Got my new Oasis today, first impressions

[Derek87]

while from a purely engineering standpoint, putting the lights on the long side would give the best overall uniformity and lessen the measurable gradient.

yet, as people have pointed out, i think the issue here is how we read and how a left-right gradient is more problematic (even if smaller than the top-bottom one) since that is the direction ones eyes scan primarily while reading. (they traverse the left right direction rather quickly, yet are only gradually moving in the up-down direction, relatively speaking)

i am guessing/speculating, however, that another main reason Amazon R&D went with the side LEDs was a consequence of having a thicker asymmetric design. it probably was not possible (or more difficult) to put LEDs on the short face if they wanted to allow the device to be ultra thin away from the "holding area". of course, this design choice may also have been made with the engineering (not practical experience) of reducing gradients along the long axis of the device.

for me...

i am still waiting anxiously for my refurbished Oasis 1 to arrive later today. and yet, as i have been waiting for it, i've continued to try to use the Oasis 2:

i have observed the following with the KO2: (which will be going back in the next few days due to my hand fatigue issues): there is a gradient L/R on my device, but it's more noticeable at certain lighting intensities. and to be really picky, it's not just L/R but it still has some nonuniformity in the up down direction on a couple of the light settings.

let me try to explain: IF we can assume that the color tone want to be uniformly spread across the screen is that seen on the thick side of the device (Right for me, and for this discussion) and call that "white", then i am finding that the screen is the "most yellow" in the upper left portion of the screen. yet, this varies depending on backlighting. if i have the backlight from 0-7, the screen to my eye is extremely uniform. this is also true from 11+ onward. yet in between there, the gradients go from subtle to very clearly present, and i think it was at level 9, that i saw basically an mirrored "7" shaped region of yellow where it was clearly yellow for about 1" on the left hand side of the device and also yellow about 2-2.5" away from the left side from the top of the device, about 2.5" down.

in the end, if it wasn't for hand comfort issues, i may have kept the device because in reality, i usually am in the 6-8 backlight range while reading in the dark of our bedroom. it was only in odd in between lighting (dim family room) where auto-brightness set things in the 9-10 range that i saw the gradient. this "worse case" gradient would easily be overcome with a level 11-12 lighting which while a little bright, is not blinding in any way.

i think i'm really going to miss the 7" screen. it's been a pleasure to see significantly more text at one time.

[dublincheri]

Interestingly the larger screen has made no difference to me, it’s not something I notice at all. I don’t care about waterproof, although it’s a good thing because if I read outdoors and a bee comes anywhere near me my water WILL be spilled.

The main reason I am determined to come to “grips” (haha) with the Oasis 2 is the storage space. I have been thinking that I don’t want ANY case on it. Most of my reading is indoors anyway and I still have my Voyage which is a better size for travel. I have cut a Talon Grip sheet to wrap entirely around the thicker section with cutouts for the page turn buttons and light sensors on the front. It helps a lot more than the skin alone did. If I can find a comfortable way to use an iPad Pro then the Oasis 2 HAS to be workable for me somehow.

I mentioned in another post that I borrowed an Oasis 1 to try out and see if I could live with the asymmetry of the device, and I was surprisingly happy with it. If only it had more storage space it would be my perfect device, I loved the size of it and even the battery cover was fine. The person I borrowed it from has offered to swap me the Oasis 1 for my Oasis 2 but I replied not yet.

[Wearever]

Well I finally saw an Oasis 2 on display at another Best Buy store today ! I liked it , holding the device felt nice even though it was tethered to a cable. The screen looked good to me more white than yellow, but I was in a store with fluorescent lighting. I guess you never can tell until you try one at home, but I liked what I saw on display. It's ready to be ordered from Amazon on my Christmas Wishlist. Now I just have to wait.

Also I'll be using it with a cover, and I'm waiting for finite covers to come in as well.

[rem736]

Originally Posted by dublincheri

The main reason I am determined to come to “grips” (haha) with the Oasis 2 is the storage space. I have been thinking that I don’t want ANY case on it. Most of my reading is indoors anyway and I still have my Voyage which is a better size for travel. I have cut a Talon Grip sheet to wrap entirely around the thicker section with cutouts for the page turn buttons and light sensors on the front. It helps a lot more than the skin alone did. If I can find a comfortable way to use an iPad Pro then the Oasis 2 HAS to be workable for me somehow.

this is how i solved my "grip" problem.
1. metal plate used for attaching phones onto magnetic stands.
2. finger ring more commonly used for phones
3. strong magnet
4. some 3m double sided tape used on walls.

