E-ink screen questions

[RasmusDC]

New to this forum, so hopefully i´m posting correctly, and from Denmark so pardon my English.

i have just purchased a Kobo Aura HD for my wife, since our bags are filled with books when we travel, and it would be nice to have room for clothes instead.

Kobo and some sony models are what we can buy here in Denmark, so that is why i decided on the KOBO... handling wise she liked the back, and that it had a bigger screen, backlight and felt more like holding something than the small versions.

well my concern is, i booted the Kobo, and my eye saw these "stuck" pixels or inverted pixels, 8-9 visible ones, i´m normally quite focused on pixels errors on my tv, but this is a E-ink display and a totally different type of screen.

took a picture of it, is this just normal "e-ink" display behavior? its really not that annoying (for her), but its a premium product, and i have 14 days return, so if i am to fix it, now would be the time..

but the picture also shows that it seems the whole screen has black dots when you get close enough, but only around 8 of the pixels sized ones, turning the device on and off does not change it.

Image too large - MODERATOR:

Spoiler:

[llcj]

Probably the best place to post this is in the Kobo forum. The moderaters will probably move it for you.

The black dots aren't normal on any eink device. I would return it or get an exchange if you like the device.

[ProfCrash]

I don't believe that e-ink screens can be back light. The Paperwhite, Kobo Glo, Nook Glowlight are all front light e-ink screens. If the screen is back light, it is an LCD screen.

[RasmusDC]

i know the E-ink are not backlit, its simple electrical powder screens.

but i guess that you can still have defective pixels if a zone has something wrong with power delivery... it looks like the zones are inverted.

the black spots gets white with a black background, and black on white background..

if this is a defect, then i will return the KOBO have been searching images of E-ink displays in high res, and can se other has the same dots.. so people might not see them.

But if i return it, then its just a full return, and this was my short time with e Ereader, then i guess its back to books.

[Dr. Drib]

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Don
(Moderator)

[Anthem]

My Kobo Wifi from a few years back had two "pixels" that were always stuck on like this and no amount of screen refreshes would make it go away. Also, my new Kindle Paperwhite has one such deal down near the bottom right hand side of the screen. They are extremely small and faint. I think of them as "ink blots" in my screen, kinda like you used to get with paper and ink. Have never caused any problems, but I have never seen eight or so at once, and have no idea if that would be more distressing. I can attest that one or two don't bother me and appear to have no bearing on the life of the device.

The only e-ink/e-paper reader that I have ever had that was spot free was the Sony PRS-350. Go figure.

My first Paperwhite 2013 had something wrong with the screen that made light go crazy in one part of the screen (problem with the matte finish or some coating?) and I had to exchange it for another one. This one had the little ink blot capsule/"pixel", but no light problems... so I was happy.

[Uschiekid]

when the front light is on, are they brighter than surroundings or still duller? (I'm guessing the light is off from your picture)

If they aren't bright, as a hypothetical, would that bother you more (bright spots with the light on)? If yes, I would think twice about returning, as that is a much more likely fault that annoys a lot of the people who post here on MR.

If you are willing to either check immediately (though with no dark closet handy, might not be easy especially to look for bright spots with light on) or are willing to go through multiple returns, then by all means, return it and get a perfect one!

I probably would, if the store I bought it from was good at returns. But just be forewarned, some people return with a minor fault and are annoyed when they get it home and it has a worse fault that wasn't visible in the overpowering bright lights that stores usually have.

I don't want to advise you to return and then have you go through a nightmare of 5 or more returns and end up giving up on kobo because of that experience.

[Nightyume]

It is not abnormal to have stuck pixels. The most I´ve heard about is three, but then again on the Aura and Glo, even so, with only three people complained and got exchanges and refunds. The stuck pixels should not affect the life or functioning of your device. Then again, should not. Personally if an exchange is easy I would go for that option.

Other Aura HD owners will be better suited to say whether that many stuck pixels is anywhere near normal (after all, higher resolution means more pixels to potentially get stuck).

