Processor Speeds of PW3 & the New PW4 ???

[Barbara1955]

I on the fence on buying another PW... PW4 sounds like its worth giving a shot. BUT I want to know IF anyone knows the Processor speeds Between the PW3 & the New PW4 ??

[NiLuJe]

AFAICT, they're both using the same processor (i.MX6SL(L), circa. 1 GHz, which is pretty much mostly the same thing that every Kindle has been using since the PW2).

The only redeeming difference is that it benefits from the new software stack introduced with the Oasis 2 (which is using a different CPU, i.MX7D), which is why it gets the proper night mode support introduced on the Oasis 2, among other things with much less impact on the user experience.

[barryem]

I have a Paperwhite 3 and a Paperwhite 4. They are a bit different but not in any important ways. I like them both.

Barry

[WestCactus]

Love the flatscreen on the PW4!

[Barbara1955]

Well if the processors are the same no reason to get another one that just freezes up.
Price soooo tempting...

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Well if the processors are the same no reason to get another one that just freezes up.
Price soooo tempting...

No Kindle I've used has ever frozen. And I have well over thousand books on each of them (over 2000 on the Oasis). Probably you had a faulty device.

[Barbara1955]

4-5 PWs within 18 months is WAY too many in my book. Freezing, Bad lights & more Both New & Replacements by Amazon. That's a whole Lot of 'faulty device/s'

[tomsem]

According to Wikipedia, the processors are different between the PW3 and PW4.

K2, K3, Voyage, Oasis 1, Kindle 8th gen: Freescale i.MX6 SoloLite 1 GHz
K4: NXP 6SLL 1 GHz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle

The clock speed is the same, but it does not mean performance is identical.

One difference is that the K4 supports Invert Black and White and K3 does not. Another is that K4 has Power Save feature, no other Kindle has this (yet).

Normally they back port features when the hardware supports it, so I infer that these features are built in to the CPU or some other chip that has shown up.

It’s probably my imagination, but I think my PW4 is a teeny bit faster than my Voyage. But I have yet to try to benchmark it. I certainly want it to be true.

BTW, have we settled the issue about whether it has plastic or glass panel or whatever that heated discussion was about from the early reviews?

[tomsem]

Okay I have done some side-by-side between Voyage and PW4 (Voyage has same CPU as PW3).

Most things are the same.

Voyage is slightly faster at adding to a large (1000) collection. BUT I have some audiobooks in that, so there are actually more items in that collection. So probably essentially the same.

Opening Graphic Novel is the same

Opening a large (1000 page) book is the same

Opening a super large (5000 page) book is the same

Opening a book with 5000 chess diagrams is consistently about a second faster on the PW4

In all above cases, page turns are same.

PDF open and page turns are the same, zoom and pan are about the same

So.. not much difference, it seems, other than reflowable books with lots of images.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

4-5 PWs within 18 months is WAY too many in my book. Freezing, Bad lights & more Both New & Replacements by Amazon. That's a whole Lot of 'faulty device/s'

Piker. When Paperwhites first came out a user claimed to have eight replaced in two weeks. It amazes me that some people read happily for years with various Kindles and have no problems and other people have failure after failure.

Is the variable the Kindle?

I suppose one variable might be tolerance. I had a Kindle freeze on me and I couldn't even do a reset. I fiddled with it until I managed to get a hard reset and then I went on using the Kindle, it was out of warranty, and I never had another problem.

I had an occasion where the Kindle would only display half my books in the cloud when I selected "All". I could have shipped it back to Kindle but I chose to phone them. It took three days of a "team" working on the problem to solve it. It wasn't my Paperwhite. It was something on the server end. But, I could have mailed it back and gotten a new one.

In the years I've been using Kindles I had a blasted push button break and I returned a Paperwhite for having a "hotspot" that was in a spot, and at an angle, to interfere with my reading. I had a DX, a keyboard, a basic, and I've had every iteration of Paperwhite. Right now I have two PW3s. I had three but gave one away last week in anticipation of getting my PW4 in January. A number of happy people are still using my old Kindles. That's amazing when you consider some people get nothing but defective Paperwhites.

So, you can decide for yourself whether the variable is Amazon sends me "good" Kindles and saves "bad" Kindles to send someone else.

[Barbara1955]

My K3 Lasted YEARS! I had several over the time they were making them. I see no reason that they cant Fix the PWs so they too will last.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

4-5 PWs within 18 months is WAY too many in my book. Freezing, Bad lights & more Both New & Replacements by Amazon. That's a whole Lot of 'faulty device/s'

As unhappy as you are with Kindles, it seems odd that you would consider buying another one.

I've bought 8-10 Kindles over the years, and most have been trouble free. One failed at the 2 year mark, one was replaced under warranty. But neither of those had regular problems. They just died.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tomsem

One difference is that the K4 supports Invert Black and White and K3 does not. Another is that K4 has Power Save feature, no other Kindle has this (yet).

I'm pretty sure that the Oasis 2 does as well. It just doesn't have the option to turn it off

Does the PW4 display "Waking Uup" for a few seconds when it is turned on after being asleep for over 30 minutes? (Are you intentionally using K4 to refer to what most people here call PW4?)

Originally Posted by tomsem

Normally they back port features when the hardware supports it, so I infer that these features are built in to the CPU or some other chip that has shown up.

If the Power Save feature is hibernation, that might not have required new hardware, although new hardware might make it more reliable or something.

I think the new hardware for inverted black and white provided better solid black uniformity rather than enabling the mode to exist.

Originally Posted by tomsem

BTW, have we settled the issue about whether it has plastic or glass panel or whatever that heated discussion was about from the early reviews?

I don't think so. One person that opened it said he couldn't tell.

There has been a claim that the waterproofing is provided by circuit board coatings and a gasket and that opening the PW4 does not compromise the waterproofing, so maybe someone that can tell will have a look. It is supossedly very easy to open.

[NiLuJe]

@tomsem: Freescale is no more, NXP bought 'em. That's the meaning behind that extra L between parentheses in my message (i.MX6SL (SoloLite) vs. i.MX6SLL).

The CPU is essentially the same, it's just a slightly different hardware revision, post-merger.

I'm not even actually sure they really moved to SLL boards (c.f., this post).

Compare that to the PW2, first device to move to an i.MX6:

Processor       : ARMv7 Processor rev 10 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 787.55
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x2
CPU part        : 0xc09
CPU revision    : 10

Hardware        : Freescale i.MX 6SoloLite based Wario Board
Revision        : 60000

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

I on the fence on buying another PW... PW4 sounds like its worth giving a shot. BUT I want to know IF anyone knows the Processor speeds Between the PW3 & the New PW4 ??

The limit to performance on a mainly text with static images eReader is really the eInk type display. Not the CPU.