My replacement PW overview

[plumeroad]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I'm seeing a little color in there but it is hard enough to evaluate that when looking at my own PW visually, much less in a photo. It looks reasonably good.

I'm still going back and forth about requesting a replacement for mine. I don't have an egregiously bad screen (no pinholes or light bars or uneven LEDs), but it does have some pastel clouds that show up at certain light levels with certain ambient lighting, and these are mildly distracting. But it seems there aren't any screens entirely free of this, and I can usually adjust the light to minimize it.

Perhaps a bigger problem for me is that I'm starting to notice that text doesn't render evenly across the entire screen. So some text on some regions of the page looks slightly bolder than text elsewhere on the same page. It appears to be a screen issue; the screen captures I've done show that the letterforms are defined identically no matter where they are on the page. Forcing page refresh does not fix it. It is as if some regions render greyscale more darkly than others, i.e have different 'response curves.' I need to create some test images (e.g. full page image swatches at different greyscale levels) to see what is going on, so I can decide if it is worth trying an exchange.

Apart from that, I prefer the way text renders on PW to Kindle Touch. Line spacing is a little tighter than Kindle Touch, and a little more text fits on each line (because there's more flexibility about how it can be justified). The new typefaces are nice to have.

I've gone through 3 PWs and they have all had this issue to one degree or another. To be honest this bothers me more then the rainbow screen, as I am usually reading with decent ambient lighting, so the variable font weight ends up catching my eye.

I am always able to duplicate the issue by looking at the screen where there was blank, white space on the previous page. This is usually from the blank space after the end of a paragraph. Upon turning the page, the font will be bolder where this white space was previously. It is more noticeable with the thinner fonts, such as Palatino. Personally, I think this is a firmware issue, and that Amazon may not really be always doing a full refresh on the screen, even with the "Page Refresh" feature enabled, for performance reasons.

I have noticed it will do a true full refresh whenever there is a decent sized bitmap on the page, similar to how the NST behaves. Just for a test I modified an epub and put a graphic on every page, and the text was always consistent. Not very practical, but it does give me hope that it will be fixed one day.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by plumeroad

I've gone through 3 PWs and they have all had this issue to one degree or another. To be honest this bothers me more then the rainbow screen, as I am usually reading with decent ambient lighting, so the variable font weight ends up catching my eye.

I am always able to duplicate the issue by looking at the screen where there was blank, white space on the previous page. This is usually from the blank space after the end of a paragraph. Upon turning the page, the font will be bolder where this white space was previously. It is more noticeable with the thinner fonts, such as Palatino. Personally, I think this is a firmware issue, and that Amazon may not really be always doing a full refresh on the screen, even with the "Page Refresh" feature enabled, for performance reasons.

I have noticed it will do a true full refresh whenever there is a decent sized bitmap on the page, similar to how the NST behaves. Just for a test I modified an epub and put a graphic on every page, and the text was always consistent. Not very practical, but it does give me hope that it will be fixed one day.

Thanks for that feedback, I like your theory and will be using it to inform my observations. The fact that it has taken me more than a week to start to really notice it at all means it is probably not that severe. I have seen this sort of thing on my NST, but it was usually because of partial screen refresh, as when options dialog is brought up and dismissed. The refreshed area tends to be bolder, and I found myself wishing normal page refreshes could look as 'good.'

Still, there's going to be a range of severity here, and other users have posted examples here that were much worse than what I'm seeing. So even if it can be addressed with a firmware update, I wonder how likely it would be that a replacement would be better than what I have now.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by wystearya

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So, what do you 'guys' think? I know I will be keeping this one, as it is a vast improvement over my first one and nothing distracts me while reading. I'm just curious to know what other members here think about it.

Looks ok to me too it doesn't seem to have any overly strong colour blotches

[soulfuldog]

Don't you think the more people who just keep Paperwhites that they aren't particularly happy with, the less likely Amazon are to admit there is a problem and do anything about it?

