Kindle Paperwhite owners. Are appreciably the better resolution? or it isn't

[solitarywolf]

Very happy with mine. I've even taken to hiding under the blankets and reading in total darkness.

[beninma]

The light guide is acting as an anti-aliasing filter. The screen also has a "texture" to it which the camera may have picked up.

The digital camera that was used to take the picture likely had an anti-aliasing filter as well. (99.99% of them do...)

If the interaction of the filters comes out right you will not be able to resolve the pixels with the camera. Most digital cameras never show pixelation on real world scenes due to their anti-aliasing filter.

This is so "much ado about nothing". It is like there are a bunch of people who decided not to buy a PW who want to find a way to put the device down so they can feel better about it. Very bizarre. Why spend lots of time talking about not buying a PW? It's very unproductive.

I never see pixels on paper books either.. but paper books still look great. Would you argue that a book printed on a crappy 1980s dot matrix printer looked better then a crisp laser print or something that came off a printing press?

[jersysman]

^^This

[sl33py]

Interesting thread. I charged up my 3 remaining kindles and took some comparison shots.

K2i, K3, PW (side by side for reference - not text comparison yet):


I'll try to stack them side by side in images for you to compare:


I like my PW screen lighted very little. Natural light is still my preference. But here are some comparison shots w/ it low (4or5 usually) vs full bright:


Anyway - i really like them all. The PW seems great so far. bit of the light inconsistencies at bottom, but a small price to pay for built in light (IMO).

Old K2i definitely has the worst contrast. K3 is definitely darker. Possibly even darker than the PW. But i like the fonts (especially Helvetica) on the PW a lot.

Definitely notice the better resolution on cover art as well.

I like it and am happy w/ the new PW. I've tried most - owned: K1, K2, K2i, K3, Fire (returned), and now PW.

magnetic closure and battery life are just icing on the cake.

I still read a lot on my Android phone, iPhone (work), and iPad 3. Like the white text on black for low light back lit reading.

my .02 - hope the pics help someone else trying to decide.

rob

[shenye]

Great screenshots, thanks rob. I only have the PW so I couldn't compare, but I think the PW is the perfect e-booker reader. Couldn't be more happy.

[neonbible]

Just wondering how many of you set the PW to refresh each page? This could be a possible reason why the resolution and sharpness doesn't look so great. By default it refreshes every 5 pages. I noticed after refresh, the font looks very crisp and sharp. By the time it gets to the 5th page it is noticeably more 'jagged'.

[7hir7een]

Originally Posted by neonbible

Just wondering how many of you set the PW to refresh each page? This could be a possible reason why the resolution and sharpness doesn't look so great. By default it refreshes every 5 pages. I noticed after refresh, the font looks very crisp and sharp. By the time it gets to the 5th page it is noticeably more 'jagged'.

I turned refresh every page on within the first 5 minutes of using my Kindle. It makes a gigantic difference to me and is definitely worth any potential battery loss as far as I'm concerned.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by 7hir7een

I turned refresh every page on within the first 5 minutes of using my Kindle. It makes a gigantic difference to me and is definitely worth any potential battery loss as far as I'm concerned.

I don't think it is about battery life. A lot of folks have said they dislike the black flash. So everyone is trying to offer partial refreshes with varying degrees of success. The only device I haven't tried to turn off partial refreshes for is the Sony T2. Ghosting, jaggies, and all sorts of fun on every device. The Sony though, they seem to do a thorough job figuring out which pixels to update, and avoid most of these problems.

The upside is that it is a software fix.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by 7hir7een

I turned refresh every page on within the first 5 minutes of using my Kindle. It makes a gigantic difference to me and is definitely worth any potential battery loss as far as I'm concerned.

Same here!

[dos1]

I have made some quick comparison between my Paperwhite and friend's K4 (silver one). With light turned off I couldn't see any difference in contrast - PW screen looked better thanks to increased resolution, but that's all. With lights turned on, there was difference - PW screen was really whiter.

I don't care about shades at the bottom of the screen. Why? Because I found out that when shades are visible, that means light level is too high for environment you're in. When it's really bright (outdoors in sun, for instance) light is hardly visible - sometimes it's not visible at all, sometimes setting it at max level makes screen a little bit whiter. You can't see any shades. When indoors, I always adjust light to highest possible level on which shades are not visible yet and I found this strategy to be working great, always providing correct light level which is perfectly readable and not tiresome for eyes.

So in my case shades are feature, not bug

[sparklemotion]

dos1 - I personally don't mind the shades at the bottom, but I'm wondering going by the way you use yours, is your screen white when using it inside during the day?

For instance, if I turn my PW light down low enough so I don't see the shades, my screen is no longer white. Is yours? I'm using mine indoors, on my sofa near the window, and it's daylight here. Keeping mine at level 10 right now, where I don't see the shades/lights much, the page is dark gray, not white.

[tmf2]

Originally Posted by dos1

I have made some quick comparison between my Paperwhite and friend's K4 (silver one). With light turned off I couldn't see any difference in contrast -

There is a HUGE difference between my K4s and the PW. The K4s with the latest firmware has clearer darker fonts and overall better contrast when I compared the two. The K4s has the traditional e-ink experience while the PW looks washed out and also feels like a lcd.

[dos1]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

dos1 - I personally don't mind the shades at the bottom, but I'm wondering going by the way you use yours, is your screen white when using it inside during the day?

For instance, if I turn my PW light down low enough so I don't see the shades, my screen is no longer white. Is yours? I'm using mine indoors, on my sofa near the window, and it's daylight here. Keeping mine at level 10 right now, where I don't see the shades/lights much, the page is dark gray, not white.

No. It's not really white in all lightning conditions (well, it's not white in most of the lightning conditions), but it's still whiter than older Kindles and white enough for reading. I found it to look best at tram stops and inside trams when sitting near window - in those cases sometimes it looks like paper with Kindle-branded holder

I don't like setting too high light level indoors. Yes, it looks whiter, but at first look you can see that there's the light. I prefer it to be supplemental and hardly visible and it works for me great that way. I really like it.

[sparklemotion]

Ah ok, I see. Thanks for the reply. I'm glad you're so happy with it.

[dos1]

Originally Posted by tmf2

There is a HUGE difference between my K4s and the PW. The K4s with the latest firmware has clearer darker fonts and overall better contrast when I compared the two. The K4s has the traditional e-ink experience while the PW looks washed out and also feels like a lcd.

Which font have you selected on PW? With Caecilia font, in well lighted room and backlight disabled on PW, I couldn't find any difference except of small fonts being sharper on PW. Both screens looked almost identical. Friend who owns that K4 had the same impression, so I'm a bit surprised with your opinion.