Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
(snipped)
Maybe, but I still prefer the KPW, because it's possible to make the screen brighter, and still set it so it doesn't look like it's lit up. A normal Kindle such as the Touch is quite a lot darker than even the oldest and greyest paperback I've held it beside to compare.
If compared to a high quality hardcover, it's no contest. The hardcover needs *MUCH* less light than a normal Kindle to be readable.
Even if one doesn't use the KPW to read in circumstances where a book would be unreadable with additional lighting, the extra screen brightness created by the front light can even the odds between the Kindle and a paper book.
|
This.
I went from the K2 (with font hack) to the Touch, and remember being completely underwhelmed. Even with the Pearl screen, it was still far more grey, with grey text, than I wanted. Short of reading in bright sunlight (a rarity in my part of the world), it was a fairly mediocre experience, with little improvement over my hacked K2.
In fact, shortly after switching to the Touch, I started reading on tablets, because it was better than the Touch. And with that transition came all the disadvantages of using a tablet as a reader--first and foremost, the distraction factor. It didn't take long before I noticed I was reading a whole lot less than I had with the K2.
I bought a PW2 a week or so after release, and I've been reading nonstop since then. The light makes ALL the difference. Yes, with the light at the lowest setting and side by side with the Touch, the PW2's background is
slightly lighter and the words might seem a little darker...not by much in either case, in spite of the newest screen and improved resolution. The screen improvement alone is not enough to make the PW2 worth buying over the Touch, or even the K4NT.
But put that light on, balanced against the ambient light, and immediately you have a significant improvement in contrast. Yes, the ink washes out just a little with the extra glass and the light, but the "whiteness" of the page more than makes up for it. I think better fonts would improve the washed out effect at least somewhat, but it's still very minimal. It's extremely easy to lose yourself in the PW and just read. One could almost say it's much like reading a "real" book!
Does it look like a "screen" in dark conditions? Yes. But to me, that's far less distracting than the uneven light falloff of a book light. I do quite a bit of reading in full darkness with the light set somewhere between 8 and 10, and I find it very comfortable.
No regrets on buying a PW2. Well, except that I'm buying books at a ridiculous rate again.
