Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Drew0020

I gave up on the wifi Paperwhite 2 after 6. I decided to try my luck on the 3G Paperwhite 2. I figured they might have a few of the kinks ironed out. My 3G unit is supposed to arrive today. I am crossing my fingers ha!

Good luck! OMG 6 replacement! I'm on my third HDX and hoping it will be the last one!

[Drew0020]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Good luck! OMG 6 replacement! I'm on my third HDX and hoping it will be the last one!

I cannot handle pinholes. It ruins the e-ink experience, but this is my last one. I don't have the time to keep playing this lottery. I'm hoping that the QC has improved in the last month, but I have my doubts.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You say "if it's as bad as the picture", but the picture looks absolutely fine to me. Personal perception is a huge factor in all this.

True, which is why I specified what I would do personally

[xendula]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Now my HDX is another matter. Folks my HDX has blotches!

You mean the pink and green blobs we saw last year? So sorry to hear you are back in the replacements game!! Hope the next one will be perfect!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by xendula

You mean the pink and green blobs we saw last year? So sorry to hear you are back in the replacements game!! Hope the next one will be perfect!

Yes but on the HDX they change color. White background they are blue. Sepia background they are green. This is unheard of on a tablet! It's crazy! My first unit only had it around the edges and it was a faint blue. This one is neon blue on the edges and faint blue blotches through out the middle.

Originally Posted by xendula

You won't get a new device as a replacement in a few months: you'll get one of the ones that were returned, more likely, so maybe mine, or yours....

Blossom's second Fire HDX, a replacement for her defective HDX, came with scratches on the back and the FW updates already installed. That means she almost certainly received a returned item. I suspected that was happening last year with the PW1 even in the first few weeks after release. I think they were trying to pawn off their returned junk on us. As time goes by they do that for sure as the units come marked with an "R" for returned.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Blossom's second Fire HDX, a replacement for her defective HDX, came with scratches on the back and the FW updates already installed. That means she almost certainly received a returned item. I suspected that was happening last year with the PW1 even in the first few weeks after release. I think they were trying to pawn off their returned junk on us. As time goes by they do that for sure as the units come marked with an "R" for returned.

I believe the R stands for Refurbished but yeah. I think my unit was new but just a bad LEDs. The reason I know it was new was because the first time I turned it on I got that wonderful New Smell you get when you first turn on a LED or LCD display for the first time. It went away after while but both my monitor and HDTV smelled like that when I first got it.

My third one will be Thursday. I am hoping it this is the last one!

Originally Posted by Blossom

I believe the R stands for Refurbished but yeah. I think my unit was new but just a bad LEDs. The reason I know it was new was because the first time I turned it on I got that wonderful New Smell you get when you first turn on a LED or LCD display for the first time. It went away after while but both my monitor and HDTV smelled like that when I first got it.

My third one will be Thursday. I am hoping it this is the last one!

Returned and refurbished are probably much the same when it comes to Kindles. I suspect they take the returned Kindles/Fires, turn them on to make sure they work, do a factory reset, then repackage them as a Refurbished item. At that point they are more like a recycled item. If they turn on and are capable of being reset to factory settings, they most likely don't undergo any more scrutiny. If they show obvious signs of defects, they probably get worked on and truly refurbished, or just tossed if really bad.

[Outrager]

Originally Posted by xendula

You won't get a new device as a replacement in a few months: you'll get one of the ones that were returned, more likely, so maybe mine, or yours....

Originally Posted by jswinden

Blossom's second Fire HDX, a replacement for her defective HDX, came with scratches on the back and the FW updates already installed. That means she almost certainly received a returned item. I suspected that was happening last year with the PW1 even in the first few weeks after release. I think they were trying to pawn off their returned junk on us. As time goes by they do that for sure as the units come marked with an "R" for returned.

