Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[wlsinwi]

Originally Posted by anywho

Receiving my third PW2 tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Good luck to you!
Called in to CS and they are sending me a replacement arriving Tuesday. I will compare them and send back the one I like less.
Wish me luck too.

Good luck to both of you, and all the others having to get replacements. I'm glad I cancelled my pre-order before they shipped the first batch out. "It's deja vu all over again", (Yogi Berra).

[anywho]

Originally Posted by wlsinwi

Good luck to you!
Called in to CS and they are sending me a replacement arriving Tuesday. I will compare them and send back the one I like less.
Wish me luck too.

Good luck too

[anywho]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Good luck to both of you, and all the others having to get replacements. I'm glad I cancelled my pre-order before they shipped the first batch out. "It's deja vu all over again", (Yogi Berra).

my first PW was OK. But it's really bad when you have to hope for "luck" when you're getting electronics that you've paid for.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by anywho

my first PW was OK. But it's really bad when you have to hope for "luck" when you're getting electronics that you've paid for.

So true. For me with the PW's it's honestly become a chore rather than something I feel excited over as I usually do when I get new electronics. With the PW's, I would open the box and start the new one up and worry as to what I was going to see more than anything. Ugh. So it was easy for me to be done with it this time and just stick with my original.

[Barty]

I checked my order status this morning and it said "delivered Thu oct 3". On Wed it still said processing, est delivery date oct 7-10. Yoikes. I ran to my front door and fortunately it was still there. Thanks a lot, amazon/ ups!

I had pw1 and returned it for color blobs. I didn't bother with replacements. Good news: no color blobs on new one. No cones at bottom, either. However, the screen isn't quite even (nothing like they show in the ads). The edges are darker and there's a dark blob in the middle. I thought maybe it was my own reflection or shadow, but no.

I noticed the light was quite a bit warmer, but turning the light down all the way I can see it's actually the screen itself and/or the light layer that is yellower. My k3 is a neutral gray by comparison.

As expected, the form factor is pretty much the same as pw1, which unfortunately isn't good for me (I don't have normal hand). I basically hold it by the bottom edge, and it feels thick and heavy and keep sliding off my grip. The k3 is still the best for me to use physically, with its tapered edge and the long bottom where I can get a good
purchase. But this is no concern for most people.

Reading: the fonts are no good for me, and as reported, use alt fonts does not work. there's a system/fonts folder but putting fonts in there and restarting does nothing. I don't like any of the fonts. They're too light and the size step is either giant or too small. I guess I will have to try embedding font.

It feels very fast and snappy. Not having a pw1 to do side by side comparison, hard to say if the screen is any different, aside from the yellow cast. From memory, the "ink" does not look darker. It's not as dark as the ink on my k3, that's for sure. The background is darker than my k3. I need to set the light at around 9 to make the background match my k3. I leave it on at 12 in normal room light.

I haven't noticed pin holes, but I've read on it only for a few minutes. It is just not pleasant for me. I'll either return it or use it at night and the k3 during the day.

If you liked everything about the pw1, except for the color blobs, I think you'll like the pw2, because it appears they fixed that.

[sparklemotion]

My friend picked up a PW at Best Buy yesterday and hers looks ok. Mind, I haven't used hers so it's hard to say if it has pinholes or other imperfections, but she hasn't complained about it. We were comparing them and I honestly have to say the font on the PW2 looks lighter to me. She noticed it too. Almost like a gray. Are others on here noticing that?

[sirmaru]

I got my first freeze up on my PW 2013. The 7 second hold didn't cure it. I held for 30 seconds and a pane came up allowing me to cancel or restart. I restarted and all is well again.

So far I'm the only one reporting this problem here in this Forum.

I had placed the NET Bible on it with 39,000 footnotes and then deleted it. That may have been the cause of the problem. It never worked on the PW 2012 either and only works with the Osnova seek formula which indexes every verse in the Bible on my KFHD 2012. It used to work on my KK 2009 which I have deregistered now.

The KFHD 2012 has 32 Gb of disk space and maybe that is required for the indexing.

My KK 2009 had repeated freezes and had to be replaced by Amazon in 4 months after purchase which they gracefully accepted since lots of folks were having freeze problems with that model.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I got my first freeze up on my PW 2013. The 7 second hold didn't cure it. I held for 30 seconds and a pane came up allowing me to cancel or restart. I restarted and all is well again.

I had a freeze up on mine when I still had it too. It completely stopped working/responding. The 7 second hold didn't work for me either.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

My friend picked up a PW at Best Buy yesterday and hers looks ok. Mind, I haven't used hers so it's hard to say if it has pinholes or other imperfections, but she hasn't complained about it. We were comparing them and I honestly have to say the font on the PW2 looks lighter to me. She noticed it too. Almost like a gray. Are others on here noticing that?

A couple others mentioned that. Which is shocking seeing it's suppose to be a new screen with deeper blacks.

[Yolina]

Just had another nosey at the reviews on Amazon.com - this one is absolutely brilliant.

5 more days before I find out what I got in the Great Paperwhite 2 Lottery
There does seem to be more good ones out this year than last, so there's some hope at least.

Originally Posted by Yolina

Just had another nosey at the reviews on Amazon.com - this one is absolutely brilliant.

5 more days before I find out what I got in the Great Paperwhite 2 Lottery
There does seem to be more good ones out this year than last, so there's some hope at least.

Great review! I liked the humor.

With these last two releases of Paperwhites there have been way too many defective units. Seems like a lot of posters are also calling into question Amazons claims about darker fonts and what not too. Personally I would rather pay $200 USD for a guaranteed terrific reader than $120 for the chance to own an acceptable reader.

[aceflor]

Amazon.de is having an action for all prime members: the new PW for 99€ instead of 129€. I cancelled my amazon.es order and just ordered instead at amazon.de, where I am a prime member. The PW will arrive at our German address on October 9th but my husband will bring it here only on the 16th, but I can wait now and I did not want to miss the 30€ reduction.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Blossom

A couple others mentioned that. Which is shocking seeing it's suppose to be a new screen with deeper blacks.

They are not blacker, imo. The really look lighter. It seems to be more noticeable when you use the light. Before I returned mine I really did a good comparison with my PW1 and it was pretty disappointing. They look a little washed out.

Originally Posted by jswinden

Personally I would rather pay $200 USD for a guaranteed terrific reader than $120 for the chance to own an acceptable reader.

Me too, absolutely.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Just had another nosey at the reviews on Amazon.com - this one is absolutely brilliant.

5 more days before I find out what I got in the Great Paperwhite 2 Lottery
There does seem to be more good ones out this year than last, so there's some hope at least.

Ha, great review. I can totally relate! (unfortunately!) Good luck with yours, Yolina! I hope it's perfect.