[fearindex]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Of course, I exaggerated the cancer death rate for effect. However, I've done some research on other eInk readers sold at Amazon. Here they are:

Kobo eReader: 54 reviews; 16 five star; 12 one star = 1.3 to 1 for a perfect unit versus a dud per this link: http://www.amazon.com/Kobo-N905-KBO-...owViewpoints=1

Nook eReader: 349 reviews; 193 five star; 45 one star = 4.3 to 1 for a perfect unit versus a dud per this link: http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-S...owViewpoints=1

Kindle Keyboard: 40,758 reviews; 28,716 five star; 2,121 one star = 13.5 to 1 for a perfect unit versus a dud per this link: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Special...owViewpoints=1

Kindle Touch: 8,068 reviews; 4,136 five star; 807 one star = 5.1 to 1 for a perfect unit versus a dud per this link: http://www.amazon.com/Kingle-Touch-e...owViewpoints=1

Kindle Paperwhite 2012: 17,300 reviews; 11,100 five star; 818 one star = 13.6 to 1 for a perfect unit versus a dud per this link: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Paperwh...owViewpoints=1

Kindle Paperwhite 2013: 250 reviews; 164 five star; 15 one star = 10.9 to 1 for a perfect unit versus ad dud per this link: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Paperwh...owViewpoints=1

As you can see all the Kindles are better than the competition by a wide margin but the best of all at this moment in time is the Kindle Paperwhite 2012 !! The Kindle Keyboard takes second place.

The Kindle Paperwhite 2013 still beats the competition by a wide margin.

That is not really a good way to find "duds", though, more like one source for overall happiness with a purchase. And it most definitely tells nothing about screen quality or variance in unit to unit screen quality, mostly just about overall popularity.

Clearly nobody is disputing Kindle Paperwhite is mostly well received. Amazon making a second generation suggests it is working well for them. The average person may not have any issues with the screen. That doesn't mean the issues discussed here can't be real, it just means they don't bother most people.

I own and have owned most Kindles, some several of, and have PW2 on international pre-order, and I too think the frontlit e-ink readers overall have brought an inconsistent experience into e-ink that wasn't there before. Apparently the process of adding touch and light guides on top of e-ink screens is really hard to get consistently right, add to this LED quality allowances, dust getting between the layers, lower text blackness and e-ink-paper-likeness suffering from the added layers etc., and I do believe people are rightly concerned about these things.

Simply dismissing those concerns because the average customer doesn't care, would render forums like this pointless. The average customer wouldn't even read or write here. Enthusiasts often have higher standards, but also higher interest level in the intricacies of different products.

Out of all the Kindles I have (since I don't have the first one), only PW had lesser text blackness than the preceding model (I know Kindle 2 had less blackness than Kindle 1), PW actually is less black than Kindle 3 Keyboard, and only PW had screen quality issues (a pin-hole, crooked screen, uneven lighting etc.). So definitely the added layers on the PW have changed the dynamic.

I think I have intimately used 6-7 regular e-ink Kindles, without any screen issues, not having heard of any screen issues from others either after the Kindle 2 sunfade teething problems (which I didn't have but were real of course and worth pointing out), yet the first PW to reach my hands had several issues - and reports online seem to confirm... and now PW2 with similar reports, and other frontlit e-ink readers from other manufacturers too.

To me it is clear the frontlight technology has added a variable to the Kindle game that wasn't there before - and this is clearly a concern to many people. Not most people, but still many people. To try and dismiss it would be a disservice to informative forums like this.

But I'll wait for the PW2 with an open mind.

In case anyone cares, I've documented my frustrations with PW (and mixed love and hate with the excellent $69 Kindle 5 with a less than excellent official lighted case) on KBoards over the past year: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,129956.0.html