I just received my Paperwhite yesterday.
In the beginning, I expected a device as advertised (a perfect one, I guess, lol), but as the time passed and people wrote down their experience (uneven lightning, color blotches), my expectations decreased (a lot, I`d say). Here is
my first post on the subject (not a very optimistic one).
When I turned my PW on last night, I just hoped for the one I`d be happy with, and I must say that I was positively surprised -- while I could see some discoloration on the highest level setting (warm pink/cold blue variations over the screen), I really needed to look for it, and I might not even notice it if I didn`t expect to see it. Once I actually start reading the text, I don`t see the "blotches". But that highest light setting is too bright for me anyway, I read on brightness level 12 in the dark and it was a great experience (I might even choose some lower brightness levels in the future) -- good bye bed lamps and bus overhead lights (while people look at you strangely, trying to get some sleep while "some idiot turned the light on").
One strange thing I also noticed is that the bottom shadows are almost invisible, even on the brightest light setting
Of course that there is a small difference here and there, in the lower 2 mm maybe, but I don`t notice it at all until I focus on seeing it
To wrap it up, I`m pretty much happy with my Kindle Paperwhite... Pretty much, because I noticed a small "dead pixel" in the lower left part of the screen, like 2 cm from the bottom and 2.5 cm from the left part of the screen. It`s invisible on lower light settings, and starts to get really annoying on higher light settings (like a white dot over the text, being too bright). I guess it`s an issue with that light guide layer, being either damaged (a pinhole) or having a dust particle somewhere in there (if dust can be the issue here), causing the light to probe up to much, making a glowing pinhole. I even wanted to wipe it off a few times while reading, forgetting that it isn`t just a dust particle on top of the screen
Anyway, I contacted Amazon customer support, and after a few regular troubleshooting steps, a really helpful and kind support guy offered to send a replacement, so I`m waiting for a replacement team e-mail now. Having in mind that this is my first Kindle and Amazon experience, I need to say that I`m really delighted with the way they handled the issue =) I`d really like to enjoy this without any distractions.
We`ll see if the replacement one will be better (it doesn`t need to be much better, though, as this one is really good for me, but I just hope the replacement won`t have any "dead pixels", pinholes in the light guide layer), while in the meantime I`ll certainly enjoy reading on the one I have now. It isn`t as perfect as they advertised it at first, but it is pretty much everything I wanted from an e-book reader anyway. I was happy with my previous eReader, too (Prestigio PER3162BN), but the possibility to read it in dark without any external light source just brings the experience to a higher level, the only one I missed so far.
Btw, for those interested, I got a device from batch 603.