Kindle Voyage - First Impressions

[Ocicat]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

My KV1 shipped from San Bernadino, CA, the replacement (worse still) shipped from Whitestown, IN.

I would be interested to know where the good ones are being shipped from. Thanks in advance, in case anyone wants to volunteer this info.

I wonder about different factories because Foxconn has expanded not only in China, but in other countries. For instance, they bought a Cisco factory in Mexico.
That is assuming they are still manufacturing the Kindles.

[pghaworth]

Well, they've hired the "clueless xmas crew" at Amazon. I am boxing up my Voyages for return and the system forced me to call/email/chat to do it. I got the guy that didn't even know what I was returning even though he had the order#, the details, my explanation of why it was being returned - defective, etc. He sent me a USPS label, HUH, and not prepaid? I had to explain again, everything, remind him it was defective, etc. and only then did I get the right label. He had to go offline every time to talk to someone - his trainer, I suppose.

Get ready for the Xmas fun!

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by Ocicat

I wonder about different factories because Foxconn has expanded not only in China, but in other countries. For instance, they bought a Cisco factory in Mexico.
That is assuming they are still manufacturing the Kindles.

I didn't know it was Foxconn. That in and of itself explains a lot.

[xendula]

Great to hear about the good replacements, Jack and Scion! My second replacement will be here tomorrow and I'd be soooo disappointed if the new device still has issues. And I agree with you, Jack. Ai loathe the stupid, idiotic set-up screen. After havung to set up so many PW1s and PW2s, I just wanted to scream when I realized the KV uses them as well!

Originally Posted by Matches Malone

Grats everyone that got a good replacement!
I called amazon again to see if they would bump up my replacement from November 26th, but they still refused to budge

They tried to pull that crap with me when I called for my first replacement, and I just kept reiterating that I KNOW that Amazon sets aside devices for this particular reason. Every time they said no, I said yes, and she finally gave in. When i called for my new replacement on Saturday, they did not even try to give me a November date. I would call and try to push again. Just do not take no for an answer - because you know it's doable, as proven in this thread!

Originally Posted by pghaworth

The third time I made it clear that I want US, Kindle, and got Chance. I told him I wanted Kindle Escalation, in the US, and got Andrew. Andrew was on his game. Replacement was bad, but Andrew was great!

Andrew was the name of a super awesome CS rep who helped Sparklemotion and myself during the PW1 debacle. He stayed beyond patient after many, many swaps. It may be the same one! We may even have contacted him during the PW2 debacle, I forget...

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by xendula

Andrew was the name of a super awesome CS rep who helped Sparklemotion and myself during the PW1 debacle. He stayed beyond patient after many, many swaps. It may be the same one! We may even have contacted him during the PW2 debacle, I forget...

I was just wondering if it was our Andrew, xendula!! hee hee! He was SO nice!

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by xendula

Andrew was the name of a super awesome CS rep who helped Sparklemotion and myself during the PW1 debacle. He stayed beyond patient after many, many swaps. It may be the same one! We may even have contacted him during the PW2 debacle, I forget...

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I was just wondering if it was our Andrew, xendula!! hee hee! He was SO nice!

I think it must have been the same one. I was sooooooo impressed with him. He went above and beyond to take care of me and make sure all my issues had been dealt with, including a sucky PW1 - offered a refurb, but it wasn't a deal so I declined.

I made sure I got his name right, and even double-checked, and glad I did. I talked to so many that day that I got him and Chance confused. He corrected me, sent me the usual email, shipping link, etc. and I gave him 5-stars and put a comment that I would give him 10 stars if possible. He was GOOD!

[judith009]

I just realized that on mine, there's a significant color difference between the left and right edges of the screen when I'm reading at night. It's not noticeable when there's other light sources.

For a while I couldn't understand why it felt so weird for my eyes to read on the device at night. But now I think it's because of that horizontal gradient. The eyes have to adjust to a new color every time they go to a new line.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

I think it must have been the same one. I was sooooooo impressed with him. He went above and beyond to take care of me and make sure all my issues had been dealt with, including a sucky PW1 - offered a refurb, but it wasn't a deal so I declined.

I made sure I got his name right, and even double-checked, and glad I did. I talked to so many that day that I got him and Chance confused. He corrected me, sent me the usual email, shipping link, etc. and I gave him 5-stars and put a comment that I would give him 10 stars if possible. He was GOOD!

That's him, then!! Andrew "came to me" in a time of complete darkness. I had lost an afternoon arguing with a few people in India who were driving me nuts... There is an account of the horrors somewhere in this forum. Anyhow, once Andrew got involved, and I could stick with only dealing with one person, the replacements became easier. I ended up keeping three of the ones that were sent to me, so it's not like Amazon did not make any money out of me, and they all sucked to a certain degree,but that was not Andrew's fault.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by judith009

I just realized that on mine, there's a significant color difference between the left and right edges of the screen when I'm reading at night. It's not noticeable when there's other light sources.

