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Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

Re: Kindle Paperwhite finally launching in Canada

Don't need to be full sunshine. The shade outdoors is far brighter than inside, and tablets don't work all that well.

Even indoors, reading on a tablet/LCD is a very sub-par experience compared to reading on an e-ink display. One looks like ink on paper, the other looks like a computer screen.
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR

Member

said by Guspaz:

Don't need to be full sunshine. The shade outdoors is far brighter than inside, and tablets don't work all that well.

Even indoors, reading on a tablet/LCD is a very sub-par experience compared to reading on an e-ink display. One looks like ink on paper, the other looks like a computer screen.

Agreed. I have an iPad and a Kindle DX. I use the iPad for technical books because the Kindle format isn't all that great for those, but for "intense" reading like novels, the eInk devices win hands down. Also even indoors it doesn't take much for tablets to be hard to read - just have some light source behind you and you can see the reflection on the screen. The eInk devices are not at all affected by this.

I can read on the Kindle for hours, but have to take frequent breaks from the tablet - a LCD screen quickly gets tiresome for the eyes.

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc

Member

Also, with the devices turned off, you can use the iPad as a bathroom mirror. Not so with a Kindle.
milnoc

2 edits

milnoc to Guspaz

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Got it!

Just waiting for it to warm up a bit. It's been in a truck all morning.

EDIT: warmed up now, and I see a few issues here.

First, the unevenness of the backlight at the bottom of the screen is a bit annoying.

Second, with the backlight set at its minimal setting, this eink screen appears to be DARKER than the previous design. I don't have any of my other Kindles with me, so I can't do a proper comparison yet.

Third, it doesn't have the text-to-voice feature of the previous Touch. That was actually pretty useful at times. I wish they kept it.

More observations to come.

EDIT 2: Fourth. The dark colour makes fingerprints very visible on the device. Yuck.

Fifth. You'll probably need to readjust the backlight when switching from one ambient light level to another. The Kindle's highest setting makes it feel like a tablet device, and the lowest setting is just too dark even under ambient light. Still, when it's pitch black, the Kindle can become a very decent 3 AM bathroom reader.

Xstar_Lumini
join:2008-12-14
CANADA

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The Kobo Glo is a piece of garbage, look at it comparing it to the Kindle Paperwhite, even the interface is better on tha Kindle not to mention that the Kobo has an ugly bluish tone to its pages that makes reading in total darkness a torture for your eyes, like reading through an iPad in full brightness.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· wOpuZ_Q4

Wolfie00
My dog is an elitist
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join:2005-03-12

Wolfie00 to milnoc

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Appreciate the feedback. Still haven't ordered one but probably will.

The dark spots at the very bottom have been noted in reviews, sounds like not a big deal. The absence of text to speech is to keep the device as small and light as possible. I'd never use it.

The big attraction to me is the paperwhite look. A constant criticism of ALL traditional e-ink readers is the gray-on-gray look. Something that looks more like real paper would be very welcome.

Devanchya
Smile
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join:2003-12-09
Ajax, ON

Devanchya to Xstar_Lumini

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to Xstar_Lumini
I disagree with you completely Xstar...

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc to Wolfie00

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I can answer the "whiteness" question now that my other Kindles are charged up. With the backlight at extreme minimum (it doesn't turn completely off but you can't see it in ambient light), the new Kindle eink screen has the same shade of grey as in my older Kindles. This greyness is counteracted as the backlight level is increased, which is definitely on the cool side of the light spectrum i.e. "bluish".

Difficult to say at this stage how this will affect my eyes. As has been mentioned before, backlit devices can be hard on the eyes even after a short period of time. I'll have to play with the light level to see what's most comfortable under different ambient lighting conditions.

As far as the interface goes, it's only slightly more advanced than the previous models, now displaying the cover page in the list of books. The rest of the interface will be familiar to owners of previous Kindles, so no learning curve there.

Finally, the new Kindle's weight is between the older non-touch and touch models, and the infrared touchscreen has been replaced with a proper capacitive touchscreen, meaning there's no more gap between the screen and the bezel.

That's it for now. The rest will be presented in my video review.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

The Kindle Paperwhite (and Kobo Glo) does not have a backlight. It uses a frontlight, which shines light on the screen from above.

My Kindle didn't arrive yesterday. Canada Post claims they tried to deliver it at 19:25 and left a delivery slip, which is impossible, because I was home at the time and there is no delivery slip.