[coplate]

Originally Posted by coplate

I think it is defenitely the case that the other models were much less noticeable.

The lights going up and down, you can go through the gradient gradually as you go down the screen.

Once I saw it on the side-to-side gradient on every line, I could not un-see it, and it started getting really distracting.

I really want the 7" screen, but If the replacement doesn't have a really good light guide, i may just have to return it, and wait and hope they do a 7: paper white next year.

I got my next replacement today, and I am really torn on what do to.

This one seems to have the worst of both worlds, the other replacement had a more even lighting, but the whole screen was yellowed like old plastic.
This one has uneven lighting, and looks yellow.

I want to support amazon making the 7" screen, but I don't know if I am just being overly picky now. Now that I have noticed this uneven gradient, I'm not sure I will ever be able to un-see it if it is going to be present on every device.

Or if I just keep getting replacements from a stone that has had this effect in it, and I just need to keep trying.

This yellowing is very noticeable when I put it next to my paperwhite, thats my gold standard for "white" right now .


I'm open to any input people have. I may just send it all back, and try again next year?

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by coplate

This yellowing is very noticeable when I put it next to my paperwhite, thats my gold standard for "white" right now .

I think that some of Amazon’s pictures show that the screen is a tad yellow. And WYSIWYG, I guess

[badgoodDeb]

Yellowish sounds easier on the eyes, to me. I've got "f.lux" running on my mac, to severely yellow the screen, so it doesn't hurt my eyes so much. Some days I also put on yellow sunglasses. During the day. Just for staring at screens.

[coplate]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

I think that some of Amazon’s pictures show that the screen is a tad yellow. And WYSIWYG, I guess

Yeah, I'm going off the marketing image they use:


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....514442803_.jpg

Compare that to my actual devices I got:

https://postimg.org/image/ggztl61xj/

The oasis on the right has that strange yellow color of clear plastic that has been damaged to me, like this phone case that used to be clear:

http://i.imgur.com/HB3e7EG.jpg

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Yellowish sounds easier on the eyes, to me. I've got "f.lux" running on my mac, to severely yellow the screen, so it doesn't hurt my eyes so much. Some days I also put on yellow sunglasses. During the day. Just for staring at screens.

Depends on the person, I guess. I've tried f.lux and frankly could not stand it at all. To me the yellowed screen just looked ugly. But then I'm not at all sensitive to blue light. I'm sensitive to brightness in general, so I have the brightness on all my screens set pretty low.

I would try to read on the Kindle for a few days. If I could not get used to the screen, I would return it. Perhaps try again after a while, but I think it's just as much of a matter of luck later as it's now.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by coplate

Yeah, I'm going off the marketing image they use:


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....514442803_.jpg

Those have always been totally unrealistic. I always try to look at the actual photos on the net before buying. Particularly photos that ordinary people have posted, not professional reviewers.

[Derek87]

Originally Posted by coplate

I got my next replacement today, and I am really torn on what do to.

This one seems to have the worst of both worlds, the other replacement had a more even lighting, but the whole screen was yellowed like old plastic.
This one has uneven lighting, and looks yellow.

I want to support amazon making the 7" screen, but I don't know if I am just being overly picky now. Now that I have noticed this uneven gradient, I'm not sure I will ever be able to un-see it if it is going to be present on every device.

Or if I just keep getting replacements from a stone that has had this effect in it, and I just need to keep trying.

This yellowing is very noticeable when I put it next to my paperwhite, thats my gold standard for "white" right now .


I'm open to any input people have. I may just send it all back, and try again next year?

Coplate, i feel for you. i've been on a parallel and similar journey of being perhaps overly picky but once you are aware, i think it's hard to shut your brain off.

for me: (in 3 steps of failure over the past week)

1. Oasis 2: mild white to yellow gradient that would have been acceptable i think if i didn't have hand comfort issues (see my earlier posts). yet even that being said, it was noticeable if i looked for it. i am guessing there is not a perfect screen out there...just varying degrees of this gradient. to me, this, even with the mild gradient, is the best Kindle Screen i've ever seen. i liked the creamy white background (not too harsh or daylight like) and the text "popped" off the screen with the flush glass. i really wish i could hold it comfortable while lying on my back in bed.

2. Oasis 1: i picked up a refurb model in hopes that it might be more comfortable for my hand (verdict: it is relative to the Oasis 2, but i'm still waffling on whether i am just better off with another PW3 or Voyage (see step 3 and comments below)). the O1 has a more prominent white to yellow gradient than the O2, just slightly worse...the more noticeable thing are two distinct light cones that are hard to ignore.

