Discussions with Amazon CS about PW Defects

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by xtine

Well, my replacement finally arrived. As I mentioned before, it's from the 603 series so I had high hopes that I would get a nice unit this time. Unfortunately, while the light does seem whiter (and yay, no glowing specks this time), there seems to be this big green bruise right behind the text.

Your 603 is fairly similar to my 503 if I put the light up high, though my green splodge is of a different shape and not as pronounced as yours.

So far my real-life testing (meaning with the light at a level where the splodge doesn't show) is telling me that:
- in daylight it's a tie between my K3 and PW
- With the artificial light (ceiling) in my living room, I prefer the PW
- With the artificial light (bedside lamp) in my bedroom, I prefer the K3

The angle at which the ambient light falls on the screen seems to be a big factor which affects how the PW screen looks (much more so than the K3). I do like the PW overall but I'm not sure I like it quite enough to keep it.
I'm going to use it some more over the weekend and decide on Monday whether it's refund time.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Your 603 is fairly similar to my 503 if I put the light up high, though my green splodge is of a different shape and not as pronounced as yours.

So far my real-life testing (meaning with the light at a level where the splodge doesn't show) is telling me that:
- in daylight it's a tie between my K3 and PW
- With the artificial light (ceiling) in my living room, I prefer the PW
- With the artificial light (bedside lamp) in my bedroom, I prefer the K3

The angle at which the ambient light falls on the screen seems to be a big factor which affects how the PW screen looks (much more so than the K3). I do like the PW overall but I'm not sure I like it quite enough to keep it.
I'm going to use it some more over the weekend and decide on Monday whether it's refund time.

Try some custom fonts before making your decision. It really changes the whole eReader experience when you got a good font with contrast. See the PW fonts thread for more info.

[xtine]

Thanks, Yolina. I've gotten used to reading with the light off in the daytime so that shouldn't be a problem. I read in the dark at night though so tonight's the first test for the replacement. If not, I've gotten used to reading on the 501 in the dark so maybe I'll use that for night-time reading and the 603 for daytime.

Despite the blotches, having a light built-in is just so convenient that I don't think I could ever go back to a non-frontlit Kindle.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Try some custom fonts before making your decision. It really changes the whole eReader experience when you got a good font with contrast. See the PW fonts thread for more info.

Yeah I've been keeping an eye on the font thread but that's not going to make the blotches go away though.

Originally Posted by xtine

Thanks, Yolina. I've gotten used to reading with the light off in the daytime so that shouldn't be a problem. I read in the dark at night though so tonight's the first test for the replacement. If not, I've gotten used to reading on the 501 in the dark so maybe I'll use that for night-time reading and the 603 for daytime.

Despite the blotches, having a light built-in is just so convenient that I don't think I could ever go back to a non-frontlit Kindle.

What annoys me so much is that sometimes the PW looks amazing and sometimes it looks pretty horrible, it's almost like it's suffering from split personality. At least my K3 is consistent, which is why I somehow can't help thinking that I should just return the PW and wait for the PW2

[xtine]

Originally Posted by Yolina

What annoys me so much is that sometimes the PW looks amazing and sometimes it looks pretty horrible, it's almost like it's suffering from split personality. At least my K3 is consistent, which is why I somehow can't help thinking that I should just return the PW and wait for the PW2

LOL, you may have a point there. I guess I've gotten pretty used to my 501 because it's more consistently pink throughout the entire screen vs the 603 which is mostly green and just has a little pink mixed in. Like I said before though, I could never go back to a non-lit Kindle so while I may be picky, I'd rather have these blotchy PW's over a different Kindle model

[xendula]

Xtine, I can totally see the blotches, so it's not your imagination. You are defnitely in quite a pickle...

[JLeighs]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To repeat yet again, the light diffuser is a diffraction grating, and colour fringing is inherent in it. Your photographs look absolutely fine to me, but if you find the colour fringing objectionable, there's absolutely no point in getting another PW. The colours may be different, but they WILL still be present.

I also agree that the colors will still be there. What I'm trying to figure out is why the colors aren't consistent in each device. I've had 5 of them, and absolutely none of them were the same. One of them was practically unreadable because the screen was so muddy looking. I kept getting new ones because I knew that some were better than others. The one I kept is very good. The hues are there, but I don't notice them unless I'm really looking for them.