Yikes! Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll wait a week or two then instead of months. If I notice it I'll return it, but I didn't notice it last night while reading. I'll try to use it more over the next week or two so I don't get stuck with a broken one down the line.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You say "if it's as bad as the picture", but the picture looks absolutely fine to me. Personal perception is a huge factor in all this.

It seems the same folks keep getting bad units for PW 2012, PW 2013, HD 2012 and HD 2013. Yet, other folks never get a bad unit.

The odds against this type of chance occurrence must be huge.

It would be like someone buying a new car every year and getting a lemon three years in a row.

[myself11]

In low brightness level, my Kindle PW2 has a greish/green tone. Only with a high brightness level it becomes white. Yours has the same behaviour or I had bad luck with my unit?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

It seems the same folks keep getting bad units for PW 2012, PW 2013, HD 2012 and HD 2013. Yet, other folks never get a bad unit.

The odds against this type of chance occurrence must be huge.

It would be like someone buying a new car every year and getting a lemon three years in a row.

That picture was taken in complete darkness with the screen on full brightness.

No wonder it looks like crap. Even my own KPW1 (2012) that looks just fine in any circumstance I care to use it in looks crap when taking pictures like that.

I use a camera that has Carl Zeiss lenses attached to it; that's some serious stuff with regard to lens quality; there's nothing better. (At least in my opinion; except maybe Leica, if you want to pay an extra €2500 for a lens to get that 0.1% image improvement.) I can only say that even the Zeiss lenses can't handle a Kindle at full brightness in a dark room. Even a Kindle on full brightness in a normal room already is a challenge.

The contrast is just too great. It creates monstrous color fringing, mostly around the letters; some lenses fringe green, others purple, and some both; purple on top, green on the bottom of the screen.

As long as I take a picture in normal lighting conditions with the screen set to a normal setting suited for normal reading, it just looks... normal. At least to me.

This is my Kindle in a room with normal lighting, front-light set to 13 or thereabout:

http://members.home.nl/katsunami/mis...n/_0012037.JPG

To me, this just looks fine, and I have no trouble reading on it like that for hours. Sometimes I set it a notch brighter, sometimes a notch lower, depending on how I like it better that day and how my eyes feel. (PS: It looks like have actually focused on the Kindle logo instead of on the text )

This is the Kindle in a fully dark room, with the setting around 15:

http://members.home.nl/katsunami/mis...f/_0012046.JPG

I think it still looks OK.

(You know, it's damn hard to manual focus a lens in complete darkenss, looking into a bright light like that.)

This is the KPW in a fuly dark room at setting 24. Meet the fringe-fest:

http://members.home.nl/katsunami/mis...f/_0012049.JPG

If you read like that, in complete darkness and with the Kindle on full brightness, you should have your sanity checked. It burns your freaking eyes out. (And your brains too probably.)

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by myself11

In low brightness level, my Kindle PW2 has a greish/green tone. Only with a high brightness level it becomes white. Yours has the same behaviour or I had bad luck with my unit?

Setting the brightness at 1 does show the screen as a grey off white with a faint border around the rim. Setting it at 15 (my usual setting in all light conditions) shows a pure white background with the border so faint as to be nearly invisible.

Its very possible that those reporting all these defects are using very low brightness settings.

[myself11]

With good ambient light, setting brightness level at 15, indeed it displays a warm white. But with low ambient light, the white turns into a slight green and outside, at night, is really green. Besides, the lower half of the screen has a dark hue.

Anyone has experience with international kindle returns?

[jgsmith]

I've had my PW2 for a couple weeks now, and probably spent 10-15 hours reading (and playing) with it. Having owned a Sony and Kobo previously, and having played with most devices on the market today (I'm a nerd) I can honestly say this is the best ereader on the market. The white(ish) background, great resolution, high contrast, excellent software and integration with the sleep cover put it head and shoulders above anything else I have seen. If I have to complain about something, and it seems to be truly accepted here you must, it is a bit heavy. Pretty sure I can live with that, but hopefully they take a cue from Apple and trim weight for the next one. Well, that's enough for now. Time to read.