Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfCrash
I don't know, I have bought eight total Kindles
1 K1
3 K2
1 K3
2 DXG
1 PW2
Of those Kindles, one has been returned for a screen defect and that was a K2 with the sun fade problem.
I understand that people are having problems with the PW but I don't think it is all that large a number. Problems are going to be over reported on a site like this one. I know that it doesn't help anyone who is having a problem but I think that the perception that there is a massive QC issue is probably not accurate.
We are never going to see numbers one way or the other but we need to acknowledge that the anecdotal evidence in this case is skewed. It sucks for the people with a bad screen, I hope that they get a good device soon. I don't think that it is more then 5% of the devices and I would be surprised if it was that high.
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While I do think you are right that an enthusiast forum like this does exaggerate the problem, I think you are not being completely fair on the nature of the Paperwhite device. Whereas Kindles of yore (and the current $69 Kindle) only had one element in the screen, the e-ink screen, the Paperwhite actually has six new things in there: a light guide, a touch layer and four LEDs.
Those things have been shown to greatly increase the chance of getting a bad screen: impurities can get between the layers, the layers may be misaligned and layers may have imperfections like pin-holes - before there were no layers, so not a problem. And those four LEDs, due to manufacturing allowances/differences, may result in inconsistent lighting - before there weren't LEDs on the device itself, so any lighting issues didn't affect the reader unit.
Now, of course the average user is not at all as sensitive to any such issues that may crop up with a Paperwhite, but the nature of the technology does seem to make them more likely at least. (Just like average users wouldn't care about light leakage and dead pixels on LCDs, doesn't mean those aren't a real and more likely issue with some technologies - compared to, say, CRTs.)
I too have owned tons of Kindles and the first to give me any grief were the PWs.