Kindle Voyage vs. other ereaders: screen comparison at 0 brightness

[leifan89]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Ghosting varies wildly between individual devices, as discussed in earlier posts. My Oasis 3 had almost no ghosting, but another poster complained here that their Oasis had terrible ghosting.

For sure. I think the unevenness of the QA across all these devices is a recurring theme in this thread

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by leifan89

For sure. I think the unevenness of the QA across all these devices is a recurring theme in this thread

And in countless other threads in the past 10-15 years. Oh, what ever would we do if we couldn't whine about our ereaders here in MR?

[leifan89]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

And in countless other threads in the past 10-15 years. Oh, what ever would we do if we couldn't whine about our ereaders here in MR?

It's what makes this community fun

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by leifan89

Interesting! I always prefer to read with the light off as much as possible, probably why I cared about this.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Then why did you buy a Kindle Voyage as the light cannot be shut off?

You did read the "light off as much as possible"? Not light off<period>

The last time I saw a Kindle Voyage, unless the room lighting was extremely dim, the lowest light setting was not noticeable.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm going to disagree. The PW3 screen is good. The PW4 screen is less sharp and more muddy looking. The PW5 screen is also good.

The Libra 2 screen is very good. It's not dark and dirty looking at all. If it was, I would have returned it. The Libra 2 screen has quite good contrast and is very clear.

Not seen a PW5, but have compared PW3, PW4, Libra & Libra2 and would agree with jon.

[kandwo]

I agree that the PW3 has a good screen. But in comparison to the Voyage, the Libra 2 and the Leaf 2 it is slightly blurry in my opinion.

The Libra 2 and Leaf 2 have darker text than the Voyage, but also darker background, so overall slightly worse contrast.

The sharpest text that I've seen is still on the white Leaf 2, which is slightly better than the Libra 2 when comparing screens. The Libra 2 deals with reflections better than the Leaf 2, so I think it's a trade off.

All this is with the frontlight off. I almost never read with the frontlight on.

[Sirtel]

I'm curious, why those of you who read with the light off do so? Does the light bother your eyes even on a low level? Do you want to conserve battery? Do you always read in very brightly lit environments?

I can't read with the light off. The screen is just too dim and ugly. I admit I don't usually read in very good light (natural or artificial). I'm a night owl and read mostly in the evening and at night, always indoors; and my rooms are not brightly lit.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Also the voyage was very expensive compared to a PW3, and hardly better in real life.

Even without considering the better display, for me, the ergonomics of the Voyage make it night and day better than the PW3.

[leifan89]

I'm curious, why those of you who read with the light off do so? Does the light bother your eyes even on a low level? Do you want to conserve battery? Do you always read in very brightly lit environments?

Yes to pretty much all of them. It doesn't really bother my eyes that much, but I like to conserve battery and I usually read with plenty of ambient lighting.

Of course, at night, I turn on the frontlight on the reader, like a sane person would That said, I try to keep it as low as I can (10 out of 100 on KOReader, 10 out of 24?25? on the Oasis, etc. - my Oasis has a really weird brightness curve for the light)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by leifan89

That said, I try to keep it as low as I can (10 out of 100 on KOReader, 10 out of 24?25? on the Oasis, etc. - my Oasis has a really weird brightness curve for the light)

At night, in a dimly lit room, I too keep the light low - it's usually 9% on my Sage (my go-to reader in dim light). During the day, though, the light can be anything from 20% to 80%, depending on the season, the ambient light and the time of the day. 80% is very rare - only on sunny afternoons in high summer, and usually for a short while.

[leifan89]

Behold! Photos of the Voyage, Oasis 3, and Libra 2 next to each other, all in KOReader.

I tried to match all the settings in KOReader (same font - KOReader's own Noto Serif, not a sideloaded font like ChareInk - same size, same margins, same contrast setting, etc.); all 3 devices have had a full screen refresh before taking the photos.

Brightness is 0 across all devices - and I've confirmed (by going to a dark room) that, in KOReader, brightness = 0 truly means "no light" on the Voyage.

I further ensured that the ambient light sensors are not messing things up by disabling auto-light on both Kindle devices.

My personal impressions (not scientific ):
- Voyage is still warmer and slightly brighter than the other two
- Oasis feels warmer than the Libra 2
- Libra 2 continues to look the most blue-green of the 3
- The sharpness advantage of the Libra 2 no longer seemed as obvious as before after all fonts/etc. are matched using a KOReader native font. Perhaps this is related to how the devices handle ChareInk font, which is my usual font?

Your thoughts?

(Ugh, why can't I adjust orientation on the last 2 photos?? )

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Even without considering the better display, for me, the ergonomics of the Voyage make it night and day better than the PW3.

I bought a Kobo H2O as an upgrade from a PW3. Maybe if I had loads of money and no ereader a Voyage might have been an option. But looking just at web site I couldn't see the point.

[leifan89]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

At night, in a dimly lit room, I too keep the light low - it's usually 9% on my Sage (my go-to reader in dim light). During the day, though, the light can be anything from 20% to 80%, depending on the season, the ambient light and the time of the day. 80% is very rare - only on sunny afternoons in high summer, and usually for a short while.

I do 10% on my Libra 2 (both native reader and KOReader).

Honestly, I also prefer the Libra 2 reading at night over the Oasis 3. I think I like the warm light implementation better on the Libra 2. (Yes, every device is different )

I'm a little confused though - do you turn the light brighter when there is more ambient light?? If so, why? (Just curious )

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by leifan89

Behold! Photos of the Voyage, Oasis 3, and Libra 2 next to each other, all in KOReader.

But what source is the ambient light?
That makes a big difference.

Also KOReader is not the native. Needs jailbreak on Kindle and only a tiny minority of Kobo users use it (MR isn't indicative).

I only use a front light setting at all if somewhere too dim. My Oasis Gen 2 was certainly inferior to libra and libra 2. There is no greenish tinge in any of my Kobos on Ambient light (LED stick lights or one room halogen), nor outdoor.
Or indeed on Sony, Kindle, Boyue Mars or Y-Ben. They only vary in brightness / sharpness etc.

[leifan89]

Originally Posted by Quoth

But what source is the ambient light?
That makes a big difference.

I'm sitting in my living room, all devices on a white table, facing the southern balcony with the bright sun right ahead of me, a little after noon, in the peak summer of the northern hemisphere

In a word, a representative ambient light condition for day time reading for me.