Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Personally I would rather pay $200 USD for a guaranteed terrific reader than $120 for the chance to own an acceptable reader.

Same here

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

Good luck with yours, Yolina! I hope it's perfect.

Thanks and fingers crossed. If it's not a good one, then I think I'll just go for a refund rather than exchange.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Same here
Thanks and fingers crossed. If it's not a good one, then I think I'll just go for a refund rather than exchange.

I agree, why torture yourself, right? Fingers crossed for you though!

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I had a freeze up on mine when I still had it too. It completely stopped working/responding. The 7 second hold didn't work for me either.

So far we are the only two to report the freeze problem. That seems more serious to me than cosmetic problems.

I'll go with up to three freezes and then its on to Amazon CS for the replacement. Hopefully, it was a one shot deal related to the indexing of the NET Bible.

Were you doing a lot of indexing the day before the freeze?

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

So far we are the only two to report the freeze problem. That seems more serious to me than cosmetic problems.

I'll go with up to three freezes and then its on to Amazon CS for the replacement. Hopefully, it was a one shot deal related to the indexing of the NET Bible.

Were you doing a lot of indexing the day before the freeze?

I was not indexing, no. I only had one book on it. And mine froze twice, to be exact. It was odd. I was reading and went to turn the page and it wouldn't respond at all. I kept trying and fiddling with it and it was completely frozen. It made me concerned about its reliability. Hopefully yours was a one time issue. Good luck!

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by induna

The bad: there appears to be regression in the dictionary software. On the current version of the PW 1 firmware one can select an alternate dictionary from the definition window. That option is not present in the current model. I discovered this because the book I'm currently reading -- bought from Amazon -- is in Spanish, but the metadata for the book says it is English. Therefore when I lookup a word, it uses the English dictionary and I cannot change it without resetting the metadata in Calibre. I'm sure this issue will be resolved in firmware.

Bummer that you cannot select alternate dictionary from the definition window. They must have branched the code before they added that feature to PW1. In any case I'd report the metadata error to Amazon.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I was not indexing, no. I only had one book on it. And mine froze twice, to be exact. It was odd. I was reading and went to turn the page and it wouldn't respond at all. I kept trying and fiddling with it and it was completely frozen. It made me concerned about its reliability. Hopefully yours was a one time issue. Good luck!

I was also reading and then could not do anything. I kept getting pictures of a variety of covers before I did the restart.

I had the Amazon Store access blocked with a password. Did you also have it blocked? I'm thinking it may be related. There is a warning that, if one blocks it with a password, one may not do a full device reset.

I seem to remember having a similar problem with the KK 2009 and after receiving a new one in exchange I turned off that block and kept full access to the Amazon store. I never had a problem after that.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I had the Amazon Store access blocked with a password. Did you also have it blocked? I'm thinking it may be related. There is a warning that, if one blocks it with a password, one may not do a full device reset.

I seem to remember having a similar problem with the KK 2009 and after receiving a new one in exchange I turned off that block and kept full access to the Amazon store. I never had a problem after that.

I did not have it blocked, no.

[allowingtoo]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

My friend picked up a PW at Best Buy yesterday and hers looks ok. Mind, I haven't used hers so it's hard to say if it has pinholes or other imperfections, but she hasn't complained about it. We were comparing them and I honestly have to say the font on the PW2 looks lighter to me. She noticed it too. Almost like a gray. Are others on here noticing that?

Take it back. My first one looked like that. My second one has black font.

If enough people return them, then Amazon will realize that we won't settle for less than what they advertised.

"Whites are whiter and blacks are blacker, creating sharp, clear text."

Well, so far, we know they lied about the "Whites are whiter" part.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I did not have it blocked, no.

It appears its just a defect then. If it happens rarely and I can recover with the 30 second hold on the on/off button, I'll live with it. If it happens frequently, I'll exchange it.

As I remember the PW 2012 also had an intermittent problem with freezes. Once I had to call Amazon to help me unfreeze it since no amount of holding the button worked. They told me to first charge for 20 minutes and then hold the button. That did work then.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by allowingtoo

Take it back. My first one looked like that. My second one has black font.

If enough people return them, then Amazon will realize that we won't settle for less than what they advertised.

"Whites are whiter and blacks are blacker, creating sharp, clear text."

Well, so far, we know they lied about the "Whites are whiter" part.

It's my friends PW, so it's up to her. I returned both of mine already.

[Outrager]

Just received my replacement PW2.
This is my first time using a lighted eInk device (well, second if you count the <1day I had with the one I sent back for dying) and the 2 pin holes were pretty noticeable on the black background of the loading logo. When reading with a medium to low light though it's not noticeable unless I'm looking for it. Also at high brightness there seems to be some sort of dust or scratch on 2 places of the screen. At medium to low light is isn't really noticeable.

I think I'll keep this for now since I don't think I'll be using it with the brightness on high. Also, I'm too lazy to return it again (going through the initial tutorial, setting up collections and downloading the books I want then waiting for them to index isn't very fun). If it still bothers me in a few months I will probably ask Amazon for a replacement.

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

So true. For me with the PW's it's honestly become a chore rather than something I feel excited over as I usually do when I get new electronics. With the PW's, I would open the box and start the new one up and worry as to what I was going to see more than anything. Ugh. So it was easy for me to be done with it this time and just stick with my original.

I guess you can imagine how nervous I was before I opened my box when it arrived from across the ocean knowing that it would have to go where it came from if anything was wrong. Yes, I read last year's thread. It was a big relief everything was fine *knock on wood*

[FacebookVirus]

Congrats to all on your new readers. After being ready to toss both my Sonys a few days ago upon hearing the Sony news, I'm feeling lucky now. I've been in the purgatory of returning a new gadget and it's no fun.

Happy returns to all who must endure it.

[Chi Cygni]

Many happy returns

[laura99]

Originally Posted by allowingtoo

Take it back. My first one looked like that. My second one has black font.

If enough people return them, then Amazon will realize that we won't settle for less than what they advertised.

"Whites are whiter and blacks are blacker, creating sharp, clear text."

Well, so far, we know they lied about the "Whites are whiter" part.

Thanks so much for posting this! I have had my PW2 for a few days, coming from the basic Kindle. The font is noticeable lighter on the PW2. Will be calling customer service tonight!