Has the quality of Paperwhites improved?

[JLeighs]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

My feeling for those on the fence about the PW, and who think they will, or know they will, be bothered by discolorations to wait until the next version of the PW.

I just spoke with someone today who returned theirs back in October for a refund and they just received a new one (a 503) today hoping it was fixed and they said it clearly has color hues so they are returning it.

I mention this solely for people who are on the fence about the PW and want to know for sure if the color hue problem still exists. Obviously it hasn't been resolved if even a few people are still getting ones with hues. So I believe it's still the luck of the draw.

Your post and Prodigit's post is why I'm not going to worry about serial numbers right now. As you say, obviously the color hues issue has not been resolved so it's the luck of the draw at the moment. I've got another on the way (502), and if that is worse than my original, I think I'll just stick with the original. Despite the faint color hues, I don't find it difficult to read, and I'm starting to get used to the hues anyway. They're there, but not glaringly obvious. Despite the screen flaws, it's a much better device than my K3, and I can't imagine going back to reading on the K3.

I am, however, a little disturbed that Amazon is still sending out the devices when they clearly haven't fixed the problem. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pretty shocked at the difference between my original and the replacement. On my original PW, the font is clear and crisp, and besides the faint hues, the screen is pretty white. On the replacement, the text seemed blurry and/or washed out, the screen was yellowish, and there were brighter blotches of pink and green everywhere. Ridiculous.

[Agama]

Maybe Amazon have not been able to identify the source of the problem. I wonder if all the PW's are made in the same factory. Perhaps it cannot easily be picked up during QC, or is too expensive if only a small percentage of Kindles are affected.

Looking on Amazon's UK site, the ratings/reviews of the PW are mainly 4 and 5 star, so it may be that these issues are not so common and therefore Amazon deals with them via customer complaints/replacements.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by Agama

Maybe Amazon have not been able to identify the source of the problem. I wonder if all the PW's are made in the same factory. Perhaps it cannot easily be picked up during QC, or is too expensive if only a small percentage of Kindles are affected.

Looking on Amazon's UK site, the ratings/reviews of the PW are mainly 4 and 5 star, so it may be that these issues are not so common and therefore Amazon deals with them via customer complaints/replacements.

Also, the issues may be more common than not, but most people cannot even detect them, so it may not be worth the extra expense for Amazon to even fix them.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by JLeighs

I am, however, a little disturbed that Amazon is still sending out the devices when they clearly haven't fixed the problem. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pretty shocked at the difference between my original and the replacement. On my original PW, the font is clear and crisp, and besides the faint hues, the screen is pretty white. On the replacement, the text seemed blurry and/or washed out, the screen was yellowish, and there were brighter blotches of pink and green everywhere. Ridiculous.

I agree. It's disappointing.

Originally Posted by xendula

Also, the issues may be more common than not, but most people cannot even detect them, so it may not be worth the extra expense for Amazon to even fix them.

This is my feeling as well. I do wonder what the next version of the PW will bring and if it will be consistently color hue free.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I do wonder what the next version of the PW will bring and if it will be consistently color hue free.

Same here. I've been fantasizing about the PW2
I also had a chance to play around with a Kobo Glo, finally, and also had purchased an Bookeen Cybook Odyssey HD with Frontlight that I ended up returning. They both had absolutely no color blotches, so WTH!?

[Andy_T]

Guess I'll give the paperwhite another try when the batch # is at 515 :-)

Regards,
Andy

[randomzombie]

So having some extra holiday money, I found a "503" at Best Buy.
Having now read/used/owned 3 501s, 1 502, and 1 503, I make these observations.
I was also able to directly compare the 503 against a 501 and the 502 I still have in my possession.

Conclusion: with a positive is gained a negative. The 503 I have is by far the most uniform in its background. No blotches. The hue fades somewhat more naturally as it moves toward (away from?) the lights. BUT! Sigh. The contrast of the eInk also by FAR the worst of the three I compared against one another. This was especially apparent to me as I've come to prefer and use primarily the Palatino font.