[xtine]

Thanks, xendula. My mom also has a PW (also a 501), which is more greenish than pink. When I compared the 603 next to her green 501, the 603 looked absolutely white. Also I'm not sure if it's my imagination but the blotches seem to have lessened somewhat. I'll try reading on it in the dark -- hopefully it's tolerable. Either way, I don't think I'm contacting Amazon again. I'll live with it until the next Kindle version comes out. Hopefully they'll have fixed the problem by then

Edit: I checked the photos I uploaded earlier and compared them to the 603 in my hand -- blotches are still there after all. The good news is, maybe I've already gotten used to them? Or trained my brain to ignore them?

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by xtine

Or trained my brain to ignore them?

Quite possible - brains are good at doing things like that!

[l_macd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To repeat yet again, the light diffuser is a diffraction grating, and colour fringing is inherent in it. Your photographs look absolutely fine to me, but if you find the colour fringing objectionable, there's absolutely no point in getting another PW. The colours may be different, but they WILL still be present.

This may be true to an extent, but it't not just a blanket there is colour in them all, there is definitely a variation on how apparent the colours are on different Kindle's. On some the colour is so faint you struggle to see anything, on others, the colour blotches almost leap out at you it's so obvious. Sparklemotion is the perfect example, they've had numerous PW's and apart from a couple of light specks, someone who finds the colour blotches very noticeable is very happy with the lack of colour on the screen of the latest PW.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by l_macd

This may be true to an extent, but it't not just a blanket there is colour in them all, there is definitely a variation on how apparent the colours are on different Kindle's. On some the colour is so faint you struggle to see anything, on others, the colour blotches almost leap out at you it's so obvious. Sparklemotion is the perfect example, they've had numerous PW's and apart from a couple of light specks, someone who finds the colour blotches very noticeable is very happy with the lack of colour on the screen of the latest PW.

My point is, though, that anyone who's expecting a perfectly evenly-lit, colour-free screen, like an LCD, is going to be disappointed. You do need to have realistic expectations about what to expect from this lighting technology.

[xendula]

Harry, Sparkle is the perfect example of a non-green non-pink screen being attainable. I doubt they would keep sending her new ones if they didn't believe they could attain this goal.

[jswinden]

Originally Posted by Blossom

What plastic layer? Maybe you had a bad unit. The text on my Paperwhite is crisp and clearer than any of my Kindles. It's the former Kindles that look horrible to me now. I can't read on them, it hurts my eyes.

I had three PW units and all sucked really bad. BTW, The light layer is plastic and it sits on top of the eInk screen. I'm glad your PW is wonderful, but obviously several of us have gotten a continuous string of PWs and replacements that were less than satisfactory. I'm not going to rehash what was wrong with mine as you can easily look up the multitude of previous posts. But for my eyes none of the PWs were worth keeping. Get rid of the light layer and I think it will be a good product for me. I really don't need the built in light anyway.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by xendula

Actually, now that I am looking at it in full lighting, it looks bad no matter what the lighting is. I only have it brighter in the daylight, so, duh, of course I did not see the blotches as badly
When I first got this one, it had very, very, very faint blotches - at times, I almost could not see them. Now, there are bruises on my screen

The pictures make it look a bit worse than it is.

As we were talking about privately, mine became worse as well. Very strange. When I first received it, it looked great, now it's more pink.

Here's a pic of my current PW on the left (the one I'm happy with but it has those glowing specks and the color hues are very faint in person) next to my older one. You can see the older one in darker and more muddy. It's much more pronounced in person compared to the pic. In person the screen on older one is very pink and darker. Both lights are at 24.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by xendula

Harry, Sparkle is the perfect example of a non-green non-pink screen being attainable. I doubt they would keep sending her new ones if they didn't believe they could attain this goal.

And Andrew did tell me they are aware of the color hues. If they thought it was normal, I really don't know why they wouldn't just say that is normal behavior, we can only offer you a refund if you're not happy as they will all have that. He has never said that it's normal behavior, in fact he said it wasn't.

I can also say that each PW I have had has varied a lot. My earlier PW's were truly terrible. Very obvious pink, green, and blue hues, some quite dark. The newest one is definitely better, although it too has very minor hues, it's nothing compared to the older ones I had.

Originally Posted by JLeighs

I also agree that the colors will still be there. What I'm trying to figure out is why the colors aren't consistent in each device. I've had 5 of them, and absolutely none of them were the same. One of them was practically unreadable because the screen was so muddy looking. I kept getting new ones because I knew that some were better than others. The one I kept is very good. The hues are there, but I don't notice them unless I'm really looking for them.

I'm very confused by this as well.