Paperwhite 3 First Impressions

[HarryT]

Faint shadow cones are normal for the PW, but they shouldn't be prominent.

[samosa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have to disagree. Uneven/blotchy/Shadowy screens are not the norm for eInk screens. My H2O's screen is none of those. I've seen a PW3 recently that did have the shadows at bottom, but the screen was not uneven and not blotchy.

Kobo with lights are known to be pretty consistent in quality (unlike Kindles) and AFAIK most of them are as good as the best Kindles. I have all the Auras and they are superb.

As for botchiness I think the cones make me feel that the screen is a bit botchy. I have six PWs and I have been pretty lucky as four of them have Kobo-like lights . The last two I got I can see the cones, extremely obvious on a PW2 and noticeable but pretty faint on a PW3. Until I got the last two I didn't really understand what people were going on about bad lights on their PWs.

[rashkae]

If at all possible, (and not far out of your way,) I would love to see a screenshot (or good close up camera shot) of how PW3 renders Bookerly at small font size. (With the old Ceacilia font, I found PW2 most comfortable on the second size up, assuming e-book text at 1em.)

I've seen a few people mention that it's too thin. I'm hopping it's nothing like Baskerville on the Paperwhites. (The thinness wasn't a problem so much as the low resolution/contrast screen could now render the glyphs clearly at smaller sizes.)

[haydnfan]

Okay here you go, this is at the smallest size.

[rashkae]

That looks really good,, thank you.. Still have a few days before these are unleashed in Canada.

Edit: I've ajusted the settings on my Kobo Glo HD to get as close a match to that screen as possible. It looks really good on an LCD monitor from the screenshot, but on the 300dpi E-ink, the font is just a bit too light. But still not bad. (The endless tweaking options of the Kobo is the big difference from the Kindle, but I think Kindle default is still better than Kobo default out of the box.)

[lee.hauser]

I got my PW3 on Tuesday and am very happy with it. I came off a PW1, which was fine. Before that I had a Keyboard and a Kindle 1.

I like it much more than my PW1. The light seems brighter even at the same setting as the PW1. I like Bookerly very much. I'm amazed at the improvement the higher resolution makes. I read all the way into work and back again Wednesday and Thursday, not giving in to napping despite the heat on the afternoon bus. It's the most comfortable Kindle for reading I've seen yet.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Okay here you go, this is at the smallest size.

That looks vastly, vastly better than Caecilia. Allowing sideloaded fonts also would be better of course, but the improvement in the default is very welcome.

[Victoria]

I received mine yesterday. Wow - I'm very surprised by what an upgrade it is - almost shocked. I would have said my PW2 was perfect, and I've had had no complaints whatsoever. I wanted the newer model, as my PW2 was almost full, so wanted the increased storage. Also, i'm struggling with eye strain. I use my k-touch in my bedroom, and a second PW would let me retire it.

However, now, looking at the PW2 & PW3 side by side, the differences are amazing. The the PW3 is brighter, has crisper text, and the screen itself is warmer and looks more like paper. (In case any one is curious - no problems with pink and green splotches, dead pixels or unlit corners)

I really like the bookerly font. I'm going to use it as my default.

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by rashkae

That looks really good,, thank you.. Still have a few days before these are unleashed in Canada.

Edit: I've ajusted the settings on my Kobo Glo HD to get as close a match to that screen as possible. It looks really good on an LCD monitor from the screenshot, but on the 300dpi E-ink, the font is just a bit too light. But still not bad. (The endless tweaking options of the Kobo is the big difference from the Kindle, but I think Kindle default is still better than Kobo default out of the box.)

I agree that it's a bit too light. Before I bought the kindle I was expecting it to be as bold as Caecilia but with lovely serifs like Baskerville or Palatino. Instead it's a bit more refined than either serif font but also thinner.

I think that when Bookerly appears on the basic it will look bolder simply because the letters will be thicker due to the lower resolution.

[BookCat]

Before I settle to read through the entire thread, I'd like to ask if the PW3 allows you to create collections on the reader itself, with no reference to the cloud?

