Paperwhite 2018 looks worse than 2013? (Picture inside)

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Gametaku

Could you do a text comparison between Libra and the PWs (if its not too much trouble)?

Brightness 0, font face Bookerly. Font size 6 on the Kindles, tried to get the font size on the Libra close.

As NiLuJe has said, the flush bezels on the PW4 is an advantage in scanning and likely makes the scan look nicer than PW3 or Libra H2O. Reckon not being able to completely turn off the light on the PW3 also penalizes it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, with the naked eye:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

By the way, the PW3 display is better than I remembered. Now that I've had the chance to look at it again, I'd rank them as follows:

PW3 > Libra H2O >> PW4

Note, it's generally agreed upon that the Voyage has the best contrast among all Kindles.


From left to right: PW3, PW4, Libra H2O

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Brightness 0, font face Bookerly. Font size 6 on the Kindles, tried to get the font size on the Libra close.

As NiLuJe has said, the flush bezels on the PW4 is an advantage in scanning and likely makes the scan look nicer than PW3 or Libra H2O. Reckon not being able to completely turn off the light on the PW3 also penalizes it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, with the naked eye:


Note, it's generally agreed upon that the Voyage has the best contrast among all Kindles.


From left to right: PW3, PW4, Libra H2O

Of the three, they would all do well for text.

[NiLuJe]

Speaking of text, keep in mind that unless you setup your device to flash on each page turn, how it looks right after a flash vs. how it looks in-between those can vary vastly (and depends on many many more factors than simply how great the contrast is in perfect conditions ;p). How annoyed *you* get by those kind of artifacts also varies wildly ^^.

That was my usual "pictures of eInk screens are basically worthless" rant ^^.

I mean, they're fun, and nice and all, but I would only use them as a very vague way to say "avoid this, there's no way it'll look great, since it's crap even in the best of cases" (e.g., a PW1).
Or a vague "try this if you can, it might look great for you" (e.g., pretty much anything you might be looking at in *current* Kindle/Kobo lineups ^^. I, personally, might be willing to take the possibly, maybe, slight contrast hit of a PW4 because I simply prefer flush screens. Or just get a Forma to get the best of both worlds, budget willing (spoiler alert: Past me went with a Forma, present me hasn't ever regretted that choice, despite the one glaring flaw of the Forma's frontlight).).
The real benchmark is unfortunately getting your hands on one, and testing it with your usual settings, in your usual reading conditions.

Which is why the actual feedback from people who regularly have used different devices is prooobably more interesting than just putting your faith in pictures alone.

(I *am* exaggerating a tiny bit, the gist of my reasoning being trust people, not pictures).

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Speaking of text, keep in mind that unless you setup your device to flash on each page turn, how it looks right after a flash vs. how it looks in-between those can vary vastly (and depends on many many more factors than simply how great the contrast is in perfect conditions ;p). How annoyed *you* get by those kind of artifacts also varies wildly ^^.

This is especially true for manga. The Kindle doesn't have an option to flash on each page turn with normal books, iirc. However, it does allow it for manga. Enabling it is a must to avoid ghosting.

With regular text, the every 5-6 page default is good enough for me. I don't really notice much of a difference between the Kindles and the Libra with regards to ghosting with text. I think both platforms do a pretty good job avoiding ghosting.

Personally, the minor contrast hit on the PW4 when using the native reader doesn't really bother me. However, since KOReader does offer contrast adjustment, I set it 2 steps darker on the PW4 to make it look as dark as the PW3.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

This is especially true for manga. The Kindle doesn't have an option to flash on each page turn with normal books, iirc. However, it does allow it for manga. Enabling it is a must to avoid ghosting.

With regular text, the every 5-6 page default is good enough for me. I don't really notice much of a difference between the Kindles and the Libra with regards to ghosting with text. I think both platforms do a pretty good job avoiding ghosting.

Personally, the minor contrast hit on the PW4 when using the native reader doesn't really bother me. However, since KOReader does offer contrast adjustment, I set it 2 steps darker on the PW4 to make it look as dark as the PW3.

With my H2O, it's set to every chapter. I can also do it manually if I want with a double tap in the middle of the screen. Can anything like that be done with a Kindle? I've not looked for such.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

This is especially true for manga. The Kindle doesn't have an option to flash on each page turn with normal books, iirc. However, it does allow it for manga. Enabling it is a must to avoid ghosting.

Of course you can set a Kindle to refresh every page. All my Kindles are set to do just that. (And my Libra too).

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Of course you can set a Kindle to refresh every page. All my Kindles are set to do just that. (And my Libra too).

Really? I've only seen that option for graphic novels. Checked a regular book and it didn't have this option.

[Sirtel]

It's not under the Aa menu, but under general settings (Settings -> Reading options).

[j.p.s]

amazon moves stuff around so much that even the long time expert heavy users can't keep up.

[mergen3107]

Is it my eyes, or the color of bezel really makes difference in perception of "contrast"? I mean, in the PW3-PW4-Forma comparison above, only PW4 has black-black\black bezel, which makes me *think* its text is darker too...

[mergen3107]

However, I can't complain about the contrast on my PW3 at all. Unless I put it next to a pitch black PC tower, for example.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It's not under the Aa menu, but under general settings (Settings -> Reading options).

Thanks. Learned something new.

[NiLuJe]

Yeah, I've also never really been overly bothered by in-between-flashes ghosting during reading (and I've always used the 5-6 defaults everywhere).

However, it's gotten far, far better with current devices. I probably couldn't use the PW2 or the H2O that way after having been used to much better now .
(insert "eye of the beholder" quote here ^^).

[NiLuJe]

@ilovejedd: Okay, your snapshot made me curious: what does "Animation" do?

(My gut feeling would be it enables A2/monochrome updates when panning, but that'd be a weird way to expose that to the user, and I would have thought those would be the defaults on Manga anyway.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Yeah, I've also never really been overly bothered by in-between-flashes ghosting during reading (and I've always used the 5-6 defaults everywhere).

However, it's gotten far, far better with current devices. I probably couldn't use the PW2 or the H2O that way after having been used to much better now .
(insert "eye of the beholder" quote here ^^).

I don't find the original H2O much of an issue with ghosting. The occasional time I do have ghosting, I can deal with it very easily. I've never had a problem with ghosting for just text.