New Kindle Paperwhite

[JohnC]

So, have anyone who ordered it received their unit already? How is it? Mine hasn't shipped yet, and I've seen some alarming reviews on Amazon about the uneven built-in lighting on some units - seems like the lighting sources (LEDs) which are located on the bottom of the screen can become annoyingly visible and overall lighting can produce dark "spots" in the middle of the display. Here's one user-uploaded image from Amazon:



Looks rather different compared to Amazon's own promo photos:

[DeadOfKnight]

I don't really care about the back light, as long as I can turn it off. It will only be really convenient for nights when the power goes out.
The main reasons I see for getting a kindle over a tablet are to eliminate eye strain and have long battery life.

[drfish]

Mine is supposed to arrive on Friday - really looking forward to checking it out.

I'm going to shamelessly steal this photo from Engadget's Review:



That's a comparison between the Nook Glowlight and the Paperwhite - I was shocked at how much better the Kindle looks. I think the effort Amazon put into R&D is clear. However it sounds like a very precise process to make the film distribute the light that well so if I get a bum one I'll exchange it for another.

Anyone else install an Afterburner in their GBA? That was the first front-light I had experience with and it worked pretty well. All this excitement about front-lights today can't help but remind me of that thing - it was a fairly impressive niche hack for a start-up to produce in the pre-Kickstarter days.

Edit: Hmmm, those reviews are unnerving. *fingers crossed*

[Scrotos]

Wife should be getting hers today.

I think I have one of those units for the GBA. Might still be in the box, I got a bunch of stuff from Lik Sang back in the day but never got around to installing them. TV tuner, for instance, though the value nowadays is somewhat... limited.

[kumori]

I have to wait until Oct. 11th even though I ordered mine within an hour of the link going live.

[Scrotos]

Ya. It looks like that. If you read in the dark often, it might be an issue, but it's still way better than the frontlight or the Nook. She'll be testing it out in the next few weeks and deciding if she likes it. She returned the previous touch as it didn't work with her reading flow for flipping pages and whatnot. Screen refresh is much better this go around so that might balance out any lack of side buttons.

[Diplomacy42]

Got my kindle paper-white today, its great. It's bright and i really don't need to 'get used to' reading around those shadows because they are practically invisible. I will say that anyone who buys one will never turn off the light, not even during the day. without the light on, the new screen looks darker and more washed out than my kindle keyboard.

Also my biggest disappointment is that amazon made the screen smaller, and decided to change the UI so that 10% of the home page was special offers, 60% is taken by amazon.com for "you might also like" and the rest of the page can only display 3 books at once.

I'd be returning it, except you can turn off the new UI and go back to "list view."

[drfish]

Grabbed mine out of the mailbox when I went home for lunch today. YES there is some unevenness to the lighting but its not a huge deal. You can notice it a lot more on a black background like in image #3 above (image #2 isn't really fair, I just wanted to show a different perspective). Its funny, the Afterburner I mentioned had a strip of light across the entire bottom of the device where the Paperwhite has separate lights. While the film on the Paperwhite does do a good job of distributing the light it has you just can't negate the fact that there are only 4 sources of light to begin with. I suppose that was primarily a battery life driven decision. I'm not going to complain though, I'm quite happy even if it isn't perfect.

[drfish]

Hmmm... With the bump in resolution and the touch screen on this thing the web browser would actually be fairly nifty/useful if I could switch it to landscape mode like I can with my books...

[JohnC]

Just got mine... Not sure what to think yet - the screen is good with external light sources "hiding" the shadows on the bottom of the display, but with the external lights off - the bottom of the display is pretty noticeable, especially the shadows that are being cast by the light diffuser, regardless of the intensity of built-in lighting





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moX3z2RJAV8




I guess I'll have to test it out some more... The Amazon's claims that they spent "4 years" on R&D for this Kindle (WTF, it took them a whole year to find a position for each LED light???) are kinda laughable, especially considering how many people are able to notice this lighting drawback, which probably could be easily "fixed" by a single CCFL light instead of individual LEDs OR by using extra light diffusers for LEDs (kinda similar to BMW's "Angel Eyes" DRLs) before light reaches the main display diffuser (it would probably make the device slightly thicker, but I highly doubt that many people would care about it, it would STILL be lighter and more comfortable than any paper book). At least the Amazon's own cover (which is sold separately) seems to be pretty good and worth its price...

[bthylafh]

Random person on the Internet thinks he can do better than a team of engineers and designers, film at 11.

[JohnC]

Random person on the Internet thinks he can do better than a team of engineers and designers, film at 11.

Well, they obviously didn't do a perfect job and there are plenty of ways this can theoretically be improved, you don't NEED to waste 10 years at some random "Institute of l33t" and 4 years working at supposedly "revolutionary and complicated" project to see that.
Anyway, thanks for you extremely informative and detailed first-hand experience contribution to this thread, it was very valuable for me and for other potential buyers!

[JohnC]

Also my biggest disappointment is that amazon made the screen smaller, and decided to change the UI so that 10% of the home page was special offers, 60% is taken by amazon.com for "you might also like" and the rest of the page can only display 3 books at once.

I'd be returning it, except you can turn off the new UI and go back to "list view."

Yea, the default "Cover view" looks a little bit ridiculous due to useless non-removable "New & Noteworthy" section taking up the majority of screen space... "List view" fixes it, though.

Also, I might be doing something wrong, but did Amazon remove "turn on/off WiFi" setting from drop-down menu? I now have to first go to "Settings" page to turn on/off WiFi...

[Chrispy_]

That uneven backlight looks horrible.
Is it one of those things that looks worse on camera than it does to the human eye, or is it (as per the images) really quite ugly?

[bthylafh]

That is great. Will love to have one soon

There was no reason for you to quote all those pictures just for a "me too" post. Kindly edit it so we don't have to scroll through all of them twice.

[drfish]

That uneven backlight looks horrible.
Is it one of those things that looks worse on camera than it does to the human eye, or is it (as per the images) really quite ugly?

It looks a lot better in person but you can see it. However I am no longer bothered by it - as a complete package I love it.