Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[Wildgift]

Ok, my new Kindle Paperwhite Gen 2 arrived! Initial impressions:

--the screen lighting is AMAZING, and much better than my first PW. It's even, no spotlighting or colored blotches, Hopefully, all will agree. I got a decent PW V.1 on my second attempt, but this is definitely an improvement.

--it is noticeably faster on page turns and menus.

--There are page numbers!!! I know that some people had them before, but in the book that I am now reading ("Collision 2012") they now for the first time appear at the bottom of the page without having to hit menu or the like.

--the screen is crisp, and even with the light turned up full, it looks great.

--the footnote feature is awesome. Anyone who has read "Infinite Jest" will know what I mean, and this is the e-reader of choice for a book like that!

Love it! It's what v1 should have been.

[benjamin11900]

Can you post a picture of the screen please ?

[Darkuul]

Congrats on getting your PW2 so early! Thanks sharing your first impressions. This will be my first e-reader, and each new post and review I find just makes me more excited to finally get it. Enjoy!

[meerkat]

Thanks for the quick review.

What has been mssing among all the reviews, including yours, is what about reading in a dark room, color banding or uneven lightning in low light setting?

[ersott]

Please one question.

Could you compare both screen with light off?. Is the new Paperwhite's screen whiter than old Paperwhite?

Thanks in advanced ;-)

[Wildgift]

I looked at it in low light. No banding or unevenness. Here are 2 quick pix. I tried to get out of the way of the ambient light to avoid shadows.

[Image deleted - MODERATOR]

[Image deleted - MODERATOR]

These were taken with full light on. There seems to be light coming more from the top than the flashlight effect from the bottom which plagued v.1. Not a problem, though.

[sparklemotion]

That's awesome that you got yours! Did you get shipped from Amazon or did you get it at your local Best Buy? So glad to hear the lighting is better and there's no color blotches! I'm really excited now! Thanks for posting so quickly.

We need photos of screen in low light not in brightly lit room. The light was designed for using in low lit areas. Any Kindle looks good in brightly lit areas.

@sparklemotion, I doubt they will be available in Best Buy before a few weeks from now. BB is notorious for listing items that say "Check in Store" even though they know they don't have them. I checked and there are no stores in my area with them.

[Wildgift]

Guys, I'm at work. I'll try to post some others later. I did look at it under my desk, where it is dark. Looks awesome! I bought it from Amazon, btw.

[Skydog]

Woohoo. My PW2 just arrived 2 days early. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post photos yet.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by jswinden

We need photos of screen in low light not in brightly lit room. The light was designed for using in low lit areas. Any Kindle looks good in brightly lit areas.

@sparklemotion, I doubt they will be available in Best Buy before a few weeks from now. BB is notorious for listing items that say "Check in Store" even though they know they don't have them. I checked and there are no stores in my area with them.

Hmm.. well, I noticed some of the Best Buys near me are showing them as available now, along with stores nearby in New Jersey and Pennsylvania too. I threw in zip codes for other areas just to check. LOL. Some come up available now, some don't.

When I put in the zip code near me there's about 4 Best Buys showing they have them "available now" and about 6 stores that say "not available". I guess that made me think that some of them really do have them in stock today. I suppose the only way to know for sure is to call or drop in a store that says it's available. Mine still says shipping soon. I'm just going to trust that Amazon gets it here tomorrow!

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Skydog

Woohoo. My PW2 just arrived 2 days early. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post photos yet.

That's awesome you got it so early! Did you select regular 2 day shipping speed with Amazon Prime? I chose 1 day and just called Amazon and they say mine has not shipped yet, but will ship later tonight. He assured me it would be here tomorrow, but I'm feeling a little doubtful now considering it definitely hasn't shipped. I guess I'll see what happens.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Wildgift

There are page numbers!!! I know that some people had them before, but in the book that I am now reading ("Collision 2012") they now for the first time appear at the bottom of the page without having to hit menu or the like.

You're sure that this is not just a function of the book you are reading; does this work with any book? I'm using Calibre's Page Count plugin, and I get pagenumbers the way I like them, but only when I tap at the menu. It would be nice if there now was an option to show them permanently. (And not as huge as Kobo does it.)

edit: I just saw the picture; it's in place of the "Time to read" function. Pity; I'd hoped you could see them both, TTR on the left, page numbers in the middle.

[elchamaco]

Originally Posted by Wildgift

--the footnote feature is awesome. Anyone who has read "Infinite Jest" will know what I mean, and this is the e-reader of choice for a book like that!

¿What's the new with footnotes?

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

Hmm.. well, I noticed some of the Best Buys near me are showing them as available now, along with stores nearby in New Jersey and Pennsylvania too. I threw in zip codes for other areas just to check. LOL. Some come up available now, some don't.

When I put in the zip code near me there's about 4 Best Buys showing they have them "available now" and about 6 stores that say "not available". I guess that made me think that some of them really do have them in stock today. I suppose the only way to know for sure is to call or drop in a store that says it's available. Mine still says shipping soon. I'm just going to trust that Amazon gets it here tomorrow!

Make sure you are looking up the "NEW" PW as they list both PW1 and PW2. I just checked again and no stores have them in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. We have about 6.5 million people here so that is a huge market. I have noticed in the past that BB's online availability statements don't always match what the stores have or not have though. I think it was a few weeks after first shipments went out in 2012 before the BBs had them here.