3. i had Prime Now send me a Voyage today after all the rave reviews of people with perfect screens and thinking its similar form factor to my PW3, i'd be able to hold it more comfortably that either Oasis. but ... Yuck! this one doesn't even have a gradient. basically the top 40% of the screen has yellow/orange hue and that abruptly becomes white below it for the remaining 60%. i confess that i thought that top bottom gradients are easier on the eyes than left right. but in this case, no way. it is plain awful. it also has an array (5) of light cones on the bottom.

as luck would have it, my PW3 whose backlight seems to come on every now and then, is working at the moment. so i lay the Oasis 1, Voyage, PW3 side by side (the Oasis 2 is not with me and already packaged up for return)...

the PW3, has a yellow tint and is blotchy, but is less offensive than the step-like change in color on the Voyage. in comparison, the Oasis 1 looks excellent. i can see the left right gradient, but its no contest, it's the best of the three screens i had sitting side by side. (i also confess: i didn't even think it was very blotchy until i got the Oasis 2. that experienced raised my expectation for what is possible in terms of light uniformity)

so, in summary: screen quality is very inconsistent between the units, and it doesn't seem that price is necessarily correlated to what you'll get. i would have thought that Amazon would have tightened up their QC by now after years of this front light design, but apparently they have not. (i went through several PW exchanges a few years back in getting the ones my wife and i have...my wife PW2 is close to perfect -- nice even white, no cones, no gradient but lower res letters, my PW3 was acceptable especially after a long saga of problems/exchanges, it basically cost me $50 after some promotional credits granted for my frustration over defects (not just the screen) on prior units) so lived with it and stopped complaining. to me the blotches were acceptable with the 300 dpi vs the 212 dpi on my wife's clean background.

i can only guess that to many people, the screens gradients/cones don't matter. i guess if i read mostly during the day, either outside or in a well lit room, all of these gradients and cone issues would be not very important (the basic kindle would be just fine if it weren't for the 167 dpi resolution). but because my primary use of the kindle is to read in bed each night for 20-30 minutes, i value a clean looking screen. and as i've learned, in my special case of needing to lie on my back reading, i need a e-reader i can comfortably grip without hurting or tiring my hands.

i wish i knew what i was going to do next. i'd honestly pay $200 for a perfect screened PW3 with no gradient or light cones as i know i can hold it comfortably. but now that i'm aware of these gradient issues, i don't know how or when i'll get a unit that satisfies my neurosis for "perfection" or getting something that doesn't distract me from the reading itself.

maybe hope and pray that my PW3 will start working reliably again?

[jscris]

With the Aura One yellow is a feature, not a bug.

[Josieb1]

Coplate, My Voyage has a sharper, whiter screen but my Oasis is yellow/cream. I'm happy with both. I think if you 'see' a problem immediately it's impossible to unsee it.

I ordered an original Oasis once from John Lewis, the moment I turned it on I knew the screen was two tone. It went back within the hour. With my Oasis 2 I was happy the moment I turned it on. Yes it has a slight gradient along with the yellow screen but it doesn't bother me.

If you're unhappy immediately you should return it.

[Derek87]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Coplate, My Voyage has a sharper, whiter screen but my Oasis is yellow/cream. I'm happy with both. I think if you 'see' a problem immediately it's impossible to unsee it.

I ordered an original Oasis once from John Lewis, the moment I turned it on I knew the screen was two tone. It went back within the hour. With my Oasis 2 I was happy the moment I turned it on. Yes it has a slight gradient along with the yellow screen but it doesn't bother me.

If you're unhappy immediately you should return it.

+1 for the last comment. while i'm still waffling about my Oasis 1 and it's slight gradient, i immediately knew this Voyage was unacceptable.

btw, i do know what people are saying about the Voyage having a sharper contrast than the PW and Oasis.

i would say, however, that the Oasis contrast is "close" to the Voyage but a significant jump up from the PW3.

again, just like with color gradients and light cones, some people are more sensitive than others, with respect to contrast.

if i didn't have the 3 units side by side, i would have said they all had excellent contrast.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Derek87

btw, i do know what people are saying about the Voyage having a sharper contrast than the PW and Oasis.

i would say, however, that the Oasis contrast is "close" to the Voyage but a significant jump up from the PW3.

again, just like with color gradients and light cones, some people are more sensitive than others, with respect to contrast.

if i didn't have the 3 units side by side, i would have said they all had excellent contrast.

I totally agree. The Oasis screen contrast is close to the Voyage and a marked improvement over the PW3.