Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Blossom

My third HDX will be here today so I am hoping for one that looked like the first one without the brightness controller failure. It has a faint greenish blue border that look more like light bleed.

Good luck, Blossom. I hope your new HDX is a good one.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

Good luck, Blossom. I hope your new HDX is a good one.

It is much better! It has the blue border but it's much thinner and the screen different is like night and day. I put them side by side and HDX 2's acreen has a greenish tint to it and looks really dim and dingy compared to HDX 3 which has the best display out of the three. It's crisp and clear and no muddle looked. No scratches at all on the back like HDX 2 and no broken dots on the screen like HDX 1.

The only annoyance on this one is the blue border which is very blue (not neon blue but blue) on one side that it shows up on everything not just light backgrounds the other edges are faint blue and the top has hardly any border at all. No blotches on the screen it's really sharp and crisp. If it just didn't have that near solid blue on one side but Amazon wont replace it for that flaw so I am guess unless it goes loopy like HDX 1 I am keeping it.

[Drew0020]

Originally Posted by Blossom

It is much better! It has the blue border but it's much thinner and the screen different is like night and day. I put them side by side and HDX 2's acreen has a greenish tint to it and looks really dim and dingy compared to HDX 3 which has the best display out of the three. It's crisp and clear and no muddle looked. No scratches at all on the back like HDX 2 and no broken dots on the screen like HDX 1.

The only annoyance on this one is the blue border which is very blue (not neon blue but blue) on one side that it shows up on everything not just light backgrounds the other edges are faint blue and the top has hardly any border at all. No blotches on the screen it's really sharp and crisp. If it just didn't have that near solid blue on one side but Amazon wont replace it for that flaw so I am guess unless it goes loopy like HDX 1 I am keeping it.

From the way you describe that blue border I could absolutely not keep that unit. The HDX is definitely not for me but I thought of buying one to complement my Air and Retina Mini.

I understand Amazon went for color accuracy, but it sounds like a terrible design decision. I'm also into high end home theater and most people have no idea about perfect color accuracy on a $5,000 projector let alone a "cheap" tablet.

Good luck with this one though!

[fearindex]

Ah, this thread was still active. Anyway, got my replacement PW2 and happy to say it is a clear improvement - no pin-holes, a straight screen and more even lighting. The best improvement is the straight screen and the lack of any distinct specks on the screen. The lighting is more even, but of course this is relative - it isn't 100% even and I don't think it will ever be. But it looks like a good specimen in the PW2 scheme of things.

More first impressions through here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...37#post2679192

[fearindex]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I don't know, I have bought eight total Kindles

1 K1
3 K2
1 K3
2 DXG
1 PW2

Of those Kindles, one has been returned for a screen defect and that was a K2 with the sun fade problem.

I understand that people are having problems with the PW but I don't think it is all that large a number. Problems are going to be over reported on a site like this one. I know that it doesn't help anyone who is having a problem but I think that the perception that there is a massive QC issue is probably not accurate.

We are never going to see numbers one way or the other but we need to acknowledge that the anecdotal evidence in this case is skewed. It sucks for the people with a bad screen, I hope that they get a good device soon. I don't think that it is more then 5% of the devices and I would be surprised if it was that high.

While I do think you are right that an enthusiast forum like this does exaggerate the problem, I think you are not being completely fair on the nature of the Paperwhite device. Whereas Kindles of yore (and the current $69 Kindle) only had one element in the screen, the e-ink screen, the Paperwhite actually has six new things in there: a light guide, a touch layer and four LEDs.

Those things have been shown to greatly increase the chance of getting a bad screen: impurities can get between the layers, the layers may be misaligned and layers may have imperfections like pin-holes - before there were no layers, so not a problem. And those four LEDs, due to manufacturing allowances/differences, may result in inconsistent lighting - before there weren't LEDs on the device itself, so any lighting issues didn't affect the reader unit.

Now, of course the average user is not at all as sensitive to any such issues that may crop up with a Paperwhite, but the nature of the technology does seem to make them more likely at least. (Just like average users wouldn't care about light leakage and dead pixels on LCDs, doesn't mean those aren't a real and more likely issue with some technologies - compared to, say, CRTs.)

I too have owned tons of Kindles and the first to give me any grief were the PWs.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fearindex

I too have owned tons of Kindles and the first to give me any grief were the PWs.

Tons? The PW weighs 206g, so one gets 4932 of them to the imperial ton. How many have you owned?

[fearindex]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Tons? The PW weighs 206g, so one gets 4932 of them to the imperial ton. How many have you owned?

To be serious, I think my number of Kindles I've bought is more than ten. A few have passed onto relatives etc. of course after brief setup and use, for me personally I've tried to keep up with every Kindle generation and more than one for some. A comparable number to ProfCrash anyway.

