Kindle Voyage - First Impressions

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Drew0020

I agree. Amazon quality is dropping. I realize nothing is perfect but these screens are poor and obvious especially at such a premium price.

I'll probably return this and just use my iPad Air 2 as that will arrive tomorrow.

This happens quite often with new screen tech, but especially with new eink screens. Quality will improve as time goes by. I'm probably going to wait until next year to get one of these.

But I'm planning to get an iPad Air 2 as soon as they show up in the stores. It's not so much risk as it is mostly the same design as last year with a few notable enhancements.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by disconnected

I'll try to take one tomorrow (and figure out how to post it ).

Awesome. Let us know if you need help with posting the pic.

[duydangle]

So disappoint with the problem with the two-tone screen. I've got bad experiences with pw2 screens and requested several replacements to get a perfect one. Voyage seems to have a better screen, especially with high resolution and very crisp texts, but I don't want to go back to the bad time .

I almost decided to buy it after reading reviews from engadget, gizmodo or cnet. But now I see you guys' posts. Thank you so much!. May be I will wait till next year, while my paperwhite still works perfectly.

[tomsem]

Folks, I want to hear more about the page turn buttons. Do they totally eliminate the need to swipe to page through Kindle Store listings, scroll a wikipedia article in the browser, scroll and page through TOC/XRay/search results/notes lists? Just as you could on Kindle Keyboard etc?

Hoping they have not failed to wire them up everywhere they'd be useful, and not just for 'turning pages'.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Hard to believe that so many people are having so many problems with their new Voyages. It makes the H20s release look flawless. I wonder if Amazon picks out specific Voyages to send to the reviewers and that's why no one mentioned it. Or maybe the reviewers just don't notice those kinds of things.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I second asking for a pic comparison between the H20 and the voyage, please. I would love to see one, if you're willing. How does the contrast on the H20 compare to the Voyage? Do you find one has sharper, darker fonts? Or are they pretty much on par?



I think it might be worth a try for you. I'm going to give one a shot and see what I think. If you check out the Kobo section here you can see various pics and so forth of the screen.

I'll try to take a picture tomorrow but I have to warn you that picture-taking is not one of my strengths.

I'm basically not a visual person and I'd never think of all the fine points of display if I didn't read these threads. I'm trying to compare the two screens now and having a hard time getting equivalent things to look at.

I only use the fonts that come already installed and I'd just picked the same ones for these two as I've been using for the previous models -- Georgia for the H2O and Palatino for the Voyage. The only common font seems to be Caecilia so I switched to that for both and tried to get the font size and lighting to be as close as possible. At least in my current lighting conditions (fairly bright indoor light) this is how it looks to me --

The Voyage definitely looks whiter, tending towards a very, very pale gray.
The H2O is on the creamier side of white, but not so much that I'd call it yellow. The light seems very even on both of them. I don't see any shadows or mysterious colored blobs. To me the H2O is slightly easier on the eyes, but I'm perfectly happy with both of them.

My eyes aren't good enough to see that the sharpness of the letters is better on one or the other. Both are clearly sharper than my six inch Aura, even to my eyes.

The letters on the H2O definitely look blacker to me than those on the Voyage.

If I stare at the screens any longer I'll start to convince myself that everything I've just said is wrong.

I like Kobos partly because I like a lot of the little things -- seeing the cover of my current book on the sleep screen, having plenty of white space on the page (I know most people think this is a waste ), having the book title at the top of the page, and current page number/total pages at the bottom.

If I could really only keep one of my ereaders it would still be the six inch Kobo with its perfect size and "good enough" screen.

[negris123]

I am a little frustrated with Amazon's customer service. The first time I contacted them, they told me I would get a replacement in a few days. I kept checking my email and never received a confirmation so I contacted them again to check on that. Turns out they never made the replacement request. They told me I would get a replacement in Nov 26. I asked for a refund. I really liked the higher resolution and sharper text. It was the only reason for upgrading and I never thought the light would be an issue. It's just too distracting for me, especially knowing my PW2 has much better lighting. Since this doesn't seem to be a random defect (too many people reporting the exact same thing), I will probably wait until next year to re-purchase (assuming they come out with an improved voyage).

[Yolina]

Urgh, shame about all those reports of dodgy screens, feels like PW1 all over again (and I can almost hear the collective groan from CS when they start getting lots of replacement requests). Hope everybody eventually ends up with a good one

Given the premium price, they really should have made more of an effort with QC.

[disconnected]

I can't believe they didn't hold back a supply of units for replacements. It's so unfair to make people with faulty units go to the back of the line.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Yes that is pretty surprising. I believe Sony held back a certain number of original PS3s to replace them for their customers once they stopped producing them. On the other hand, they can only hold back so many.

[Josieb1]

Well I've just ordered a PW2 wifi and a third party new case, assuming I get a decent one I'm cancelling my Voyage order. Overall I'll save over £115 by just buying a PW2 with the three year insurance. (I always buy that as its a good for selling) as I was going to buy the origami cover too.

That way if they sort out the screen issues for next year I can think again.

Since I've got my H20 I realise the Kindle will be a secondary reader so it makes sense to just go with the PW2

[Crodley]

So my question for the off color screen, is this problem only in a dark environment where you need the light on? For the VAST majority of my reading I'll be in very well lit places. When I read in bed, I only last around 5 minutes before I nod off.

[Josieb1]

I always use the light, and I tend to keep it at a level of around 18-20 so any light defect will affect me.

[Josieb1]

Just found this video online. It's a PW2 vs Voyage comparrison, and the reviewer mentions the discolouration of the Voyage saying it reminds him of the PW1, can't really see it too much in the video but I couldn't help thinking the PW2 just looked better.

http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/201...arison-review/

[negris123]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Just found this video online. It's a PW2 vs Voyage comparrison, and the reviewer mentions the discolouration of the Voyage saying it reminds him of the PW1, can't really see it too much in the video but I couldn't help thinking the PW2 just looked better.

http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/201...arison-review/

Once you get used to the uniform light, it's amazing how distracting different tones on the the screen can be. I have a PW1 as well and I kept it, even with the blotches of light on the bottom, but since it was the first ereader with a light I bought, I was fine with it. It was better than not having any light. However, knowing that they have made something better and having a PW2 with uniform light, I can't go back to poor lighting, especially on their premium reader. As reviews start coming in, this will continue to come up. Amazon will probably have to update their description page like they did for PW1 to show pictures of how the light actually looks.