To preface: i have read on a nook color, tab 4 pro, kindle touch, and my phone on the occasion, a galaxy nexus and now a droid turbo. These all have fantastic screens, but for a truly pleasant reading experience i always prefer the kindle's eink screen. There just isn't a middle ground in terms of one screen to rule them all. Granted, i don't much mind reading on typical LCD screens, but e-ink is just miles better.
Here are the main reasons to get this reader:
Resolution:
300ppi is a big step above the standard kindle, and it is very crisp. To be fair, i didn't mind the older model's screen, but side by side it's a significant difference that you can appreciate.
Backlight
Very pleasing! it gets reasonably bright, to very very dim, which is very appreciated for when i want to read and my wife wants to sleep. And when dimmed down low it has this really neat/interesting glow. (i'm easily amused)
New font
It does make a noticeable difference(not huge, but noticeable), it's very nice to read, and i imagine it will be a more dramatic a difference to those with poor vision. It just flows better/is less cramped without being too spread out. I do wonder though if this will be available to other kindles in an update?
Other details
The texture of the screen is more paper-like than our kindle touch which is smooth. I'm not yet sure which i prefer. On the one hand, it's nice that they're going for the mock-paper feel, but on the other hand, you never swipe on paper books, and thus swiping on the new textured screen is a bit sandpaper-y. It's something i'll probably forget about in a week, so chalk it up to preference/not a big deal either way.
Performance
Compared to our kindle touch the PW3 feels a bit snappier/more responsive, and overall it's about the same size and weight. Most other features are similar to the paperwhite 2, but the PW3 loses some battery life. There are some little extra features such as text highlighting, but i wouldn't consider these critical for my needs/decision
Some wishes for the future:
-Wireless charging (the long battery life makes this not a big deal)
-Weatherproofing (not really critical, i don't read in the shower)
-Color e-ink (i'll go bananas when this happens)
-Audio would be nice
Two weeks later, my Paperwhite arrived (two days prior to the 'release' date) and I opened it with great anticipation. The front screen was covered with a black and white picture of some artistic work that I had to peel off. -But then I realized that the Paperwhite was 'on' and what I was seeing was the actual screen in its off mode! It looked so realistic that it fooled me. And that's a great hint regarding how sharp the display truly is. I immediately switched it on and went through the setup process, which is really a no-brainer if you've been through a few of them before. And even I you haven't, just follow the directions. You'll be OK.
I downloaded much of the content I already owned and have already read a couple of books. As I said, the display is simply awesome. you really cant discern (or at least, I can't) any pixels whatsoever. The letters and numbers are extremely sharp and crystal clear. However, the true blessing of the all-new Paperwhite is the ability to read in direct sunlight. Unlike my Fire HDX, I never have to worry about sitting in a dark place to be able to read a book. Now I can actually sit on the sunny side while riding the metro and I don't have to shift around when the sun hits the screen. Sure, some things take some getting used to. For one thing, the Paperwhite cannot play games or surf the web like a Fire or other tablet, but then again, you don't need to charge it every day either.
I now have the best of both worlds. When I'm reading books, the new Paperwhite is the place to go. But when I'm playing games or surfing the web, I'll reach for my Fire. They're both excellent machines and I have them in my bag every day when I leave for work. Is this new Paperwhite a worthy upgrade to the original Paperwhite? I dunno. I suppose that's up to you to answer. I know that the screen resolution was already fairly nice on that machine, so my hunch is that you'd have to carefully weigh the pros and cons to decide whether its worth it to upgrade. But for me, this is my first true e-reader (vice the Fire HDX, which is essentially a tablet with reader software onboard), so it was definitely worth the cost. If you're been thinking about getting an e-reader, the new Paperwhite is definitely a no-brainer. Just get it. This new Paperwhite is an absolute steal and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a serious e-reader.
Recommendation
Overall it seems like a no brainer for those with older kindles or those who want to upgrade to a backlight(very worth it) The new font and better resolution(and of course the backlight) are well worth the extra $40 over the standard kindle. But if you have a recent generation (backlit) kindle and are happy with it, maybe get some more mileage out of it till the next gen (hoping for color!)
The pictures & video i posted really don't show the detail, amazon's compression kills it. The differences are much more visible in person.
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