Kindle Voyage - First Impressions

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by disconnected

I hesitate to post this picture because the quality isn't good enough for a valid comparison. None of the screens look blurry like they are in the picture. I took it with my two year old Samsung phone in a dim room. In real life the letters on the H2O look slightly darker to me but it might just be me.

Left to right --
Aura at 50% brightness
H2O at 26%
Voyage at level 13

Attachment 130015

Looks darker to me. Screen looks good. H20 is starting to look good.

[evanft]

Originally Posted by disconnected

I hesitate to post this picture because the quality isn't good enough for a valid comparison. None of the screens look blurry like they are in the picture. I took it with my two year old Samsung phone in a dim room. In real life the letters on the H2O look slightly darker to me but it might just be me.

Left to right --
Aura at 50% brightness
H2O at 26%
Voyage at level 13

Attachment 130015

What this really shows is how patching the kobo is absolutely essential. The H20 could display more text than the Voyage if the header and footer were removed/reduced.

[induna]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

I absolutely believe you in real life you don't see it. It's NOTHING to do with brightness. It's to do with color TEMPERATURE. I can easily, easily see the bluer whites at the bottom of your third picture. That's nothing to do with blurriness of picture, exposure of the image etc.

When you think about it, it's not possible for anyone's Voyage to be any different, since the light source is still at the bottom, so it will be brightest/bluest there. Until Amazon switches to multiple light sources on their devices, I can't imagine this getting any better.

Perhaps your perception of others screens is being colored by your own preconceptions, and not the 'truth' that you, but not they, can see? I am always suspicious of those who claim that their perceptual acuity is such that those who disagree with it must be lacking their, presumably superior, ability to perceive it.

[WilliamG]

Originally Posted by induna

Perhaps your perception of others screens is being colored by your own preconceptions, and not the 'truth' that you, but not they, can see? I am always suspicious of those who claim that their perceptual acuity is such that those who disagree with it must be lacking their, presumably superior, ability to perceive it.

Respectfully I disagree. These are tangible differences, and - even beyond that - any photos taken of these devices can easily be put into Photoshop/Lightroom to see actual quantifiable differences.

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I have seen photos of a lot of them now on various different boards and so far not a single one doesn't have the yellow at the top and the cooler bottom. I'd love to see one that doesn't have it, but not holding my breath at this point.

I think they all will to some extent because there are 6 LEDs across the bottom and the light is obviously falling off the farther toward the top it goes. So we get colored shadowing at the top. Mine is not too bad, but it is certainly noticeable. I prefer the top shadowy yellow (more cream colored on mine) to the blue tint on the bottom.

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by evanft

What this really shows is how patching the kobo is absolutely essential.

Is a "patch" in the works or already available?

Originally Posted by WilliamG

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't disagree with you that you can't see the difference.

You could take pictures from whatever angle you like - that bottom of the Kindle is still going to look cooler/bluer than the rest of the device.

Yes, because the 6 LEDs are located at the bottom and are brightest there and they are obviously tinted blue, at least on mine. As the light travels toward the top it gradually loses the blue tint and brightness and the screen turns cream colored but darker.

[robko]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

Is a "patch" in the works or already available?

Technically for that all you need to do is add a line to the config file. But I *think* it may also be included in some of the patches available that allow some other customizations as well. None involve an actual jailbreak.

Just some thoughts on the page turn (PT) buttons. I do like the feedback you can associate with them, but they are not that good in my opinion. Even when set to the highest pressure I still have accidental page turns. I also think they are too low (to far near the bottom) for one hand usage. You have to hold the Voyage near the bottom to use them with one hand. I think I'm going to turn them off altogether.

[slantybard]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

Is a "patch" in the works or already available?

Patching the Kobo's is available and incredibly easy.

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by robko

Technically for that all you need to do is add a line to the config file. But I *think* it may also be included in some of the patches available that allow some other customizations as well. None involve an actual jailbreak.

Thanks! Great info that I'll keep in mind as I test my Voyage, etc.

Originally Posted by slantybard

Patching the Kobo's is available and incredibly easy.

Nice!

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by evanft

What this really shows is how patching the kobo is absolutely essential. The H20 could display more text than the Voyage if the header and footer were removed/reduced.

Not for me! It's exactly the way I like it and one of the reasons I love Kobo.

[kindle_voyage]

Originally Posted by Avwriter

5. The auto brightness works consistently, but unfortunately it consistently makes the screen about 3-4 notches darker that I would like under any lighting condition. Thus, I think I will stick with manually settings for now.

Thankfully they implemented this very well, and the auto-brightness is also adjustable. Just raise it by 3-4 notches after turning auto-brightness on, and it will maintain that higher relative level of brightness.

[pghaworth]

Just plugged my Voyage in after letting it temperature adjust for 4 hours (hope that was enough). I also have my dehumidifier running because of all the rain and dampness in the air. I have to say, so far the screen appears to be very evenly lit. I haven't configured it yet so this is looking at the start screen on whatever brightness level it's set to.

Considerably more even than my PW1 - admittedly that's not saying a lot, I know.

I'll post more as I go on with setup, etc.

[Avwriter]

Originally Posted by kindle_voyage

Thankfully they implemented this very well, and the auto-brightness is also adjustable. Just raise it by 3-4 notches after turning auto-brightness on, and it will maintain that higher relative level of brightness.

Thank you. I saw another post about this a little while ago. Have been trying it, and it sort of works, but I am still trying to see how well it adapts. The sensor takes a little while to react, and sometimes the setting seems to fluctuate up and down a few times before it settles down, which make it easy to jump the gun when fine tuning. We shall see over time how well this works.