KA1 Natural Light - Rainbow Colors?

[alizarin]

I just got my KA1 and sure enough there's a big green blotchy area in the bottom left of the screen that is very distracting and prevents me from reading. Its worse at low light levels but visible even at 100%, which is irritating because now I can't unsee it no matter what I do.

I said to myself "I'll live with it", but then read a few pages and said "no I won't" so I talked to Kobo CS (I bought it from the Kobo store) and they sent me an email and I sent them back pictures. We'll see what happens, but if they don't replace then I plan to return mine.

Which is a shame, really because the KA1 is exactly as advertised; the larger screen is *so* much better than the usual 6 inches.

[SCION]

Deleted

[SCION]

Turns out the lighting on my original was bad. Replacement on the left.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[CatherineStewart]

Originally Posted by SCION

Turns out the lighting on my original was bad. Replacement on the left. Attachment 151672

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Not sure you're comparing apples to apples though. The natural light setting on the one to the right seems at a bit higher than the one to the left. Judging by it's relative position to the time on the screen. Just a couple notches can make a huge difference in the lighting.

But glad you are happy with your replacement. Still waiting for mine. We shall see. I want to be hopeful.

[bookwurm70]

Originally Posted by CatherineStewart

Not sure you're comparing apples to apples though. The natural light setting on the one to the right seems at a bit higher than the one to the left. Judging by it's relative position to the time on the screen. Just a couple notches can make a huge difference in the lighting.

But glad you are happy with your replacement. Still waiting for mine. We shall see. I want to be hopeful.

I got an email asking for my address, so I'm hopeful that means mine it headed up the chain for replacement.

[pinopyta]

My aura one also has the same issue with rainbow colors. The bottom right part has a larger redish color that stands out and is distracting while reading(especially in full screen mode). My screen also has a tiny air bubble/pixel that would light up on dark background.
Contacted kobo support and after sending them the pictures of the device and waiting for 5 days I received an email that they are planning to send a replacement device within 5-7 days (aura one is an expensive device, I would expect a much better support)

Interestingly the top part of the screen is very uniform, no rainbow colors and looks awesome in the night mode. The size of the device is just perfect and I hope that the replacement would not have the same issues.

[valhen]

Mine also has the rainbow issues. Very blotchy orange, red, yellow across the bottom of the device. Darker spots in the lower left corner and a smaller one on the right lower corner (which aren't as distracting as the changing colors).

I'm going back and forth on exchanging. I usually read without lights entirely during the day, but even if I turn both natural light and brightness to 100%, it's not noticeable with the additional daylight. But the night reading is horrible. The blotches are so distracting I find myself dreading getting to the bottom of a page and sighing with relief when I turn the page.

I can live with it, but paying so much for a blotchy display rankles.

[pinopyta]

I took some photos of "rainbow colors" on my KA1. The screen also had a bright dot and I'm waiting for the replacement to arrive.
CatherineStewart, please keep us posted when you receive your replacement.

[CatherineStewart]

Originally Posted by pinopyta

I took some photos of "rainbow colors" on my KA1. The screen also had a bright dot and I'm waiting for the replacement to arrive.
CatherineStewart, please keep us posted when you receive your replacement.

Yours was worse than mine. This is probably the only time I have not found rainbows to be pretty. Will definitely keep you updated.

[piratepanda]

Really strange, one would think a firmware update really setting those rgb leds to the right values should fix that

[jackie_w]

Oh dear. Instead of RGB LEDs you seem to have been given some R's, some G's and some B's.

[JoOrwick]

Originally Posted by SCION

Turns out the lighting on my original was bad. Replacement on the left.

They look about the same to me as far as uniformity goes. The one on the right looks warmer in tone.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by JoOrwick

They look about the same to me as far as uniformity goes. The one on the right looks warmer in tone.

The difference is more pronouned in person. Hard to capture in a picture. It's as if the natural light on the original device is oversaturated (in comparison), for lack of a better term.

[NightGoat]

Originally Posted by pinopyta

I took some photos of "rainbow colors" on my KA1. The screen also had a bright dot and I'm waiting for the replacement to arrive.
CatherineStewart, please keep us posted when you receive your replacement.

Oh my, it looks like you got a real book wet and the ink ran.
Which to me is ironic with a waterproof ereader

Mine has a blotchy screen, it's gray blobs with the natural light off and green with the natural light on.

Submitted for a return on 9/15, they said they would send my request over to the RMA dept.
Waiting on that email.

[CatherineStewart]

So I got my replacement today. A few differences but not overall better or worse. I don't think they have yet perfected the natural lighting for us picky readers. I have a feeling the rainbow colors (at least to some extent) is "normal".

So I'm giving up the dream of a "perfect" screen and have decided to keep the old one and send the replacement back. I feel like my old one is better. Or maybe I'm just used to the placement of the "rainbow" now and seeing a slight change (not necessarily better or worse) on the new one just makes it feel like my old ones seems better. Here are some pics...

Old (original one one the left that I'm keeping). The new replacement one on the right that I'm going to send back. Not sure if this helps anyone but I promised an update so here it is.

Sorry the pics are blurry (smart phone in the dark) but it's not to show clarity anyway, but the shadows and rainbow colours. And for what it's worth, I typically read at night in bed with the natural light -- so this is important to me -- and usually at 1% brightness and 90% natural light as per the last comparison photo posted below). So while others may say the new one (on the right) "looks better", for me I read at the settings as shown in the last photo and I think my original one (one the left) looks slightly better at those settings.

*I tried to put the lighting sliders on each reader at exactly the same spots for comparison. As you can see there is a big difference on the first pic at 100% brightness and Zero Natural light.