[Drew0020]

Originally Posted by fearindex

Ah, this thread was still active. Anyway, got my replacement PW2 and happy to say it is a clear improvement - no pin-holes, a straight screen and more even lighting. The best improvement is the straight screen and the lack of any distinct specks on the screen. The lighting is more even, but of course this is relative - it isn't 100% even and I don't think it will ever be. But it looks like a good specimen in the PW2 scheme of things.

More first impressions through here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...37#post2679192

Sounds like the best you can hope for with a PW2. Lighting is much better than PW1, but still noticeable. I wish I could get a screen without a pinhole.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by fearindex

While I do think you are right that an enthusiast forum like this does exaggerate the problem, I think you are not being completely fair on the nature of the Paperwhite device. Whereas Kindles of yore (and the current $69 Kindle) only had one element in the screen, the e-ink screen, the Paperwhite actually has six new things in there: a light guide, a touch layer and four LEDs.

Those things have been shown to greatly increase the chance of getting a bad screen: impurities can get between the layers, the layers may be misaligned and layers may have imperfections like pin-holes - before there were no layers, so not a problem. And those four LEDs, due to manufacturing allowances/differences, may result in inconsistent lighting - before there weren't LEDs on the device itself, so any lighting issues didn't affect the reader unit.

Now, of course the average user is not at all as sensitive to any such issues that may crop up with a Paperwhite, but the nature of the technology does seem to make them more likely at least. (Just like average users wouldn't care about light leakage and dead pixels on LCDs, doesn't mean those aren't a real and more likely issue with some technologies - compared to, say, CRTs.)

I too have owned tons of Kindles and the first to give me any grief were the PWs.

Agreed that there is more that can go wrong and that there are two different issues. The Pin holes and the coloring/light issue. I think the pin hole is more of a QC issue and something that Amazon will be able to get under better control. The PW2 3G's went out recently and I have not heard of anyone getting a PW2 3G wiht pin holes.

The color lighting mess I think is more how peoples individual eyes preceive light. We have beaten this topic to death but I don't think that there is much that Amazon can do about that. Some folks eyes simply see things that others peoples eyes do not. So screens that look fine for one person are awful for another. I don't consider that a QC issue because I don't think it is fixable.

[Drew0020]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Agreed that there is more that can go wrong and that there are two different issues. The Pin holes and the coloring/light issue. I think the pin hole is more of a QC issue and something that Amazon will be able to get under better control. The PW2 3G's went out recently and I have not heard of anyone getting a PW2 3G wiht pin holes.

The color lighting mess I think is more how peoples individual eyes preceive light. We have beaten this topic to death but I don't think that there is much that Amazon can do about that. Some folks eyes simply see things that others peoples eyes do not. So screens that look fine for one person are awful for another. I don't consider that a QC issue because I don't think it is fixable.

My PW2 3G has 1 pinhole dead center of the screen

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Drew0020

From the way you describe that blue border I could absolutely not keep that unit. The HDX is definitely not for me but I thought of buying one to complement my Air and Retina Mini.

I understand Amazon went for color accuracy, but it sounds like a terrible design decision. I'm also into high end home theater and most people have no idea about perfect color accuracy on a $5,000 projector let alone a "cheap" tablet.

Good luck with this one though!

I know but what can you do? I could return it but I already gave my old KF to my husband and he says "No givesies-backsies!" I know there is the HD but I haven't heard if they used Blue LEDs or not on it.

[Drew0020]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I know but what can you do? I could return it but I already gave my old KF to my husband and he says "No givesies-backsies!" I know there is the HD but I haven't heard if they used Blue LEDs or not on it.

I would personally get the iPad Mini. It has typical LCD screen issues, but at least there are no blue hues on the outer edge of the screen.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Drew0020

I would personally get the iPad Mini. It has typical LCD screen issues, but at least there are no blue hues on the outer edge of the screen.

I can't afford one of those and now I've seen the screen on the HDX is kind of hard to revert to less ppi.

The 8.9 does not seem to have this issue. This ticks me off that Amazon lied about the blue border being necessary.

[Drew0020]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I can't afford one of those and now I've seen the screen on the HDX is kind of hard to revert to less ppi.

The 8.9 does not seem to have this issue. This ticks me off that Amazon lied about the blue border being necessary.

Im a resolution nut. Your eyes will not see pixels on either screen. The Air which is a 9.7" screen does not show any pixels whatsoever so the 7.9" Retina Mini will be even better.

The HDX is much cheaper though, but I cannot believe the decision with the blue screen. If I bought the HDX (which I considered), I expected to read using it in place of my flawed PW2, but I could not read seeing a blue light on the outer edges of the screen.

[bluerfoot]

delivered...

should I leave work early???