[Derek87]

So, i think this saga may be over. it's been a long one and thanks for sticking with me and reading, and encouraging me...

So, #4 was indeed a lemon. i read with it some more the night i posted, and it kept freezing up intermittently for 30-60 seconds at a time where i couldn't change pages with either the page button nor a page tap or swipe. very annoying. i got email in the morning asking me to call/chat with Kindle support.

once again, i got a sympathetic rep who did her best to make things right. she agreed my experience was unacceptable and to make things better, checked and saw that my return of #1 had already been refunded (not yet posted to CC), and told me that as soon as #4 (or #3) was scanned by UPS, i would get refunded. so, i proceeded to order #5 for same day delivery, and dropped off #4 at the UPS store. true to her word, i saw immediately under my account that #4 had been refunded.

in the meantime, i kept #3 to read with during the day (looks great in daylight) and was reinspired to continue my quest for an acceptable Oasis -- i would pursue ordering a few more until i had one that was at least better than #3...i could tolerate mild cones/shadows, and if i could convince them to keep refunding me, i would persist a few more times in trying to get a decent unit. #3 IMHO, was not workable. if that's the best i could get, even with the nice custom screensavers i installed, i would rather just buy another PW3, even if that took me a few trials.

anyway, #5 arrived late Saturday night and i immediately saw that it was definitely better than #3. there were mild cones/shadows on the thick side of the device, but no really dark shadows like #3, nor annoying "hot spots" like #1. the gradient was probably comparable to #3 (better than #1). at light level 8, there are no noticeable shadows, at 7, there is a weak one if i look for it in a couple spots on the screen that infringe 2-3 letters in (fontsize 5), and at level 5-6, there are a couple areas of mild shadows. not super dark/smudgy big areas like #3, and i think i can ignore them while reading.

interestingly enough, this unit has nearly silent buttons as opposed to the hard to quietly click ones on most of the units i've had in my possession. the tactile feedback is great though. i do think the top button is a little more flush than the lower button (maybe that's why this one was returned), but i'll live with that tiny detail being off. having quiet buttons is a nice surprise and a bonus; the screen is where i was primarily concerned.

so, is it a keeper? i think so. i was reluctant to write here until i had another evening of reading under my belt out of fear of it locking up, freezing, and acting bizarre. but thus far, there have been no issues. (except one moment where i thought the cover wasn't charging...but that seemed to be a one and done issue (but i will keep an eye on it!)) last night after being totally OCD about it and testing things out and loading 100+ books and letting it finish indexing, i got in a nice 45 minute reading session and could actually forget about Oasis analysis and evaluation and just read with pleasure!

aside: i still haven't figured out the perfect grip for the Oasis after using a PW for 3+ years, but i'm getting used to it and definitely don't have any hand pain like i had with the Oasis 2, so i'm glad for that.

anyway, if you stayed with me this long, a gold star for you!

in hindsight, i still can't believe it took me 5 devices to find one that was acceptable . not perfect, mind you, just acceptable. i do think my pickiness got elevated after having that Oasis 2 for about a week. while it wasn't perfect, there were zero shadows/light cones at any light level, and there was a faint light gradient only at a few light levels and i had to search for it to really notice.

if i were grade screens, i would gave the Oasis 2 i had an A, and #5 (the Oasis 1 i'm keeping) a B- (#3 and #1 would be a C- for different reasons, and #2 would be a B, #4 a C+) there is still a large gap in quality, and based on my limited experiences and what i've read here, Amazon still hasn't figured out how to put out a consistent product with even/uniform lighting, especially for low light conditions at which i read. yet, it's clear that Amazon is capable of making nearly perfect screens (from what i've read and experienced), but across the line up -- Paperwhite, Voyage, Oasis 1/2, there is as much screen-to-screen variability for a given model as there are between the different models. to me, that is really poor.

maybe it's too costly to properly match LEDs* and build a perfect screen, and maybe for 80-90% of the population, the issues of light gradients and light cones/shadows don't matter (they either aren't noticed by most people or they are easily ignored). but for me, these things do matter, especially when we are talking about the premium models (Voyage, Oasis).

finally, even without screen issues, i find Amazon's "certification" method lacking since 2 of the 5 units i had were problematic from a hardware perspective beyond the screen's visual quality.

i give Amazon customer service a thumbs up for working with me, but a big thumbs down for the quality assurance of these devices.


*even with the alternating light pattern, the dark shadows i've seen, as exemplified by #3 is that at low levels, not all LEDs are lighting up at the same intensity. that leads to some of the shadows i'm seeing. at higher light levels, the differences are, relatively, smaller in light output for each LED.