I'll head on down to the post office today to pick it up.

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

Thane_Bitter

Premium Member

Don't worry, come Monday afternoon they will come by and put the slip on the door letting you know they tried to deliver it on Monday but you were not there to get it.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

1 recommendation

Guspaz

MVM

Went to the post office. 30 minute round drip in the cold. Package isn't there. I wish to say several words that are not permissible on DSLR right now.

Mike2009
join:2009-01-13
Ottawa, ON

Mike2009

Member

Just say it you'll feel better. There's lots of swearing here.
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR to Guspaz

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to Guspaz
said by Guspaz:

The Kindle Paperwhite (and Kobo Glo) does not have a backlight. It uses a frontlight, which shines light on the screen from above.

My Kindle didn't arrive yesterday. Canada Post claims they tried to deliver it at 19:25 and left a delivery slip, which is impossible, because I was home at the time and there is no delivery slip.

I'll head on down to the post office today to pick it up.

That happened to me once - the tracker actually said it was delivered, so I phoned them. After all the nonsense on the phone, I kind of hoped it would turn up. Turns out they had jumped the gun on the tracker, and I got the delivery notice the next day.

I've become a bit weary of ordering from Amazon.ca since they started using UPS for some packages. I have to drive all the way across town to then stand in line for 30-60 minutes to get the package at their depot.

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc

Member

I guess I lucked out. I had mine delivered at my office.

FiReSTaRT
Premium Member
join:2010-02-26
Canada

FiReSTaRT to Wolfie00

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said by Wolfie00:

The only thing I don't like about it is that Amazon keeps shoving "recommendations" in your face to get you to buy more. If I wanted to watch advertising I'd plant myself in front of the TV all day.

So you're saying it's running Ubuntu?
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR to Wolfie00

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said by Wolfie00:

I'd get one in an instant if the silly thing supported ePub, but I'll probably get it anyway, the display is supposed to be excellent. I sideloaded the Android Kindle app on the Playbook and it's certainly the best mobi/azw reader out there. The only thing I don't like about it is that Amazon keeps shoving "recommendations" in your face to get you to buy more. If I wanted to watch advertising I'd plant myself in front of the TV all day.

I don't get that on a Kindle DX though. I rarely use the Kindle app. Not sure if the newer Kindles show recommendations(?) As for epub, I've only ever had one and was able to convert it with Calibre. Most non-Amazon stores I buy from (e.g. Smashwords) offer several formats, including MOBI which is the Kindle format.

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc

Member

The general rule is that for any ebook to be successful, it HAS to be made available in both the ePub and Kindle formats. This includes books in the public domain, and books made available under "questionable" circumstances via BitTorrent.

And yes, the new Kindles do show recommendations on the home page. However, they don't necessarily recommend that you get them from Amazon itself.

Guspaz
Guspaz
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join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to MichelR

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said by MichelR:

I've become a bit weary of ordering from Amazon.ca since they started using UPS for some packages. I have to drive all the way across town to then stand in line for 30-60 minutes to get the package at their depot.

UPS is fantastic in Montreal. They attempt one delivery, and then automatically redirect it to the nearest UPS store. In my case, the delivery attempt always happens around 12h-13h, and the package always shows up at the UPS store at around 16h-17h. The UPS store is only a few minutes walk from where I work, so I just swing by after work and pick up any packages for that day.
Guspaz

1 recommendation

Guspaz

MVM

Click for full size
Kindle Keyboard
Click for full size
Kindle Paperwhite
Finally got the damned thing, no thanks to Canada Post. Delivered it to a new (as in just opened) post office without leaving a delivery slip, and that new post office forgot to scan it so it wasn't showing up as available...

Anyhow, I took a bunch of comparison shots. I don't much feel like taking the effort to play around with the brightness comparison ones in lightroom to make them presentable at the moment, but here is a macro comparison between the two screens.

The extra noise on the Kindle Keyboard is because I had to bump up the exposure on that one a whole lot to get the brightness similar to the Paperwhite. They're both white-balanced to the same point, so the slightly blueish tint from the paperwhite is actually present in real life.

The strange slightly wavy nature of the Paperwhite image is how it actually appears, it's not image noise removal or anything (these are from RAW with only chroma noise removal). As you can see, it's definitely much higher resolution, but also a bit less precise in some ways.

I suspect that the actual e-ink material in these displays is identical (the granules are the same size), and that it's actually the magnetic control grid underneath that is higher resolution. So it can exert finer control over the same medium.

