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All-New Kindle Paperwhite

amazon.com

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Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#51

Post by sliverstorm »

acabal wrote: post #17

How is this different from the last Paperwhite model? I see "improved screen" and "faster processor". It seems like there's also some new software features, but that's just software. Is that all that's new?

To me it reads kind of like the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S. Most everyone who had an iPhone 4 didn't upgrade, but it gave the people with the iPhone 3 an extra nudge to upgrade, and also sends the message "hey guys, we're continually improving the device, even if the updates aren't always huge".

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#52

Post by sliverstorm »

hack_edu wrote: post #25

Why don't they make the 'Papergold' or 'Paperpale?' An e-ink reader is supposed to be easy on your eyes, yet a stark white background honestly creates just as much stress as reading against a screen. And High-Contrast mode is even worse for most people.

In my eyes, it's called the "paperwhite" because when the light is on, the page is much closer to white than the unlit Kindles, which have more of a grey background. Not because the background is #FFFFFF and the brightness of the sun.

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#53

Post by cdjk »

The hardware upgrade doesn't look that impressive - I'm happy with the current papewhite. The pageflip UI looks like it could be useful, as that's one of the few UI complaints I have with the kindle.

Personally I find the FreeTime feature to be the most interesting, or maybe amusing. They're gamifying reading, but I suppose parents were doing that already (read X books, get Y).

Now if only they'd fix hyphenation and justification, or make it easy to enable ragged right text I'd be happy. Currently I have to reformat everything in calibre before I read it.

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#54

Post by MichaelGG »

chimeracoder wrote: post #2

I have owned the original Paperwhite since it came out, and I love it - can't recommend it highly enough. The frontlighting is wonderful. However, I really wish that this newer one had physical buttons on the side for turning the pages, like some of the other Kindle models. I find the touchscreen rather irritating when reading. It's much easier to have buttons on the side that you can press without moving your hand/f…

I find it annoying because there'll be little specs of dust, dirt, or hair, and removing them requires careful movement or I'll page turn.

Also, has anyone noticed that the rendering gets slightly messed up (bolder) if you bring up a prompt, like the built-in dictionary? After it disappears, the area it covers has different font weight from the rest of the page, making me turn back and forth to reset it. Rather annoying.

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#55

Post by kabdib »

Showstoppers:

- Only 1.25GB of storage for books. I have many more than this on my K3.

- As others have observed, the lack of mechanical buttons for page flipping.

Oh well. I'll just keep replacing batteries on my K3s as long as I can.

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#56

Post by drieddust »

kindles are extremely fragile devices. I broke my first one when it fell down from couple of inches. second time when I kept in car boot well packed inside padded laptop bag in its own cover.

I not buying another one. whole point of having light ereader is to use it lightly, without cover.

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#57

Post by ericcumbee »

smackfu wrote: post #42
jwr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I checked for 1) buttons, 2) a lighter version. Found none of the above, so I'll stick to my Kindle 3. I don't think Amazon appreciates how important buttons are for reading in non-perfect setups. Sure, if you're on your couch or by the swimming pool, you might not care. But try reading on a subway or a bus. Or with gloves on.

7.3 oz is too heavy for you? That's 1.4 oz lighter than your Kindle 3.

I believe he means a lighter color.

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#58

Post by easytiger »

mrbill wrote: post #37

Give me the last non-touch-screen model with the Paperwhite backlight and the page turn buttons on the sides, and I'll be in heaven. Will be interesting to see if they've fixed the "uneven backlighting at the bottom" problem on this model. I was very disappointed when I first got my Paperwhite, after all the hyping they did about working to make the backlight even.

In artificial light situations and low light situations the problem you describe was fairly distracting.

I would assume the main point of this model is to silently remove that problem. If not, I can't for the life of me think as to what the benefit is. Sadly until someone gets their hands on one we shan't find out

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#59

Post by MBCook »

gambiting wrote: post #36
MBCook wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you own a previous Kindle before your Paperwhite? I got a chance to try one earlier this month, and compare it to my 3rd gen Kindle Keyboard. The backlight was nice, but I had a few problems with it. The lack of physical buttons for page changing and the menus drove me nuts. If I'm holding a Paperwhite in my left hand, then to change to a new page I have to move my thumb out far enough, tap, and them bring my thu…

Few things. To change pages with your left thumb you don't have to move it all the way to the right - you can make a little swipe motion on the left side of the screen and it will skip a page. I used to have the Kindle Keyboard(Kindle 3) and my god, its resolution was driving me crazy, like it was never sharp. Paperwhite is a lot better in that regard. HOWEVER - fonts get really jaggy after a few page turns, and that…

That's true, you could do the swipe. Either way I just missed the buttons.

> HOWEVER - fonts get really jaggy after a few page turns, and that's because the paperwhite only refreshes the entire page every 5 or so turns. You can go to settings and tell it to refresh the entire page every turn - then the fonts are always super sharp.

I know there is an option for that, but I didn't think to give it a try. Maybe that was the problem. I was just amazed that out of the box the font rendering was noticeably worse than a model that was at least 2 years older.

Re: All-New Kindle Paperwhite

#60

Post by MBCook »

to3m wrote: post #47
MBCook wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you own a previous Kindle before your Paperwhite? I got a chance to try one earlier this month, and compare it to my 3rd gen Kindle Keyboard. The backlight was nice, but I had a few problems with it. The lack of physical buttons for page changing and the menus drove me nuts. If I'm holding a Paperwhite in my left hand, then to change to a new page I have to move my thumb out far enough, tap, and them bring my thu…

I don't know what the non-paperwhite ones are like, but the paperwhite screen quickly looks like a real mess if you have it set to refresh irregularly. The paperwhite screen is nice, but whoever signed off on the paperwhite's touch UI exhibited some poor judgement. The onscreen keyboard is fine; the page turning is merely adequate; the book list and web browser scrolling is terrible. (The scrolling uses touch-and-dra…

I will say I was very impressed with the on-screen keyboard. I could just hammer the little keys as fast as I could type a word, and while the screen couldn't update fast enough it didn't lose keystrokes.

It's sad that that's impressive, but that's where embedded software is today.

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