Kindle Paper White review : Mobileread users

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Greg G

Bad thing is that even if I pay the extra $20 it will show a screen saver instead of the pages I was on if I just close the cover when I'm done reading? It should work just like a paper book. Close to stop reading and open to start again with no extra steps.

I don't mind the special offers at all but I didn't buy the new cover just to have to open the book with a swipe. I went ahead a paid the $20 bucks to unsubscribe from SO. Now when I open the cover it opens to whatever page I was on when it went to sleep.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JoeC

I agree. The photos of the bad units don't compare to what I'm seeing.

Same.

[Carmelreader]

Mine arrived and I couldn't be happier. The screen is bright and very clear. With the light off the screen is very similar to my K3 except the light grey is a tad warmer rather than a cooler grey, but I would say the same value. I don't have any splotches at all. The light from the bottom is hardly noticeable either. You have to be looking for it. And most definitely an improvement over the K3 lighted case which I did like. The touch feels very responsive. I have been ruined by the iPad, and so I returned a Kindle touch because I didn't like how it's touch worked. This I like. I have had every kindle made (even if I returned it like the Touch) and I must say I think this is a big step up and that I will thoroughly enjoy reading with it. Also I think the case makes a great package. So much smaller and lighter than the K3 and even than the kindle 4 grey NT that I have been using recently. I like how it turns on and off when you open it. I do wish they would put a band inside the case flap to slip you hand. These are my thoughts on the KPW that I received. I hope you all receive as good an example.

The case does have a slight glue smell. Hope it will disappear soon. I am really, really sensitive to smells, so it might not bother others, but for me it needs some airing out. May put it into the KNT case until it does.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by wynand32

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with the sync issue. I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with Amazon support, and my case was forwarded to the developers, so they're now officially aware of the issue. Hopefully it's a simple fix and they'll issue a quick update for this problem at least.

Well it might not be a PW issue. I can't seem to get My Kindles to sync or my Kindle Fire for the last three days. These are personal documents. It's driving me nuts.

[copyrite]

And when did all these new Kindles 'go live'? In the last couple of days, of course. Methinks the cloud's getting crowded?

*hearing Mick Jagger singing in my head now*

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by copyrite

And when did all these new Kindles 'go live'? In the last couple of days, of course. Methinks the cloud's getting crowded?

*hearing Mick Jagger singing in my head now*

I just thought it was the book I was reading. So I reconverted and still no go. Today I went back to another book and have the same problem.

[wynand32]

Originally Posted by copyrite

And when did all these new Kindles 'go live'? In the last couple of days, of course. Methinks the cloud's getting crowded?

*hearing Mick Jagger singing in my head now*

Well, I'm sure they sold a few, but I have a hard time believing that so many people received their PWs yesterday (when I first noticed the problem) that the servers have been overwhelmed. I mean, there are already tens of millions of devices syncing continuously--how many PWs could have been delivered already to impact that infrastructure?

[copyrite]

Unless Amazon CS is messing with something because the PW has gone live? And forgot to turn it back on?

[NNolan]

there's a hole at the bottom of the screen. On the left hand side, opposite from where the hole is on my Nook. Except the Kindle came with the hole, right out of the box. I'm debating whether or not I can learn to live with this like the one on the Nook, because there's a 3 to 6 week wait for a replacement from Amazon.

The light is much whiter than the Nook, although I like the blue-ish light from the Nook too. I haven't had much time to play with it yet and compare contrast, fonts, etc. It froze during the registration process and I had to do a hard restart, but that seemed to fix things. The touch screen doesn't seem to be any more or any less responsive than the IR touch screens on my Sonys or my Nook. Size-wise it reminds me of my Sony T1, except heavier.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by copyrite

Unless Amazon CS is messing with something because the PW has gone live? And forgot to turn it back on?

Tried 3 more. None of my books are Syncing this is not a PW problem.

[ChristopherCCM]

Originally Posted by JoeC

I agree. The photos of the bad units don't compare to what I'm seeing.

My unit, too, seems to be performing much better than the units pictured with uneven lighting, and degraded resolution.

I received my Paperwhite just a few hours ago, and I've spent only perhaps an hour variously loading documents and books to the device, and reading sent-to-Kindle articles while waiting for books and larger files to load.

The device is running firmware 5.2.0.

I have used the device both outside, under bright sunlight (it's a gorgeous California day), and in the office under bright fluorescent lighting. I briefly read with the device in a more dimly-lit coffee shop.

