Verge Report - Amazon Rep comment on Colorsoft Issue

[Hollow Man]

As I said somewhere around here, if you were only reading outside, or refuse to use the light, you'd likely want a different device, because modern b&w readers have a lighter background. It's probably on par with my Kindle Keyboard.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

As I said somewhere around here, if you were only reading outside, or refuse to use the light, you'd likely want a different device, because modern b&w readers have a lighter background. It's probably on par with my Kindle Keyboard.

But it would be good to see as you can say how the photo looks compared tot he real thing.

[Hollow Man]

The photo is going to compensate and make it appear brighter than it is. Which is why it's easier to say it's around the darkness of the Kindles that don't have lights (probably slightly worse). There's no question it's much darker than a modern eReader. Because of this, for example, the "screensavers" are much more muted than the same image on a b&w eReader. It makes the concept of seeing covers in color on the lock screen not as "exciting" as they should be.

Is it acceptable? Yes; I can easily read in the house with decent room lights and its light off. But if I want to do that, my Oasis is a much better option.

[Morpheus Phreak]

Seeing multiple posts on various sites of replacements arriving. The ECR forcing me to send it back almost 2 weeks ago makes me even madder now.

Customer support keeps essentially telling me to just go away and the ECR won't respond anymore.

I even bought a Paperwhite SE in the meantime, but this might be my final straw if they don't make it right in a spectacular way after all this. I still have until January 31st to send the SE back and switch to Kobo and just 'move' all my Kindle and Audible content over there.

[Hollow Man]

I noticed a couple of days ago people mentioning this, but a post on reddit a few hours ago showed the replacement still has the gradient. I'm not getting my hopes up.

[BionicGecko]

I’m really on the fence about returning my Colorsoft. I’m on the waiting list for a replacement but have until midweek to return it for a refund. The yellow bar is bothering me but overall I like the crispness of the text, which is slightly better than on my Oasis, and the performance of the black page mode, which is significantly better than my Oasis - the blacks are much blacker on the Colorsoft at the same light intensity.

As a side note, I just found out that black page mode only works on KFX files for USB-sideloaded books; it is now basically just another text formatting setting only supported by the KFX renderer, like text justification and multi-page preview. Might perhaps be good to know for anyone with a large AZW3 library planning on buying a Colorsoft.

[Morpheus Phreak]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

I noticed a couple of days ago people mentioning this, but a post on reddit a few hours ago showed the replacement still has the gradient. I'm not getting my hopes up.

I saw one of those posts, not sure if the same one, and I couldn't find the flaw. So that's one I probably would have kept. Mine was slightly irritating, but the dead pixels put it over the edge.

At this point I'm mostly frustrated at the way they've communicated about this so badly. One of the few things I could always compliment Amazon on was that it took very few attempts to get quality support.

On this it's been impossible to get proper support. If the supervisor had told me they were already starting to ship replacements instead of telling me it wouldn't start for 8 weeks I would have just held onto the Colorsoft and none of this would be an issue.

If they'd even just allowed me to give an updated address for the replacement that would have worked too.However, taking away my return window, dragging out the return process, and constantly stonewalling me is just leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

As I mentioned I did snag a Paperwhite SE, and I know it's a "first world problem", but I liked the Colorsoft outside of those issues. Going back to the B&W isn't as satisfying. I enjoyed being greeted by the cover of my favorite book, actually looking like the cover and not a B&W photocopy, every time I opened it.

I already know I'll be returning this Paperwhite SE before the holiday return window is over. Whether or not the refund is used for a Colorsoft or a competitors color eInk device is up to Amazon. It's going to take a bit of convincing to get me to keep staying loyal.

[Hollow Man]

Amazon doesn't care about one customer enough. I argued with them a ton and got nowhere.

You're just going to have to decide if you want to try again, but personally, I'd wait until a lot more get into the wild to gauge whether anything has really changed. People don't compensate for a photo app trying to correct for exposure. And they also set these things on the same brightness and warmth levels for two different devices, which is NOT the way to approach comparisons, since the panels are going to vary.

[Hollow Man]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

I noticed a couple of days ago people mentioning this, but a post on reddit a few hours ago showed the replacement still has the gradient. I'm not getting my hopes up.

The thread I was talking about is this one.

If you look at the photo on the left, which is the new one, paying close attention to the top of the screen vs the bottom, you can see that the bottom is yellow-er.

I'd say it's the same delta as the screen on the right, it's just that the screen on the right is warmer overall. The user can compensate for this by tweaking the warmth slider of one of them slightly (because the panels aren't all going to be exactly the same).

[Morpheus Phreak]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

The thread I was talking about is this one.

If you look at the photo on the left, which is the new one, paying close attention to the top of the screen vs the bottom, you can see that the bottom is yellow-er.

I'd say it's the same delta as the screen on the right, it's just that the screen on the right is warmer overall. The user can compensate for this by tweaking the warmth slider of one of them slightly (because the panels aren't all going to be exactly the same).

That's the one I was looking at.

I'd have been happy with the one on the left. My yellow band was much more noticeable. It looked like there was an intentional yellow hue to the menu bar. That one I can barely even see, even when I tweak the image to really pump up the yellow channel.

Allegedly I should have an email by morning, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Hollow Man]

Again, I wouldn't trust the photos, since the person says their new screen is more yellow, but the photo makes it look less so. There are too few "replacements" out there. Most people are still waiting because shipping indicates January.

I'd wait as long as possible, since I don't believe they've done anything to tweak the hardware yet. Since so few are receiving them, I suspect at this point they're just cherry picking ones that are better than others and sending those out.

Do I know for sure? No. This is THE big problem because Amazon won't say how they're addressing the issue.

[Hollow Man]

And here's another new post. Once again the old one, on the right, just has more warmth dialed in, but the delta between the top and the bottom, if the user had dialed the warmth so they were the same, would be about equal.

In other words, I can tell that on the new one (left) that it's still orange on the bottom.

Again, I stand by my take that Amazon is simply finding the ones they deem the best and sending them out as "fixed" ones.

[Hollow Man]

It's also worth noting that some people, for example, the person who made this thread, are unknowingly comparing apples and oranges, and thus misleading people. In this case, one Colorsoft is in Vivid mode, the other isn't. I checked out the covers he shows on mine, and the color differences on the face and hands of the woman on the Sakamota Days cover is exactly what happens when one changes to Vivid mode.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

And here's another new post. Once again the old one, on the right, just has more warmth dialed in, but the delta between the top and the bottom, if the user had dialed the warmth so they were the same, would be about equal.

In other words, I can tell that on the new one (left) that it's still orange on the bottom.

Again, I stand by my take that Amazon is simply finding the ones they deem the best and sending them out as "fixed" ones.

I agree, I've been following reviews on Amazon for the colorsoft and there is no real improvement, only a slight uptick, in ratings indicating some real change to the design. Later reviews seem to indicate a love it or hate it, with most reviews clustered in 5 star and 1 and 2 star.

[Hollow Man]

The photos of the latest ones on Reddit (not that photos are the best indicator!) show that the color gradient issue hasn't been eliminated. Unless someone wants one that has this issue, I think one is going to have to wait quite a few more months to see if Amazon makes a manufacturing change.

Mine may be reducing with time. Or I'm just getting used to it. Or both!