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2 Paperwhites, but they are different.

14K views 36 replies 11 participants last post by  canyonblue737 
#1 ·
I love the new Paperwhite, at least one of them. I received two today and one is very bright, very white, and very even lighting across the screen (except for the bottom 1/2 inch which does show the expected spot lighting from the 4 LED's). The other is noticeably dimmer at any matching setting and the white areas have a pinkish tint that is a ton less "white" than the other Paperwhite. Amazon gave me quite a run around on the phone (I was very polite) suggesting everything from a software issue (of course not) to letting me return the unit for a week or more so they can open it and examine it before sending it back to me etc. vs. what I really want, a simple exchange. They finally did the right thing and they have an exchange setup with my new Kindle Paperwhite coming between the 17th and 29th... but Amazon like any other consumer electronic company should have kept a small number of Paperwhites available for immediate replacements, I can only imagine the disappointment if someone has a totally non-working Paperwhite in the mail today only to be told to wait 2-4 weeks. This is my 4th and 5th Kindle and I will chime in with a full review but until then...

The Kindle Paperwhite has an excellent, white, even screen (other than bottom 1/2 inch) and sensitivity to touch FAR better than the Kindle Touch did. The higher PPI makes the screen even more readable. I fully believe this is the best e-reader ever, I just hope that what happened to me isn't a sign that there will be a wide variability in the quality and color of light that is the key feature of the Kindle Paperwhite.
 
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#3 ·
Also I want to point out that had I only bought one Paperwhite and I got the "pinkish" one I would have been quite disappointed and surprised vs. the reviews I read but I wouldn't have thought to return it, figuring it is what it is. With only some limited looks at a Nook Simple Touch Glowlight I can say even my bad Paperwhite is a bit better. Only side by side with a "good one" could you see just how off it really was. I wonder if there will be a wide range in color and quality of light depending on which batch of LEDs get stuck in a given Paperwhite.

Here is hoping my replacement matches the good one I am giving to my wife today.
 
#5 ·
Ok here goes...

1. Both are on "24" which is full brightness. You can see one is clearly brighter.
2. The camera (my cool iPhone 5) "smoothes" out the light compared to what your eye sees and makes BOTH look better.
3. BOTH have very visible "spot lighting" areas of bright and shadow (4 bright, 4 shadow) in the very bottom 1/8th of the screen that don't show well in the picture at all but again as expected and doesn't effect anything other than the area with Page number and time remaining, it doesn't go up into the text of an actual book.
4. Totally missing from the picture is the banding and tint issues on the dimmer Paperwhite. The top 1/3rd and bottom 1/3rd of the screen is actually quite even and "white" but dimmer than the better one. The MIDDLE 1/3rd, about from the center of the top row of book pictures to the center of the bottom row books is not only dimmer but also clearly skews pink. It creates a really uneasy effect when reading plain text and doesn't come across in this photo.

My wife's Kindle (I gave her the good one of course!) is just plain nice. Other than the tiny bit of spot lighting at the bottom the lighting is incredibly even from top to bottom and very white with just a hint of blue. Here is hoping my new one is as nice whenever it shows up.



Edited to shrink the photo just a bit. --Betsy
 
#6 ·
Hmm that's interesting. Thanks for sharing the pics. I just looked at mine at the highest bright setting of 24 and it appears brighter than those. So it seems there are differences.
 
#7 ·
they both look a bit brighter in real life. Taking photos of screens is very, very difficult to do and reproduce with accuracy. I think my wife's Kindle looks even better than the picture shows (brighter and whiter) and mine looks even worse (because the picture doesn't show the tint issue, nor shows how the top 1/3rd, middle 1/3rd, and bottom 1/3rd all look different.) The only thing real clear from the picture is the relative difference in brightness.
 
#9 ·
I received my new PW -- and I'm kind of wondering if mine is like your worse one.  :(  The white is a bit pinkish -- and I really like pink, but this isn't a good pink.  It definitely in no way could be considered a blue tint.  Also, on the left side of my screen, starting about one fourth of the way down, there is a diagonal line between a brighter and darker background.  This is present no matter what is on the screen.  Also, I'm seeing a LOT of ghosting.  I think the ghosting is a little better when I turn the refresh on for every page turn, but it is still present.  It is very noticeable ghosting. 

Also, were other people's USB cords black or white?  Now the color makes no difference to me, but I know that I saw in the media reviews that the cords were now black -- but mine is white.  I'm wondering if maybe an earlier batch had white cords and later batches didn't or vice versa?