Wolfie00
My dog is an elitist
Premium Member
join:2005-03-12

Wolfie00

Premium Member

Thanks for that careful comparison. I would assume, though, from your description, that the Kindle Keyboard (which I would also assume is the same technology as other Kindles of that generation) is dimmer and has less contrast than the Paperwhite? Isn't that the whole point of Paperwhite?

I think many of us would be very interested in your subjective impressions after you've used it for a day or so. Thanks again.

Guspaz
Guspaz
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join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

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Guspaz

MVM

It'll be a while before I use the Paperwhite for actual reading, I'm still going through Fringe :P

It's really hard to compare. The blacks on the paperwhite seem less dark, and whites are brighter, but both of those are because of the frontlight. The screen is a bit sharper, but the text seems less perfect, as if the original Kindle font was designed with pixel accuracy and the current font (which is more or less the same font) isn't. The Paperwhite seems to suffer ghosting more, but I think that's a combination of this screen being very new (the prominence of ghosting seems to have reduced as I've played with it a bit), and the frontlight makes it easier to see the ghosting. The new screen does seem decently sharper, but it's not an enormous difference.

The frontlight itself is pretty amazing. e-ink always amazed me before, but this is just weird. I had the light-on-a-stick official case for my Kindle Keyboard, and the Paperwhite is enormously brighter and pretty much perfectly even, a veeery different experience from the Keyboard.

I kind of miss the physical buttons, and there seems to be more lag on the Paperwhite to turn pages when you tell it to refresh on every pageturn (like the Keyboard does). Not that the page turn itself takes any longer, but that the delay after hitting the button or tapping the screen is longer on the paperwhite. But if you don't have the refresh option, there is less lag. Not sure why, since the extra time is spent before it updates the screen.

Full brightness is too bright for indoors-at-night brightness levels. 50% (12) seems to be decent. The lowest setting at first glance might seem like it's off, but at second glance you can tell it's just that the light is on very low.

I can see the capacitive touchscreen grid on top of the screen at higher brightness levels, something you obviously won't see on the Keyboard. Then again, you can also see the touch grid on an iPhone or iPad under bright lighting.

The screen texture (feel) on the Paperwhite is different than the Keyboard. The Paperwhite is rougher. Probably to reduce fingerprints.

The default view for seeing your books is cover view. This is a dumb view because only 3 books fit on the screen at a time; a bunch of space is taken up by advertisements for "Kindle Singles". You can turn it off, but it's not immediately obvious how. You have to go into the settings, then "Personalize Your Kindle", and then turn off "Recommended Content". Then you can see 6 books on the home screen. There is also a list view (like the Keyboard) that doesn't show the advertisements either way.

Navigating around the Kindle is much faster with the touchscreen (the d-pad on the Kindle Keyboard is horrible), but turning pages isn't as good.

The new OS makes it much easier to differentiate between your cloud and on-device content. On the Keyboard I think I had to use the Kindle website to control what got downloaded, on the Paperwhite there's a "Cloud|Device" switch on the home screen to differentiate and tapping a book on the cloud causes it to download. In this regard I see how the 3G version might have had more value here than the Keyboard, since the Keyboard didn't integrate well with the cloud like the Paperwhite does. Kind of feeling a bit of regret there!

Then again, the 3G killed the battery life in the Keyboard.

Just like the Kindle Keyboard, you still can't change the screensaver image without jailbreaking. Dumb.

EDIT: Just remembered I bought the official case to go with the Paperwhite. It's nice. Half the thickness of the Keyboard's lighted case, much less tall (due to the lack of a keyboard), and even a bit less wide too. Much lighter (the kindle in the case). Supports an iPad-style magnetic unlock (open case cover, kindle wakes up). Way more comfortable to read with the case on due to being so much lighter. We'll have to see if the case works for my primary reading position with the Kindle; lying in bed on my side with the Kindle's case cover holding the thing up next to me.
BobSagget
join:2005-06-23
Barrie, ON

BobSagget

Member

Paperwhite looks nice, but not enough to make me give up my Kindle Keyboard with lighted cover.

Also I paid $189 for my KK 3G+Wifi in 2011. The new Paperwhite 3G equivalent is $199.
Storage size is cut in half
Lose physical page-turn buttons on the sides (a fav of mine - don't really care about losing keyboard, but I like physical page turns)
Lose all audio support. No more text to speech, no more headphone output, no more internal speakers, no more audiobooks.
No web-browsing over the built-in 3G. Strictly for purchasing books from the Kindle store.

