Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[stickybuns]

Originally Posted by volwrath

Here is a shot of my PW2. This was at max light in a reasonably dark room taken with my galaxy s3 with no flash.

If you see a blemish let me know well minus it being sideways for some reason

Does it look good to you? Then it looks good.

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by stickybuns

Does it look good to you? Then it looks good.

Oh I concur, but I'm always open to feedback

[Tess89]

I've had the PW1 for a few months but wasn't 100% satisfied with it so I thought I'd pick one up from Best Buy. My PW1 has three pinpricks. One at the very top and two at the bottom left corner. They're not bothersome but my eyes do get drawn to them from time to time. And there were a couple bright/dark spots. The PW2 I bought is pretty much perfect. Yes the screen is darker but I find that it's much more pleasant on the eyes when sitting in a dimly lit room. When I go back to read on the PW1 the blueish tint that I never had an issue with before now feels a bit jarring. The one thing that makes the upgrade completely worth it to me though is the refresh rate. My PW1 was very inconsistent in this regard. On many occasions it would refresh every page no matter what setting it was on. Annoyed the crap out of me. So far the PW2 is behaving and there's no hint of ghosting even though the refresh rate is around every 14th page. Every single complaint I had about the PW1 has been addressed. The changes are incremental but for me this is a awesome upgrade.

[wlsinwi]

Originally Posted by simplyparticular

Got my PW2 today. I'm reasonably impressed. The light is bright, and almost uniform. No pinholes or light leaks anywhere - I have been watching it closely.

The left most LED appears a little brighter, and it's leaving a bit of a purple blotch at any light level, but it's not hugely noticeable. Especially when you compare it to an external light!

I think I can live with Palatino, although the sizing options are kind of strange. But I still loathe the Kindle interface.

Some pics, including a fun one of the PW2 and Sony T2 with lighted cover.

L-R: PW2 at 7, PW2 at 15, PW2 and T2 - note that both devices have much sharper text display than I was able to focus on in a dark room with no flash, with the PW2 just slightly sharper. And at it's lowest level, the PW2's grey background is identical to the T2's. The White in Paper-white definitely comes from the light.

I'm seeing the same stage light effect on your pics as I have. I'm not sure if this is a valid defect or I'm just being OCD. I'll monitor the thread to see what the consensus is.

Originally Posted by simplyparticular

Got my PW2 today. I'm reasonably impressed. The light is bright, and almost uniform. No pinholes or light leaks anywhere - I have been watching it closely.

The left most LED appears a little brighter, and it's leaving a bit of a purple blotch at any light level, but it's not hugely noticeable. Especially when you compare it to an external light!

I think I can live with Palatino, although the sizing options are kind of strange. But I still loathe the Kindle interface.

Some pics, including a fun one of the PW2 and Sony T2 with lighted cover.

L-R: PW2 at 7, PW2 at 15, PW2 and T2 - note that both devices have much sharper text display than I was able to focus on in a dark room with no flash, with the PW2 just slightly sharper. And at it's lowest level, the PW2's grey background is identical to the T2's. The White in Paperwhite definitely comes from the light.

I see a large, extra bright lighted area at the bottom left of the PW2. It might not bother you though, but it would bother me.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by anywho

Palatino isn't a bad font. But font's are very individual. I've suggested that everyone who wants to be able to to choose a custom font actually email kindle-feedback@amazon.com and ask for it. That's the most likely way we're going to see something happening.

"Please allow for the free distribution and sale of fonts in a similar manner you provide both books and games for the kindle. This not only would allow you to sell more things, but cater to those of us who have specific demands when it comes to fonts. It's a win-win"

I'm ok with the built in font though I prefer my own. The real problem is the font sizes, which go tiny tiny small small small large big E on the eye chart. I need to load a custom font that I've tweaked to the exact size I need.

[7hir7een]

Originally Posted by volwrath

Here is a shot of my PW2. This was at max light in a reasonably dark room taken with my galaxy s3 with no flash.

If you see a blemish let me know well minus it being sideways for some reason

Looks great to me!

[wlsinwi]

Maybe I'm just being OCD but I've been noticing some odd shadows on my new PW. They are in line with the text and I've realized that this is ghosting of previous text. It appears that the reduced rate of page refresh has a down side in the form of image retention. Forcing a refresh clears them out. Has anybody else noticed this or is this a another sign that mine is defective. ??

[anywho]

Originally Posted by volwrath

Here is a shot of my PW2. This was at max light in a reasonably dark room taken with my galaxy s3 with no flash.

If you see a blemish let me know well minus it being sideways for some reason

Mine has quite a discreet blemish on the screen. Not easy to spot. You catch it out of the corner of your eye thinking it's something that can be blinked away. Once you notice it, it's obvious.

wlsinwi: my response applies to you too

[kyrilson]

Mine arrived this evening.

Impressions:

Very nice screen, well lit, no issues at all. No pin holes or dead pixels.
The touch screen is very responsive, much more than my beloved Sony PRS-350.
It is very light! And thin.

Very impressed with it, well worth upgrading from my kindle no touch. It is a joy to use. Highly recommended.

Originally Posted by wlsinwi

Maybe I'm just being OCD but I've been noticing some odd shadows on my new PW. They are in line with the text and I've realized that this is ghosting of previous text. It appears that the reduced rate of page refresh has a down side in the form of image retention. Forcing a refresh clears them out. Has anybody else noticed this or is this a another sign that mine is defective. ??

It is probably not defective. The refreshing every several pages sometimes doesn't work well. I have always turned on the Refresh Every Page option. Heck, even refreshing every page still turns pages a lot faster than I could in a printed book!

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by 7hir7een

Looks great to me!

Thanks! I think so as well.

[induna]

I just received mine. Overall it appears to be excellent. I do have one small pinhole, but it is only visible at all with the light cranked way up in the dark -- not a way I'm ever going to use it.

Others have commented on the quality of the screen, the light, and the speed. I don't really have anything to add there except to reiterate that all three are improved. I have noticed a couple of things that no one else seems to have mentioned, however, both good and bad.

The good: the partial refresh problem seems to be fixed. On the PW 1, whenever a menu was opened over the page and then dismissed, there were always some lines of text that did not refresh properly and were left looking washed out. This happened pretty much all the time. I do not see this happening on the current model at all.

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.

I think this is a worthwhile upgrade that will garner far fewer complaints than the earlier model. I am keeping my PW 1 as second reader for my wife. I never had any major complaints about it.

[simplyparticular]

Originally Posted by wlsinwi

Maybe I'm just being OCD but I've been noticing some odd shadows on my new PW. They are in line with the text and I've realized that this is ghosting of previous text. It appears that the reduced rate of page refresh has a down side in the form of image retention. Forcing a refresh clears them out. Has anybody else noticed this or is this a another sign that mine is defective. ??

I'm 2 chapters into reading and I turned Refresh Every Page on because I'm noticing that "build up" from not refreshing. My T2 is prone to this (my T1 doesn't have this problem), but the PW2 is slightly more noticeable because of the light making the background lighter. I almost wonder if the faster processors almost go to fast for the eInk?

[simplyparticular]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I see a large, extra bright lighted area at the bottom left of the PW2. It might not bother you though, but it would bother me.

It's both brighter at the bottom edge, and purplish blotchy just above it. So far, it's not bugging me. I freaked a bit when I saw it right away when the Kindle was booting up - it looks much worse on the black background. It's not bugging me so far, although I'm not reading in a dark room yet. That will be the true test in about 20 minutes.