When reading at night with the 503, the Palatino was a lighter grey on a yellowish white background. I dunno. As much as I dislike the spotty, muddy nature of the 501 I've been using, the font is much more black against the "paper."

Additionally, on the 503 I have, the center two lights eke pronouncedly up to near the center of the screen in a way that is remarkably brighter than the rest of the screen.

Anyway. There be my updates!

[new]

Originally Posted by randomzombie

So having some extra holiday money, I found a "503" at Best Buy.
Having now read/used/owned 3 501s, 1 502, and 1 503, I make these observations.
I was also able to directly compare the 503 against a 501 and the 502 I still have in my possession.

Conclusion: with a positive is gained a negative. The 503 I have is by far the most uniform in its background. No blotches. The hue fades somewhat more naturally as it moves toward (away from?) the lights. BUT! Sigh. The contrast of the eInk also by FAR the worst of the three I compared against one another. This was especially apparent to me as I've come to prefer and use primarily the Palatino font.

When reading at night with the 503, the Palatino was a lighter grey on a yellowish white background. I dunno. As much as I dislike the spotty, muddy nature of the 501 I've been using, the font is much more black against the "paper."

Additionally, on the 503 I have, the center two lights eke pronouncedly up to near the center of the screen in a way that is remarkably brighter than the rest of the screen.

Anyway. There be my updates!

You didn't mention the 502 results.

[Yellowfrog]

I just got a new Paperwhite, ordered just a week ago; it's a 502 serial number. Thought I'd chime in with some comments compared with the first one I got when the Paperwhite was first released (a 501 serial number).

I do notice some color tinges on both screens, but they're very faint. Neither really stops me from reading once I get into the story; they bother me more when I browse the forums and start obsessing about a "perfect" screen.

The new one has a slightly different color temperature, and the slight color "clouds" are in different places, which I notice less. It also seems a tad brighter at the same light level, with ever so slightly better contrast.

In short though, I'd say the differences aren't indicative of any newer build, that it's just a question of yield on their particular screens. It's still much better than using an external light, and I'll be sticking with the PW as it is for now.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Andy_T

Guess I'll give the paperwhite another try when the batch # is at 515 :-)

Regards,
Andy

LOL.

[replica145]

Just got my 503 after 4 blotchy 501s. This one is blotchy too, worse than the last even, but the screen is clearly sharper. Browsing both in cover view you can see a clearer definition in the pictures, and with font as well when put side by side.

I give up on the blotches, I hardly notice them anyway, by the time I get a perfect one the Kindle 5 will be out.

Edit: And I just noticed a black speck that won't go away. Maybe the 6th one will be better...

[fauxpas]

Did you just get a 503 randomly or did you specifically ask for one?

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by replica145

Just got my 503 after 4 blotchy 501s. This one is blotchy too, worse than the last even, but the screen is clearly sharper. Browsing both in cover view you can see a clearer definition in the pictures, and with font as well when put side by side.

I give up on the blotches, I hardly notice them anyway, by the time I get a perfect one the Kindle 5 will be out.

Problem is though that if people keep settling for blotchy screens, Amazon has no incentive to work on that too much.

I'll get one when the screens actually look like the ones in the promo shots ... Could be a long wait

[JLeighs]

I've had two more replacements, both of them better than my original. They both have some color hues as well, but much less than my original. With one of the replacements (502), the screen color itself is a slightly warmer white which is more pleasing to my eyes and feels more relaxing, if that makes sense. All of the other screens have a cool, pinkish cast. I'm going to keep the 502 replacement. It does have extremely faint color hues, but I had to look carefully to see them. This one is the best of the bunch, and honestly, I doubt very much that any more replacements they send me will be an improvement on it. I've had 4 of them now, no two are the same, and they all have hues to one degree or another. I've decided that the perfect PW screen is as elusive as Bigfoot.

[Blossom]

I am thankful I got one with no color blobs or splotches at all. It's a 503 but the screen has no issues. The font could be darker but I can deal with it due the light being adjustable.