In all of these environments, the lighting has been perfectly uniform across the screen, and even in the dimly-lit coffee shop, the LED light-streams at the bottom were barely visible.

Up-date: On closer inspection, I do notice four small, rounded cones of shadow at the bottom of the screen, but, as some else previously noted, they don't reach the bottom-most line of text, and, honestly, had I not been looking for them after reading everyone's comments, I doubt that I would have noticed them.

At a light intensity setting of 22 (of 24) in sunlight, the screen background is an almost-LCD quality white; the fonts are black and, while not quite as crisp as I had hoped (and seemingly not quite as crisp as pictured in some of the online reviews, yesterday), the text is still much improved over any previous eink screen that I've used.

I can tell, already, that, as Amazon recommends, I'll be keeping the front-light on at all times: When the light is dimmed, the screen contrast plummets, and is only slightly better than that of the previous generation of Kindles. This is more than acceptable, though, given how clean, and white the background is with the light on.

Unlike the Nook Touch, I don't notice any degradation of the text quality, as the light is scaled up. Quite the reverse, actually, since the contrast improves tremendously.

On small caveat, which may become larger as time goes on, is that with the front-light on, and set, say to 22 in sunlight, the screen IS brighter than the local ambient light. This somewhat defeats the benefit of an eink screen, which reduces eye-strain when compared with an LDC screen by using only ambient light to illuminate the text. I began squinting slightly with the light at 22, because it was noticeably brighter than the objects around it. This seems to be something of a trade-off between high-contrast white background, and purely ambient light-lit text.

The touch screen is comfortably responsive, if not that much improved over the previous generation Kindle Touch. What I hugely appreciate, though, with the new capacitive screen, is that the text does not blur around the edges in warm sunlight, as it tended to with the infra-red touch scree on the Kindle Touch and Kobo Touch. The blurring of text in warm sunlight, to me, always defeated the purpose of an eink reader, which was its usefulness outside in sunlight.

I do miss a physical home button, if only to spare the small hassle of finding the menu "zone" at the top of the screen, and making two taps to return to the main menu. This is a small complaint, though.

Items are taking more time to sync to the Kindle, and it seems that only 3-6 items will sync in a given cycle; returning to the menu and tapping Sync and Check for New Items does bring down the next batch, though.

The ergonomics of the device are fantastic! I don't care for the bulk of the Nook Touch, and while the indented back is nice, I much prefer the sleeker build of the Paperwhite. This device, unlike the Nook Touch, slips right into a larger jacket pocket, and it'll fit my cargo shorts perfectly, without feeling bulgey and awkward.

PDF support isn't (as expected) as good as that of the Kobo Touch, but I'm fine using my iPad for image-heavy PDFs. Pan-and-zoom is there, though, which I don't recall being included in the Kindle Touch (but perhaps it was added in a software up-date, after I returned mine). In a pinch (no pun intended), it works fine.

All in all, I couldn't more pleased with the device, given the limitation of eink. I'm feeling really lucky to have gotten a unit without manufacturing issues, and this is definitely the best ereader I've yet used.

[Trauma Doll]

Just confirming I also have the sync'ing issue. Cloud-based personal docs won't sync location between KK and PW. Haven't tried iOS apps but I assume they won't work either.

Actually: I just tried it with a novel purchased from Amazon (so a totally legit, DRM'd purchase which has been untouched), and it won't sync either.

[mewmartigan]

I just opened mine and i absolutely love everything about it. I don't have any of the issues others are seeing with the splotching. Hopefully you can get replacements quick!
There is a very small amount of screen near the bottom where you can see the four LEDs illuminate out in a wedge but you really have to look for it. If I am concentrating on the words instead, the light just fades into the background, nice and even.

Love the new cover too. When I open my cover, I have to then swipe away the ad but thats fine with me. Also, first ad I was greeted with was a free $5 to Amazon mp3, so thats cool.

[AnemicOak]

Here's some quick pics of mine. These are in a dark room, the first with the light turned all the way down (as I noted above it doesn't actually turn off), set at 10 and set at 18.

[mewmartigan]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Here's some quick pics of mine. These are in a dark room, the first with the light turned all the way down (as I noted above it doesn't actually turn off), set at 10 and set at 18.

haven't read the entire thread...are you happy with yours? I think your pics look similar to the way mine looks.