Scribe vs Kobo Elipsa/Sage -- lighting

[talaivan]

I bought a Scribe because it has better resolution than the Elipsa and also has the ability to adjust the color of the light, but I find that for reading in dark mode the Scribe's lighting is too meager, while for the Elipsa (and Sage), the light is much stronger and makes it much easier to read at night in dark mode than the Scribe. The Sage seems to have the same resolution (pixels per sq inch) as the Scribe, but like the Elipsa the light can be increased to make reading in dark mode comfortable. This, and the software for the Scribe, are disappointing (I much prefer Kobo). I do like the Scribe pencil more than the battery-powered one for the Elipsa/Sage, but I wonder why the lighting on the Scribe is not more powerful.

[Pjama]

I love my Scribe, but I did notice the black in dark mode is not nearly as black as it was on the Kobo Libra 2, which I used to have. Dark mode is definitely better, with the black darker, and the white text much brighter and better defined on the Kobo.

It seems there will never be one reader to rule them all, unfortunately - there is always a compromise somewhere.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Pjama

It seems there will never be one reader to rule them all, unfortunately - there is always a compromise somewhere.

Not unless it's able to change size!
I need all of:
1. 4″ to 5″: Most pockets
2. 6″ to 8″: Paperback book replacement. I prefer 8″.
3. 10″ to 15″: Needed for PDFs. I’d use a 13.5″ to 15″ instead of my 10.3″ Elipsa if it was 220dpi to 300 dpi.
4. Also Android eink vs dedicated. Less good as an ereader but able to have Library apps (Both Borrowbox & Libby needed here for full catalogue; split between books & audio on one and comics/magazines/News on the other!), Kobo, Amazon, Google etc Reader apps too. Also real email etc.
I have all four of those categories and a choice in several. Also as we make ebooks we need at least two kinds of Kindle, Kobo, other epub, apps and various sizes screen. I should really get an iPhone and iPad (the iPhone 4S was already too old to install any ereaders or Apple Books when I was given it) for testing too.

I’d considered the Kindle Scribe as a slight upgrade from Elipsa to proof PDFs for POD, but it has far too many disadvantages. I never got Sony DPT 10″ or 13″ approx size models mainly due to walled garden (Kindle Scribe worse because you never had to send PDFs to Internet) and partly low resolution. So I'll wait for a 300 dpi 10″ plus size from Kobo. I'd like bigger than 12″ and more than 250 dpi to read old magazines.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Pjama

I love my Scribe, but I did notice the black in dark mode is not nearly as black as it was on the Kobo Libra 2, which I used to have. Dark mode is definitely better, with the black darker, and the white text much brighter and better defined on the Kobo.

It seems there will never be one reader to rule them all, unfortunately - there is always a compromise somewhere.

The Oasis (2 and 3) are the same. They are practically unusable in dark mode in a dark room. If you use warm light in Oasis 3 it is even worse compared to normal mode with black text. To me it is more pleasant to use an OLED screen in white (or any other color) text and black background than the horrid mode on Kindle, but that is still not as good as regular mode on Kindle with a little warm setting (I use about 12 light, 8 warm setting all the time on my Oasis 3 - never change it).

[talaivan]

I just compared the Scribe and Elipsa again. In daylight mode, the maximum illumination seems about the same, but for some reason in dark mode the Elipsa is much brighter. It may have something to do with how dark mode is implemented on the two readers. It would be nice if a software fix would help the Scribe, but I doubt that Amazon would implement it, especially given the fact that the same problem apparently exists on the Oasis.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

The Oasis (2 and 3) are the same. They are practically unusable in dark mode in a dark room. If you use warm light in Oasis 3 it is even worse compared to normal mode with black text. To me it is more pleasant to use an OLED screen in white (or any other color) text and black background than the horrid mode on Kindle, but that is still not as good as regular mode on Kindle with a little warm setting (I use about 12 light, 8 warm setting all the time on my Oasis 3 - never change it).

I prefer Dark mode when in a dark room. I have not found warm light at all useful, and keep it at zero. But in any case, it's not nearly as comfortable as OLED or even LED with Dark theme. There's just not enough contrast.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I prefer Dark mode when in a dark room. I have not found warm light at all useful, and keep it at zero. But in any case, it's not nearly as comfortable as OLED or even LED with Dark theme. There's just not enough contrast.

Do you mean LCD with Dark theme?

[Quoth]

Dark theme/style was originally on mono CRTs because it gave sharper text and lower power. It went out of fashion with colour CRTs and GUI based OS.

It was resurrected for OLED, where it gives big power savings and sometimes sharper text.

It's ill-suited to LCD (needs more back-light power) and worst of all on eink, where there is zero power saving due to front light.

Also ideally you need different font hinting on dark mode, eink usually hasn't got it. It's partly fashion and encouraged by brightness being set too high on LCD backlight or eink front light.

I have the luxury of hardly ever using the front light, unless I'm out somewhere dim. I have a nice angle poise reading lamp to suit paperbacks.

But in the last years of his life my dad liked the PW3 front light for reading under the quilt.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Do you mean LCD with Dark theme?

LED backlight.

[JSWolf]

With eInk, when you have dark mode on, you need more front light to be able to read in the dark. So really, dark mode does use more power then normal mode.

[Quoth]

Portable LCDs have used LED backlights since about 2003. The first colour Nokia Communicator (LCD) actually used miniature CCFLs!

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

With eInk, when you have dark mode on, you need more front light to be able to read in the dark. So really, dark mode does use more power then normal mode.

Yes. Dark mode only saves power for OLED. I mentioned that eInk and LCD need more light for dark mode.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tomsem

LED backlight.

So you are on board with television manufacturer misleading nomenclature?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

With eInk, when you have dark mode on, you need more front light to be able to read in the dark. So really, dark mode does use more power then normal mode.

That is not my experience (I have brightness set less than for non dark mode, and auto brightness does whatever it does), and I don't care about power usage at all.