If you are happy with the screen, that's great and it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks, but if you are not happy with the quality, why not get a refund and tell Amazon why? (Though I guess this really only is any use if you are upgrading, as otherwise you don't have another e-reader to fall back on!)

[7hir7een]

Originally Posted by l_macd

Don't you think the more people who just keep Paperwhites that they aren't particularly happy with, the less likely Amazon are to admit there is a problem and do anything about it?

If you are happy with the screen, that's great and it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks, but if you are not happy with the quality, why not get a refund and tell Amazon why? (Though I guess this really only is any use if you are upgrading, as otherwise you don't have another e-reader to fall back on!)

I kept the least troublesome unit (the original... sadly enough) and left a 1-star review. I don't have a device to fall back on.

[wystearya]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Looks ok to me too it doesn't seem to have any overly strong colour blotches

Thanks!

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Also, this interests me...

Me:Thank you for your input, david. I agree that there is no use in sending another unit. I will package up this replacement and send it back....however, if we send back the original defective one, my fiance will not have a kindle to read on (we sold his kindle fire when we pre-ordered) so I think we will keep it regardless of the defects and hope that we can take advantage of our warranty if amazon does work out the kinks later. While it is disappointing, it's still better than no kindle at all.

Jose David:Ok. Yes, definitely, the kindle will still be covered by the 1 year warranty, so once the issue is taken care of, we can get you a working unit.

Underlining is mine.

I do hope that this is true, especially for people who haven't been able to get a unit they are happy with. It would be nice if Amazon made it public, but I sure won't hold my breath for that!

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by Blossom

That's normal in low lighting from the pics I've seen.

I don't see it that severely on my mine. I don't think I have a "great" one.

[wystearya]

Originally Posted by JoeC

I don't see it that severely on my mine. I don't think I have a "great" one.

Not sure if you noticed my comments, but the second picture of my unit has been edited to show the flaws more. They are not that noticeable in real life.

And actually, the first picture looks worse than my eyes see it in person. It's hard to capture on camera what my eyes see.

And to be 100% clear, they were taken in a dim room with the Paperwhite set at level 18. Too high for the ambient light level.

Just thought I would try to clarify in case anything was confusing!!

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by 7hir7een

I kept the least troublesome unit (the original... sadly enough) and left a 1-star review. I don't have a device to fall back on.

Hopefully it's true that Amazon are indeed working on fixing the issues and in six months time, you'll be able to get a replacement under warranty if needed (and update your review to a glowing one instead ). To be fair to Amazon, that's the kind of customer service standard we expect from them as they are usually so good.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by l_macd

Hopefully it's true that Amazon are indeed working on fixing the issues and in six months time, you'll be able to get a replacement under warranty if needed (and update your review to a glowing one instead ). To be fair to Amazon, that's the kind of customer service standard we expect from them as they are usually so good.

I just can't help thinking that they've rushed the PW out of the factory doors, what with Xmas coming up and all that. The product was possibly not quite ready to be let out into the big bad world yet and QC, well...

Amazon do have great CS, and I buy a lot of stuff from them but I am most definitely not getting a PW for now, I'll reconsider when (if?!) the issues are fixed.

[brdwygurl]

I picked up my paperwhite today at Best Buy and was really hoping to get one without the color blotching issues.

Unfortunately I have a greenish blob at the top center/right part of the screen.

I have seen worse, but also have seen better. Should I return it and risk getting one that's worse?

[sparklemotion]

I'd return it personally. The bottom of the screen also looks very pink.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by brdwygurl

I picked up my paperwhite today at Best Buy and was really hoping to get one without the color blotching issues.

Unfortunately I have a greenish blob at the top center/right part of the screen.

I have seen worse, but also have seen better. Should I return it and risk getting one that's worse?

So does this mean they are finally in stores?

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Blossom

So does this mean they are finally in stores?

Yes. Some stores, apparently. Someone else just made a thread saying they picked one up at Best Buy too.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I'd return it personally. The bottom of the screen also looks very pink.

Yeah, I would too - I also see some pink top left and along the right edge. Sorry to say that one looks to me like a Technicolor nightmare