My Oasis has splotchier lighting than any early Paperwhite or Voyage I've seen.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by disconnected

For some reason my brain can tune out general all-over gray blotchiness so I can read perfectly well on my six inch Aura or my PW1.

Unfortunately I couldn't cope with the strong color difference between the top and bottom of my Voyage screen -- every time I turned a page I'd be going directly from the white at the bottom of the first page to the dark yellow at the top of the next page and it was really jarring.

I don't have my Oasis yet so I don't know if the color change from side to side will be easier to ignore.

I would think it would be difficult because the first part of the line will be white and the end of the line will be yellow if you get a bad screen. You will get the color change every single line instead of just seeing the big change at the top of the next page.

[Kolja]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I would think it would be difficult because the first part of the line will be white and the end of the line will be yellow if you get a bad screen. You will get the color change every single line instead of just seeing the big change at the top of the next page.

I agree, except in my case reading with the right hand, it goes from yellow to white. In addition I'm more distracted by the slight shadows made by the LEDs in the margin than I am by those of the paperwhites and voyages at the bottom.

[Blossom]

Here we go again. I really think the variations of lighting is a LED issue. Using cheap LEDs. I've always suspected this causes the color issues.

I have a PW1 that has no color issues. I've seen plenty of PWs that do. My Kobo Glo HD is perfect. There is no color problems. I am one who see colors and wouldn't be able to read on a screen shown in these pics.

It really is a lottery on getting a good ereader.

Call me color sensitive but I need a clean even background to read on when it comes to eInk. Out of all the ones I've owned that is my K3 and Glo HD.

Sent from my XT1528 using Tapatalk

[Kolja]

Originally Posted by JulyB

If you want to see some reviews, you can look at the international Amazon sites - as far as I know all of them are working and overall the reviews so far are incredibly positive. So I really doubt that it's some kind of US only conspiracy.

Wasn't really implying a conspiracy. I did look at the reviews on the Amazon UK site and of 15 reviews, 2 said the screen was bad and one good review overall mentioned that the display was warmer and a bit cloudy on the right where the LEDs are. If I was trying to decide whether to buy an Oasis these reviews would concern me.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

This 100%. Even people who say theirs is perfect - when they post pictures - the more discerning among us are like... "NOPE!"

Yes, exactly. I haven't seen a single perfect, lighted, kindle in person or posted online, ever. To my eyes, at least. All I see are color hues and uneven lighting. I have given up on Kindles altogether. I didn't order an Oasis as I was expecting it to be no different and unfortunately that seems to be true. Sorry to those that received them that are disappointed.

[344a]

I was planning on buying one when I go to Japan next month (if it is available in shops). But now I think I will stick with my Kobo H2O. For me, a good uniform lighting is very important.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Both those pictures look absolutely fine to me. What do you perceive the problem to be?

My eyes aren't the best but the blue and pink are very obvious to me. Of course I am assuming the camera exaggerates and it's not that bad in real life.

Is this going to be like the blue dress situation all over again?

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Kolja

I agree, except in my case reading with the right hand, it goes from yellow to white. In addition I'm more distracted by the slight shadows made by the LEDs in the margin than I am by those of the paperwhites and voyages at the bottom.

I'm right handed too, just a bit backwards.

[kobayashi]

Originally Posted by disconnected

For some reason my brain can tune out general all-over gray blotchiness so I can read perfectly well on my six inch Aura or my PW1.

Unfortunately I couldn't cope with the strong color difference between the top and bottom of my Voyage screen -- every time I turned a page I'd be going directly from the white at the bottom of the first page to the dark yellow at the top of the next page and it was really jarring.

I don't have my Oasis yet so I don't know if the color change from side to side will be easier to ignore.

For me, it's much harder to ignore when the color gradient goes sideways. Simply set your Voyage to landscape mode and you can test it out.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Jason90

Unless they don't check the leds until they have been placed inside the final product and then say do a QC on every 1 in 100 or something and realise they need to check the leds again.

Originally Posted by Blossom

Here we go again. I really think the variations of lighting is a LED issue. Using cheap LEDs. I've always suspected this causes the color issues.

All LEDs, even those produced in the sale batch, even those installed in the same grid by manufacturer, wary *wildly* when you want to dim them. Every electronics enthusiast that played with LEDs knows that.

LEDs have to be "paired" carefully by manufacturer to give the same output when driven at less than full glare. Even then, I suspect you have to drive each LED separately, with a specially tuned circuit, to get such an amazing even light level across the entire range.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by kobayashi

For me, it's much harder to ignore when the color gradient goes sideways. Simply set your Voyage to landscape mode and you can test it out.

I can't believe that never occurred to me. Thank you. I've just tried it and my first impression is that it isn't as bad in landscape mode. I'm not sure why -- possibly because every line is the same and my brain just gets used to it, as opposed to what seems like an abrupt change at each page turn in portrait mode.

One characteristic of my Voyage is that without knowing the technology behind it the impression it gives is that the page itself is discolored. There's nothing to remind you of any light source at all -- you can't see the LEDs no matter what angle you look at and there are no cones or obvious shadows at all, just a change in color from bottom to top.

I prefer to read in portrait mode so if the Oasis screen is similar to the Voyage's except for the orientation of the LEDs I might be ok with it. On the other hand, some of the pictures that have been posted do show obvious cones and shadows and that would definitely be distracting.

Due to impulsiveness and general lack of logic I have a wifi Oasis with merlot cover arriving on Monday from Best Buy and a wifi/3G Oasis with walnut cover arriving on Wednesday from Amazon so I'll have two units to compare. Hopefully at least one of them will be acceptable.

[silverraven]

So, stupid question. Would it make the lighting more even to have LEDs on both sides of the screen? I imagine top and bottom wouldn't be good, the top ones could be too bright shining in people's eyes. But if they were on both sides I wonder if that would cut down some of the blotchy/color gradient instead of trying to push the light all the way across the screen?
S

[Barty]

Originally Posted by silverraven

So, stupid question. Would it make the lighting more even to have LEDs on both sides of the screen? I imagine top and bottom wouldn't be good, the top ones could be too bright shining in people's eyes. But if they were on both sides I wonder if that would cut down some of the blotchy/color gradient instead of trying to push the light all the way across the screen?
S

I think it would just increase design and production complexity while introducing other artifacts. E.g. you may end up with two gradients instead of one.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by silverraven

So, stupid question. Would it make the lighting more even to have LEDs on both sides of the screen? I imagine top and bottom wouldn't be good, the top ones could be too bright shining in people's eyes. But if they were on both sides I wonder if that would cut down some of the blotchy/color gradient instead of trying to push the light all the way across the screen?

Sort of. It just changes what challenges you face, and what trade-offs you make. And to fill in the shadows properly, you need to shunt some light across from the LEDs on the opposite side.

Amazon seems focused more on light uniformity and removing the "book wedge" look to the light guide. Which is fine, but it is coming with trade-offs. The closest thing to what Amazon has achieved is the Glo HD, but even that basically is a statement that they are making different trade offs, and doesn't quite eliminate the "book wedge" look. Just very good at minimizing it. But it is still trade offs, do you value color uniformity or light uniformity?

Just to give folks an idea of how far we've come in the last decade on this sort of tech:

[howyoudoin]

Amazon needs to figure out how Kobo got it so right with the Aura H2O. It's amazing how a $290 device manages to be worse off on lighting tech than a $180 device from 2014. Amazon were close to catching up to Kobo with the Voyage, but they seem to have regressed with the Oasis.