For a while I couldn't understand why it felt so weird for my eyes to read on the device at night. But now I think it's because of that horizontal gradient. The eyes have to adjust to a new color every time they go to a new line.

Do you mean vertical gradient? On my first KV, it's almost like a diagonal gradient, so it's all possible.

[judith009]

Originally Posted by xendula

Do you mean vertical gradient? On my first KV, it's almost like a diagonal gradient, so it's all possible.

Yes, I think diagonal is the correct description! That's exactly it. I used to think the yellowing was only on the top half. But really the gradient goes from yellow on the top-left corner, to blue on the bottom-right.

I'll be really excited about this device if I can get one with even lighting. I was considering switching to Kobo H2O, but without this lighting defect I think the KV would be perfect for me.

[aceflor]

So glad to read that the replacements are good, Jack and Scion. Your good one looks like mine Jack. Not perfect, with a creamier tint in the upper part if you look for it (but not yellow) but nevertheless a very good display and a remarkable difference to the PW2.

Crossing my fingers now for everyone here waiting for a replacement. Good ones do exist.

[GordonGekko]

Thank you for such an informative discussion. I have been delaying the purchase of an ereader, first because the full page refresh flash was highly annoying and only recently it seems that the Kindle Paperwhite has almost eliminated it.

I have sat on the sidelines and read the lighting issues for the Paperwhite 1 which made me wait, they seemed to resolve with the Paperwhite 2 but with the rumors of a page turning button Kindle I decided to wait again.

I truly can't believe that Amazon has released this Voyage with many of the quality control issues that were apparent with the Paperwhite 1. It makes me think they are either arrogant, have too many areas of the retail world taking up their time, or some combination of all the negative characteristics of a big box retail entity that loses touch with its customers.

For the first time I'm thinking of getting a Kobo Aura HD or H20, from what I have read on this site it seems to be superior to the Kindle Paperwhite/Voyage in most areas with one glaring exception, the full page refresh, does the H20 still refresh every 6 pages? Is there any way to set that number to every 12 pages?

For the people that have the Paperwhite only refresh after each chapter, do you have ghosting issues because of this?

Thanks for your time.

[GordonGekko]

Originally Posted by cybmole

time to switch to reading on tablets?

the only negatives are battery life & screen reflectivity, but all the other e-ink issues just go away . I now read nearly always on kindle Fire via epub reading apps, in preference to my "super" e-ink aura HD device.

I recharge tablet at night anyway so battery is not an issue for me. I get v fast page turns , retina display quality, 300+dpi text, controllable background shading, full colour book covers,epub3 support, immediate page turns, tap to access wikipedia / dictionaries of my choice, no ghosting, no gradients, no blotches, wireless access to my calibre library via calibre companion.... what's not to like and why pay nearly £200 for some inferior, slow, gray scale only device

This is the other issue, do I just buy a Kindle fire tablet, of course I'll only know after reading with it for a couple of weeks to determine how easy it is on the eyes.

Does the entry level $99/$129 Kindle Fire have those same specs as you mentioned above?

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by GordonGekko

This is the other issue, do I just buy a Kindle fire tablet, of course I'll only know after reading with it for a couple of weeks to determine how easy it is on the eyes.

Does the entry level $99/$129 Kindle Fire have those same specs as you mentioned above?

the entry level Fire's dpi is ~250 i think, which still beats almost all e-ink devices. all the specs are easily found on Amazon pages...

here you go:

( i spot another advantage, the gorilla glass screen which is much tougher than an e-ink carta )

Fast quad-core processor up to 1.5 GHz..
Beautiful 6” HD display—Crisp, vivid HD display (252 ppi / 1280x800) with over a million pixels..
Front and rear cameras—Skype with a front-facing camera. Take photos or capture videos in 1080p HD with a rear-facing camera. Includes free, unlimited Cloud storage for photos taken with Fire devices
Massive selection of digital content—Enjoy over 33 million songs, movies, TV shows, books, Android apps and games–including Facebook, Netflix, Minecraft and more
Great for the whole family—Create individual profiles and share books, games, apps, movies and more with family members. Set screen time limits for kids with Amazon FreeTime. Durable Gorilla Glass, and excellent reliability
Stay connected and productive—Fast web browsing, e-mail and calendar support including Gmail and Outlook. Plus, edit and view Office documents

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

I didn't know it was Foxconn. That in and of itself explains a lot.

What does it explain? Foxconn make devices for pretty much everyone. They make iPads, for example, and I don't think many people have quality issues with those.