By choice, I don't have wi-fi, so keep my reader permanently in aeroplane mode, which means I can't create collections as these are 'stored' in the cloud. My old Sony 505 doesn't have the capacity to connect to the internet, so Sony built-in the ability to create collections using the computer and reader.
If the PW3 can do this, it looks like a promising option.
Oh, I download all the books onto the computer by choosing the 'transfer via usb' option on Amazon, then side-load them.

Thanks.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Before I settle to read through the entire thread, I'd like to ask if the PW3 allows you to create collections on the reader itself, with no reference to the cloud?

By choice, I don't have wi-fi, so keep my reader permanently in aeroplane mode, which means I can't create collections as these are 'stored' in the cloud. My old Sony 505 doesn't have the capacity to connect to the internet, so Sony built-in the ability to create collections using the computer and reader.
If the PW3 can do this, it looks like a promising option.
Oh, I download all the books onto the computer by choosing the 'transfer via usb' option on Amazon, then side-load them.

Thanks.

Collections is an area of Kindles that is very limited. I'm not even sure you can use them without wifi. In short, forget it.

Collections are considerably more flexible on a Kobo. I think you can set them up like Sony collections, but as with all things Kobo, you have to frig with it.

If you install Cool Reader, you can just navigate books via folder / directory just like Prs+, but Cool Reader lacks the font amazingness of Nickle.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Before I settle to read through the entire thread, I'd like to ask if the PW3 allows you to create collections on the reader itself, with no reference to the cloud?

By choice, I don't have wi-fi, so keep my reader permanently in aeroplane mode, which means I can't create collections as these are 'stored' in the cloud. My old Sony 505 doesn't have the capacity to connect to the internet, so Sony built-in the ability to create collections using the computer and reader.
If the PW3 can do this, it looks like a promising option.
Oh, I download all the books onto the computer by choosing the 'transfer via usb' option on Amazon, then side-load them.

Thanks.

Collections are cloud based but once you've connected to the cloud once you can create collections without being connected to the wifi. However you will get an annoying pop up message for every book, every time you want to add it to a collection, or change the collection, as the device wants you to be connected to the cloud for all additions and amendments to the collection.

If you had a Sony before, that took ePub, maybe you'd be better off with a kobo ereader which can be used independently to the cloud. Plus with a kobo you can add plugins to Calibre which means you can arrange collections via the calibre tag ins.

[patrickt]

Those who live in the U.S. and can get the PW3 just have to rub it in on the rest of us, don't you?

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Before I settle to read through the entire thread, I'd like to ask if the PW3 allows you to create collections on the reader itself, with no reference to the cloud?

By choice, I don't have wi-fi, so keep my reader permanently in aeroplane mode, which means I can't create collections as these are 'stored' in the cloud. My old Sony 505 doesn't have the capacity to connect to the internet, so Sony built-in the ability to create collections using the computer and reader.
If the PW3 can do this, it looks like a promising option.
Oh, I download all the books onto the computer by choosing the 'transfer via usb' option on Amazon, then side-load them.

Thanks.

You have not been provided with the correct answer yet. The answer is YES. Collections are not cloud only, that is categorically false. You can create and maintain collections without ever syncing to the cloud. And online or offline you can add books to your collections without any petulant warnings about being offline. I tried this myself with the PW 3 and I'm reporting on what I've observed.

For the other posters, please don't answer questions about kindles that you don't know the answer to. It's not helpful.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

You have not been provided with the correct answer yet. The answer is YES. Collections are not cloud only, that is categorically false. You can create and maintain collections without ever syncing to the cloud. And online or offline you can add books to your collections without any petulant warnings about being offline. I tried this myself with the PW 3 and I'm reporting on what I've observed.

For the other posters, please don't answer questions about kindles that you don't know the answer to. It's not helpful.

Shortly after I got my KPW2, Amazon released a firmware version that added cloud collections to the PW2. That made me give up on collections because of the frustrations Josie mentioned--constant nagging popup messages telling you you needed to connect via wi-fi to sync your collections to the cloud. Very frustrating.

Sometime later, I believe that Amazon came out with another firmware version that reduced the number of nagging pop-ups, but by this time I'd learned to live without collections and to use Calibre plugboards to add series information to the titles of my books as they are transferred to my reader.

I can't confirm how the newer version of the firmware operates from personal experience as I've never actually bothered to connect and update my firmware.