Be really interested in hearing from people who own both a Pearl screen ereader ( Sony or kindle) and the original nook in real life usage.

thanks

[jeankap]

I own a nook, a kindle 3, and a Sony pocket (not the new one).

The Kindle and the nook are comparable in best buy lighting.

The kindle wins in a room lit by one ottlite table lamp.

The Sony and the nook are neck and neck.

I'm switching off between my nook and my kindle for my entertainment reading.

[coolbreeze]

Honestly? I think the nook after 1.5 has the better screen.

I've owned the K1, K2, KDX, KDXg, and K3 and I recently bought a nook and nook color.

As for e-ink, I do think the nook looks better than even the Kindle 3's "Pearl" screen, IMO. Maybe it's the fonts Amazon uses that I don't like. Not sure, but the viziplex screen on the nook looks great! The K3 is on eBay!

[Kitabi]

One of the BIG reasons I bought a Nook (and this was before 1.5 came out) was because I disliked the screen on Kindle 3. The text on the K3 was not darker than the Nook to my eye and the Nook had a more book like background (a shade of cream-beige). The K3 has a gray background reminiscent of calculator LCD's.

With Nook's 1.5 firmware, the background has darkened a bit but it is nowhere close to Kindle's gray.

[rhadin]

After buying the Sony 950 with the new Pearl screen, I compared it to a friend's K1 and to an in-store nook at my local B&N. I was curious about how the nook compared. Bottom line was that to my eye, the Sony Pearl screen (and presumably the Kindle Pearl screen) was definitely better than the other two -- BUT the difference wasn't so dramatic that I wouldn't have bought the nook on that basis alone. I do think, however, there is a significant difference between the K1 and the new Pearl screens.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by rhadin

After buying the Sony 950 with the new Pearl screen, I compared it to a friend's K1 and to an in-store nook at my local B&N. I was curious about how the nook compared. Bottom line was that to my eye, the Sony Pearl screen (and presumably the Kindle Pearl screen) was definitely better than the other two -- BUT the difference wasn't so dramatic that I wouldn't have bought the nook on that basis alone. I do think, however, there is a significant difference between the K1 and the new Pearl screens.

Hi rhadin, do you remember when you compared the Sony to the nook? Was within the past 2 weeks? The reason I ask is that is when the update new version came out for the original nook that produced a darker bold text.

thanks and thanks for everyon chiming in.

[:D ominik]

Originally Posted by Kitabi

With Nook's 1.5 firmware, the background has darkened a bit but it is nowhere close to Kindle's gray.

No, that's a visual illusion or imagination.

I own two nooks and after upgrading one of them I compared them side by side. There's absolutely no difference in brightness nor color (it's still cream-beige).

Additionally the changes to produce darker text are only enabled in the reader app. Switching between reader and librabry therefore should change the background brightness/color. But that's not the case as there is absolutely no change in the inert (white) areas in the display.

I've used my colorimeter to measure the black and white levels before and after upgrading my second nook and there is NOT any difference. The brightness is unchanged and even the darkness in the black areas is unchanged. There is only one modification: the text in the reader app is bolder now and therefore appears darker. In bright environments the difference (illusion) is hardly perceivable, but with dimmed lights the difference is clearly visible.

True is: pearl displays produce darker blacks (6-8%), the white areas are as bright as on recent vizplex (vizplex is in fact brighter while measuring, but only at places after the comma and hardly visible), but the color of the "white" is more gray than beige (I like the vizplex-beige more than the pearl-gray). The difference in contrast is mainly (and simply) achived through bolder fonts. That's the hole magic (compare K2/K3 or 505/650), the text is bolder on pearl devices).

[LoganK]

Originally Posted by :D ominik

That's the hole magic (compare K2/K3 or 505/650), the text is bolder on pearl devices).

I don't think it's simply a bold, but rather a tweak on the aliasing algorithm...

...but then again, I haven't spent much time looking at it under a microscope.

[kezza]

I do think there might be something to claims that after the 1.5 update the nook's e-ink background shade has darkened. With the shortening of the flash time for page turning, I think the screen muddies over time. There tends to be more ghosting of the previous page after each turn and, after extended reading periods, the background looks darker and the contrast goes down. Rebooting seems to help a little bit, but I worry that shortening the page turn length so much may reduce the overall contrast of the screen, since more black ink is left on the surface after each page turn.

[aagstn]

Originally Posted by kezza

I do think there might be something to claims that after the 1.5 update the nook's e-ink background shade has darkened. With the shortening of the flash time for page turning, I think the screen muddies over time. There tends to be more ghosting of the previous page after each turn and, after extended reading periods, the background looks darker and the contrast goes down. Rebooting seems to help a little bit, but I worry that shortening the page turn length so much may reduce the overall contrast of the screen, since more black ink is left on the surface after each page turn.

I agree with this. I can definitely see the ghosting and after using my original nook more I am starting to dislike the fast page turns and would prefer an option to set it back to the old way.

The Pearl screens look a bit better, but the difference is too slight for me to care. However, I liked the look of the nook eink screen more pre 1.5 update and I would like to see a 1.6 update that lets us turn off the fast page turns to improve the screen contrast.