What new features do you get?
A touch-screen
A built-in front light display
A new Kindle interface
Couple features like "X-Ray" and "Time to Read"

Just not enough to sell me on "upgrading" from my current Kindle.
The only thing I am jealous about is the new cases and the weight.
The KK with lighted cover is a lot heavier then the new design.
The new PW case with the magnet unlock looks really nice and lightweight.

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

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to Guspaz
Thanks for the in depth comparison.
I think the screen roughness is there for a couple reasons, to minimize fingerprints, to reduce glare from overhead light sources and also to appeal to the paper types that like the feel of paper. Comparing the feel of the screen between my Touch and Mini, the Mini feels much closer to paper, and reflects less glare.

I don't see the PW as being wavy, perhaps is because it has less grey (the keyboard version appears to be using shading to beef up the weight of the font). Can you tune the font at all (weight or sharpness)? I find that Kobo's font sizes have to wide a range, and as you scale down to smaller font's the stepping between sizes is too much at times with certain fonts. I would have liked less range in overall scale but greater precision over the font size selected. I think Amazon does a better job with their firmware (design & testing), Kobo tends to add bugs with every release and the gaps between releases can be months. I admit that I was very frustrated with the buggy firmware when I got my touch back in the summer (this was also six months after they launched it).

Wolfie00
My dog is an elitist
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join:2005-03-12

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Wolfie00 to Guspaz

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If anyone is interested in seeing the various different readers side by side, The Source has the Paperwhite in stock now. I might drop by later and have a look. The price drop on the earlier model with the physical buttons is also attractive, as I quite like that side button for page turning.

EDIT: Never mind. See my followup post:
»Re: Kindle Paperwhite finally launching in Canada

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

1 recommendation

Guspaz

MVM

Kindles give you a bunch of text-related options. Font-specific include selecting between a few different fonts, as well as the font size. For the default font, there is also a narrow version of it as one of the options.

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc to Wolfie00

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The side buttons are terrific. You can read your Kindle with one hand, and hold your morning coffee in the other. I'm disappointed Amazon doesn't make this standard on all Kindles.

A competitor could gain an edge by making a book reader that works perfectly with one hand.

Wolfie00
My dog is an elitist
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join:2005-03-12

Wolfie00

Premium Member

I'm also a little suspicious about a touchscreen for page turning because Book Reader on the Playbook in a bit weird sometimes. If you have it set to page forward or back based on tapping at the margin, it can miss the tap if it's not in the right place, and if you have it set to full-page mode (left-half and right-half are activated) it can get confused between page-forward and page-back for some reason. Relatively minor issues, but I've read that the Kindle touchscreen can be a bit temperamental sometimes, too, and it's put me off touchscreens for pagination. A big physical button on the right-hand edge for page-forward and a smaller one for page-back seems a more solid way to do it, IMHO. A touchscreen would be more natural than the silly D-pad for navigation, but since you spend most of your time reading and page-turning, it seems more important to get that exactly right.

Guspaz
Guspaz
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join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

So I've been doing a bunch of reading the past two days on it. You can still turn pages single-handed, but page turning is indeed not as good with the touchscreen. It's not a big deal, but I'd still prefer the buttons.

The time remaining in chapter feature is very nice, especially when you're reading on your lunch break, and can say "10 minutes left in the chapter, 11 minutes left in lunch, I'm good."

The screen still seems magical to me.

Wolfie00
My dog is an elitist
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join:2005-03-12

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Wolfie00

Premium Member

So now I have a dilemma. Went down to The Source and they had the Paperwhite in stock but not on display, but I liked the old Kindle with the buttons so much that I would have bought it on the spot except for one thing -- it's the stupid ad-infested one that they are selling for $89.99, and don't have the normal one at all. I actually had the guy bring out the box and sure enough it's right there, "with special offers". Which was yet another reminder why The Source is a lousy place to buy anything.

Amazon is selling it for $89.00 with no mention of ads. However in the US, the ad-infested one is $69 and the normal one $89, but all the others run consistently $20 less than in Canada. So is Amazon's $89 model the $69 US model and infested with ads? I have no idea. The US website makes it clear which one you are buying, but in Canada there is only the one model. If there's any way to get in touch with them I'm going to have to drop them a line, unless someone knows the answer for sure.

EDIT: Sent an email to Customer Service

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

Why not buy it directly from Amazon?