I guess I may call about an exchange -- as long as they'll let me keep this one until the exchange is ready!  I feel like this PW isn't as good as it could be, but it's definitely usable and better than the Touch in a lot of ways, so I don't want to give it up before getting a replacement! :D  I know that's the way it usually works -- you send back this one when the new one comes -- but I wasn't sure what would happen if it could be up to 4 weeks away.
 
#10 ·
I got a bad one too. Mine is darker and the lighting is blotchie all over. I think it is more tan looking than pink, but could be the room lighting. Mine is so bad it gave me a headache from reading due to eyestrain. I tried every font at every light setting in every room of my home and it just sucks. My Touch is way better. I'm also having weird font rendering issues where some letters are washed out and others way bolder than the average letter. I set it to refresh every page, but I still have the issues. I'm just going to return mine as I don't think I will take another chance on a PW, and I am not waiting for several weeks to get a replacement. I want to just get my money back. Really disappointed with the lack of quality control!  :(
 
#11 ·
PinkKindle said:
I received my new PW -- and I'm kind of wondering if mine is like your worse one. :( The white is a bit pinkish -- and I really like pink, but this isn't a good pink. It definitely in no way could be considered a blue tint. Also, on the left side of my screen, starting about one fourth of the way down, there is a diagonal line between a brighter and darker background. This is present no matter what is on the screen. Also, I'm seeing a LOT of ghosting. I think the ghosting is a little better when I turn the refresh on for every page turn, but it is still present. It is very noticeable ghosting.

Also, were other people's USB cords black or white? Now the color makes no difference to me, but I know that I saw in the media reviews that the cords were now black -- but mine is white. I'm wondering if maybe an earlier batch had white cords and later batches didn't or vice versa?

I guess I may call about an exchange -- as long as they'll let me keep this one until the exchange is ready! I feel like this PW isn't as good as it could be, but it's definitely usable and better than the Touch in a lot of ways, so I don't want to give it up before getting a replacement! :D I know that's the way it usually works -- you send back this one when the new one comes -- but I wasn't sure what would happen if it could be up to 4 weeks away.
My USB cable is white too.
 
#14 ·
Yes, that's the pink/tan coloring mine has.  If the light is off, or on the screensaver before the PW is woken, what was gray on my previous Kindles is more pink/tan/brown shaded on this Kindle.

The way some of your letters are lighter and faded, though -- mine doesn't have that.  Actually, the print looks totally great on mine -- it's the background and also the ghosting that are the problem for me.  But, it's not really awful either, maybe more nitpicky -- I'm not going to call just yet.  I'll watch what other people have to say.

Well, if everyone's cord is white then that's fine, but if some are black and some are white -- that seems strange.
 
#15 ·
Here is the photo I showed above of my PW set to a screen brightness of 14/24. However, I adjusted the exposure and contrast levels to exaggerate the shadows. With the shadows exaggerated you can clearly see the tan/pink shadows and the areas of the screen where blotchiness occurs. This is clearly not a good screen nor does it have anywhere near a uniform lighting.

 
#17 ·
Your screen looks like mine but your areas of pink/tan are all over, mine are about the middle third so you have it even worse. I would totally think "well I guess this is the best they can do" if I didn't see my wife's with my own eyes, the top 7/8th of hers is even as could be without a single hint of tan or pink, just pure white with the slightest even hint of blue. Gosh I hope I get another like it.
 
#18 ·
canyonblue737 said:
Your screen looks like mine but your areas of pink/tan are all over, mine are about the middle third so you have it even worse. I would totally think "well I guess this is the best they can do" if I didn't see my wife's with my own eyes, the top 7/8th of hers is even as could be without a single hint of tan or pink, just pure white with the slightest even hint of blue. Gosh I hope I get another like it.
I was just going to return mine, but I decided to sleep on it (the thought not the PW) and hopefully make a better decision tomorrow when I'm not so frustrated. I'm not angry as most people are getting good units. But I'm really frustrated that some of us got bad ones. I might see about getting a replacement as I like the PW other than the screen.
 
#19 ·
w5jck said:
I was just going to return mine, but I decided to sleep on it (the thought not the PW) and hopefully make a better decision tomorrow when I'm not so frustrated. I'm not angry as most people are getting good units. But I'm really frustrated that some of us got bad ones. I might see about getting a replacement as I like the PW other than the screen.
The more advanced the Kindle's technology gets, the more opportunities there are for issues, so it seems to me. The PW, from all the reviews I've seen, is an exceptional unit. One problem, though, is the great reviews! Our anticipation is heightened, and so problems are more aggravating. I think that exchanging it is the thing to do. I expect the next one will be like your wife's.
 
