Hands on Kindle Paperwhite 4

[barryem]

Originally Posted by 93terp

Also noticed on the PW4 that there is a setting to "Disable Touchscreen", which seems like a weird feature to have on a device that doesn't have physical page turn buttons...

I played with this a bit yesterday and I liked it. I'm a page swiper, not a tapper, and with my Voyage I was always accidentally turning a page because I was holding it wrong. That hardly ever happened with the Paperwhite 3. So this feature was worth trying.

The device is still new. I just got it yesterday so I'm playing a lot with the settings, looking for differences, etc. and that feature made doing that very difficult. If I wanted to change the font or something I had to tap the power button to put it to sleep, again to wake it up and then play with the setting.

I tried it again last night while reading, having pretty much decided how I like the settings, and all was well. It worked just fine for me. I now feel sorry for you poor page tappers. This feature is just for us swipers.

Actually so far there's something about the shape or size of the PW4 that causes me to accidentally turn pages less often. That may change Monday when my cover gets here but now I have the touch screen disabler to deal with that.

Barry

[C.S.]

Originally Posted by barryem

That may change Monday when my cover gets here but now I have the touch screen disabler to deal with that.

Out of curiosity, which cover did you go with? I've been looking for one and can't decide what to get.

[kcladyz]

Originally Posted by TheSmitty

I truly hope you find some satisfaction with battery life on your new PW4. Have seen your posts with the troubles you have had with your KO2.

Keep us posted!

The battery life is amazing. The sucker is still stuck indexing and it only lost 5% battery life since last night vs the Oasis that usually has a total battery drain where you get that "!" battery dead icon.

[kcladyz]

Originally Posted by Harlock415

Is it common for covers to take a long time to show or not show at all when scrolling through the cloud library?

Edit: Specifically thumbnails of covers when scrolling through the library. If I download a book from the cloud with a blank thumbnail it will download like that. I have 1,800 books in the Amazon cloud.

I am not sure if I posted to this or not but I have the same issue every time i do a reset or get a new kindle. It drives me to the brink of insanity!

There seems to be a delay of sorts. I find that once you register it and if you let it sit connected to the wifi for a good long time ( like a few hours) the issue resolves itself and the book cover thumbnails shows up or after sitting a while that if you send books to your device via content and devices page the covers will show up as it downloads but the key seems to be to wait. I notice this as well when buying new books. They do not show on my kindle for a long time after purchase. It seems to be worse the more books you have.

[Harlock415]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

I am not sure if I posted to this or not but I have the same issue every time i do a reset or get a new kindle. It drives me to the brink of insanity!

There seems to be a delay of sorts. I find that once you register it and if you let it sit connected to the wifi for a good long time ( like a few hours) the issue resolves itself and the book cover thumbnails shows up or after sitting a while that if you send books to your device via content and devices page the covers will show up as it downloads but the key seems to be to wait. I notice this as well when buying new books. They do not show on my kindle for a long time after purchase. It seems to be worse the more books you have.

Yeah took a few days but I ended up loading 1,800 book into the new PW. The thumbnails are all showing up now. I have a few more books I got from NetGalley to sideload too. The sideloading through Calibre works fine with the new update.

Ill have to try the Audible option next.

[JimmXinu]

Does the new PW4 have a plastic back like previous PW?

The Voyage has a metal (magnesium) back. Considering how often I drop mine, that's a feature I like.

[Ricky D'Angelo]

Originally Posted by barryem

I played with this a bit yesterday and I liked it. I'm a page swiper, not a tapper, and with my Voyage I was always accidentally turning a page because I was holding it wrong. That hardly ever happened with the Paperwhite 3. So this feature was worth trying.

The device is still new. I just got it yesterday so I'm playing a lot with the settings, looking for differences, etc. and that feature made doing that very difficult. If I wanted to change the font or something I had to tap the power button to put it to sleep, again to wake it up and then play with the setting.

I tried it again last night while reading, having pretty much decided how I like the settings, and all was well. It worked just fine for me. I now feel sorry for you poor page tappers. This feature is just for us swipers. . .

On my kindle fire tablet I like the vertical scrolling feature to go through pages. Even when reading physical books I frequently go back to the previous page so scrolling is a neat feature to easily go back without interrupting the flow of reading. Maybe a future firmware update will allow swipers or tappers to become scrollers. . .

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

On my kindle fire tablet I like the vertical scrolling feature to go through pages. Even when reading physical books I frequently go back to the previous page so scrolling is a neat feature to easily go back without interrupting the flow of reading. Maybe a future firmware update will allow swipers or tappers to become scrollers. . .

Yeah, I like scrolling, have not tried it on my Fire, but on iOS. A few things missing yet:
* no immersion reading
* no pop up footnotes
* no SpeakScreen
* needs scroll bar when reading options are invoked for better navigation

[fardeenah]

a lot of people have been complaining about glare on the new pw4 on reddit, how bad is it, if you own it? i have a pw3 and this seems to bother me

[fardeenah]

another question, how is the battery saving mode of the paperwhite 4?

[PeaceBrigade]

Originally Posted by fardeenah

a lot of people have been complaining about glare on the new pw4 on reddit, how bad is it, if you own it? i have a pw3 and this seems to bother me

I actually haven't noticed any glare at all, compared to my PW2 at least.

I had my PW4 yesterday with me at a coffee shop and my table was next to a window with the sun behind me. I did turn my backlight off, but the screen and text was still great to read.

[fardeenah]

Originally Posted by PeaceBrigade

I actually haven't noticed any glare at all, compared to my PW2 at least.

I had my PW4 yesterday with me at a coffee shop and my table was next to a window with the sun behind me. I did turn my backlight off, but the screen and text was still great to read.

thanks

[barryem]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Does the new PW4 have a plastic back like previous PW?

The Voyage has a metal (magnesium) back. Considering how often I drop mine, that's a feature I like.

The Paperwhite is plastic. I'm just guessing but my guess is if you drop a metal one and a plastic one repeatedly the metal one is likely to be damaged first. Plastic absorbs more shock than metal and that probably would protect the other parts, which are probably made of the same stuff on both.

That said, I keep hearing that the backplane on the new Paperwhite screen is plastic and the older Kindles have glass backplanes so that might make the screen sturdier on the Paperwhite and that's probably the most easily damaged part.

Of course this is all guessing on my part.

I've had Kindles since 2009 as well as Kobos and Nooks. I live in a retirement home and I'm always loaning books to my neighbors on these things and I'd be amazed if they haven't been dropped a number of times. I know a few of them have. I've never had one broken or damaged yet. They all still look like new. They're all made of plastic.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by fardeenah

a lot of people have been complaining about glare on the new pw4 on reddit, how bad is it, if you own it? i have a pw3 and this seems to bother me

I have a Paperwhite 1, a Paperwhite 3, a Paperwhite 4 and a Voyage. I compared them all with respect to glare and I couldn't see any difference. The Paperwhite 4 does have a slightly different looking screen but the differences are small enough that I can't really decide what they are or if they're really there. Reading on it is as good as on my other readers. I only think I notice a difference when comparing side by side.

Barry

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by fardeenah

a lot of people have been complaining about glare on the new pw4 on reddit, how bad is it, if you own it? i have a pw3 and this seems to bother me

I posted about that here. It depends on the lighting you're in, but does exist in certain circumstances, like a certain light overhead or behind you indoors. It depends where you read and how you hold it. It's not as bad as a tablet.