[wynand32]

Not sure why I'm reporting this, but mine is B024 for wifi only with SO.

Now, about the device itself, a quick report. I've been playing with mine today (ordered it as soon as it was available online), and it's a nice device. I'm coming from an original Nook 3G, and the Kindle PW is thinner, lighter, and the screen is mostly nicer. Some early observations:

1. There's much more ghosting than I expected and than I'm used to from the Nook. Maybe it's a characteristic of newer e-ink screens that they ghost more but change page more quickly. Perhaps if I configured the Kindle to refresh with each page turn I'd not see the ghosting, but man--it's much more noticeable to me than I expected. And I'm assuming for the moment that mine isn't faulty and/or there's not going to be an early update to fix a known issue. As it stands, text starts out nice and sharp after a page refresh, but it does get progressively worse for the next (5, I guess?) page turns.

2. My unit has pretty splotchy front-lighting. First, there's pretty obvious light bleed at the bottom where the LEDs are, although it's actually more that where the LEDs shine into the matrix there are some dark spots. It's odd--must be the way the thing is designed. Then, there are some brighter areas on the screen, clearly where there are flaws in the lighting mechanism. I might be returning this one and getting a new one if it seems like this isn't a common problem. The lighting still looks nice, but it could clearly look nicer. Perhaps this is an early build issue that will get resolved.

Update: Okay, #2 actually seems to be something else, perhaps oil from my fingers on the screen. Wiping with a microfiber cloth got rid of the brighter areas (which were mainly viewable at an angle from the top), which returned in other areas as I touch the screen to change pages. Weird, but there you have it.

3. I left Nook because B&N pretty much stopped supporting the Nook 3G, particularly in terms of syncing. Simply put, the thing stopped syncing about a year ago, and B&N has done nothing to fix it. Imagine my consternation, then, when the new Kindle PW refuses to sync the last page read after a few hours. Nothing I've tried short of deregistering and re-registering has fixed the problem--all of my other devices (Android tablet, Android phone, iPad) will sync no problem, but the Kindle PW won't send or receive the last page. It's driving me crazy.

So, some early-adopter issues, apparently. I think it'll be a great device once the kinks get worked out, but I'll probably be replacing mine. I'll be interested to hear if anyone else is having the same issues.