#20 ·
Just got off the phone with Amazon CS. They were very nice and helpful as usual! I've got a replacement coming in a few weeks or so--whenever they are in stock again.

CS was very nice and quickly said they would replace my PW. I barely finished explaining the problem and he said they would send a replacement later in October and I could hang on to this one until it arrives! I laughed when he asked if this was my first Kindle. (The PW is my 8th Kindle going back to the K2.) Then he saw how many I've had and laughed too and said, "Wow, you really like Kindles!" He did have me try the restart where you hold in the power button for 20 seconds, but they always try that. It didn't help of course. Anyway all is good as I'll get a replacement. Other than the screen which I think is defective on mine, the only real negative I have about the PW is that it is a real fingerprint magnet on the screen and the body. Otherwise it is a very good design and I like most of the new GUI.
 
#22 ·
That makes no sense. People who have Paperwhites have already paid for them and Amazon has an obligation to provide us with a properly working product before sending out new Paperwhites and accepting new payments from other customers. Until they ship your device you haven't paid yet, I have and want a working device.
 
#23 ·
Well I really cannot even read more than a few minutes at a time on the defective PW they sent me. Besides the dark shadows all over the screen and the very blue-grey and dark tint to the background when reading in low lit rooms, I'm encountering major font rendering problems. Not sure if it is software or hardware related, but most of the text on the typical page looks thin, fuzzy, and light grey. There are usually a few randomly scattered spots of text where the text there is crisp, sharp, and dark, but those are few and far between. I never know from page to page what the text will look like as most pages are filled with mostly marginally readable text and every once in a great while I get a page with mostly crisp and sharp text. Very frustrating and annoying. Even more frustrating when i place my Touch side by side the PW and see how terrific the text looks on the Touch and how unreadable it looks on the PW. Last night in a dimly lit room it was much easier to read on the Touch with no clip-on light than it was on the PW with light as well lit fuzzy and faded text is way more of an eyestrain than the Touch without proper lighting.

Okay, so now am I supposed to wait to get a working PW until the fulfillment of every order placed before my replacement request was processed? I placed my order early, paid for Prime 1-day shipping, but got essentially a non-useable PW, so basically it is like not getting a PW at all. I truly understand the frustration of those who ordered early and haven't received one, but I'm frustrated too that essentially I'm having to wait until the latter part of October (at earliest) to have a replacement sent to me via 2-day delivery. Yeah, they wouldn't even send the replacement the same 1-day shipping I initially paid for! And by the way not only am I a Prime customer but this is my 7th Kindle: K2, K3 * 3, K4, K Touch, and K PW. Plus I buy well over 100 books from their bookstore each year, plus I have books published in their bookstore, rant infinitum. Those with unfilled early orders have a reason to be frustrated, but so do those of us who were sent a total POS. I do not want special treatment here, nor do I want those who have unfilled early orders to get special treatment. We are all in this big screwed up mess together as we are all without a working PW we ordered early.

Why don't we vent our frustrations at Amazon rather than each other? After all Amazon was the company that decided to use cheap (near slave) labor in a country that has been hostile to America since before I was born in 1958. A country wherein American companies have almost no say in the quality control. Amazon got what they paid for, unfortunately we the consumers didn't.
 
#24 ·
UPDATE

Despite showing a delivery date of Oct 17-29th for my replacement I just got the overnight shipping notice on my replacement from Amazon and will have my replacement tomorrow, the 5th. Hopefully this will have a great screen, I am certainly happy Amazon provided a timely replacement.
 
#25 ·
canyonblue737 said:
UPDATE

Despite showing a delivery date of Oct 17-29th for my replacement I just got the overnight shipping notice on my replacement from Amazon and will have my replacement tomorrow, the 5th. Hopefully this will have a great screen, I am certainly happy Amazon provided a timely replacement.
Amazon certainly isn't hurting its highly-regarded customer service. Hope the new one is right. Looking forward to your update.
 
#26 ·
canyonblue737 said:
UPDATE

Despite showing a delivery date of Oct 17-29th for my replacement I just got the overnight shipping notice on my replacement from Amazon and will have my replacement tomorrow, the 5th. Hopefully this will have a great screen, I am certainly happy Amazon provided a timely replacement.
Great news! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new PW. Here's hoping it's an improvement. :)
 
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