The other question is how much they bug you. Can you live with it? As Anthem says, you might just consider them ink blots like on old fashioned books =)

[Athropos]

I own an Aura HD as well and don't have any of these « black pixels ». Personally I would exchange it ASAP, as I know I would always have my eyes attracted by these pixels.

[Ripplinger]

Any stuck pixels like that would constantly drive me crazy while reading. I'd exchange the reader for a good one before the time is up. I've been lucky in that with 6 Sony 350s and 1 Kobo Glo, I've never experienced even 1 bad pixel.

[RasmusDC]

sorry for the delay from me, just been swamped with work..

when backlit, some are REALLY bright, thats actually when they are most visible, but its only SOME.. my wife does not seem to care, but she wants to try and get an exchange, since she talked to KOBO support, we took a lot of macro pictures, and they deemed it defective.
actually she were quite surprised, seems like she would have accepted one, but asked for another picture, of another place on the screen..

i found aprox, 7 visible ones.

so it annoyes me when its lit, less when not lit, and YES only when i focus on the errors. when i just grab it, and read text, its not the degrading of the experience, but this is not a 30 dollar item. (but havent used it that much yet, our vendor DEMANDS it perfect, if we do return it)...

i´ve been through ALL high resolution pictures i could find, and it seems like i can find "errors" on most of them. (but not that many)

the main problem is our retailer, he is not that easy to get to exchange, so i might have to use the 14 days return, and try another vendor. thats a bit annoying only 2-3 vendors i DK has these E readers. (should i go for another brand? i love the design, the feel, the menus)

this is another picture of another place on the screen

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2750109/kobo2.jpg

[Nightyume]

Originally Posted by RasmusDC

sorry for the delay from me, just been swamped with work..

when backlit, some are REALLY bright, thats actually when they are most visible, but its only SOME.. my wife does not seem to care, but she wants to try and get an exchange, since she talked to KOBO support, we took a lot of macro pictures, and they deemed it defective.
actually she were quite surprised, seems like she would have accepted one, but asked for another picture, of another place on the screen..

i found aprox, 7 visible ones.

so it annoyes me when its lit, less when not lit, and YES only when i focus on the errors. when i just grab it, and read text, its not the degrading of the experience, but this is not a 30 dollar item. (but havent used it that much yet, our vendor DEMANDS it perfect, if we do return it)...

i´ve been through ALL high resolution pictures i could find, and it seems like i can find "errors" on most of them. (but not that many)

the main problem is our retailer, he is not that easy to get to exchange, so i might have to use the 14 days return, and try another vendor. thats a bit annoying only 2-3 vendors i DK has these E readers. (should i go for another brand? i love the design, the feel, the menus)

this is another picture of another place on the screen

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2750109/kobo2.jpg

If kobo tells you its defective, print out a copy of the chat/email and take that to your vendor.

Also you have two different problems. One is stuck pixels, the other is "bright pixels" which are not screen defects but rather defects in the light distribution layer.

There is no product that competes directly with the Aura HD that I know of. There are other ereaders but the size will be smaller and less sharp. They are still good, but you should know what to expect. Personally I would love to have the Aura HD but it doesn't fit in with my use case scenarios. I say that you try for another Aura HD. Try it out in store, turn it on, and then turn on the front light to max and look for bright pixels.

But you should know that bright pixels are a common problem with all lit readers. Yes, you can find one without them and that's how they should be, but you might have a hard time doing so, it has to do with the light distribution layer. Now the key things are that they tend to be only annoying when you look directly at them but definitely more noticeable than stuck pixels. Therefore if they are in the middle of the screen they will be a constant irritant. If, on the other hand, they are on the corner where you never have any text, you might want to accept it as is and live with it. It all depends on what you and your wife are willing to live with. On my Glo it originally seemed perfect but then eventually after a few months a bright pixel appeared. It was very angle dependent so unless I looked directly at it and angled it to my face it didn't bother me.and returning it would have been both a major hassle and expensive. In my case it was not worth it, especially since it would be difficult to get Kobo to declare 1 bright pixel as "defective" months after purchase.

In your case you have local distributors and kobo on the record saying yours is defective so I say go for it and try to get a better one.