One of the surprising things about the new Kindle Oasis 2 is the fact that it doesn’t have a frontlight with adjustable color temperature.
Before the Kindle Oasis was released, I would have thought that to be a more likely feature than adding waterproofing or a larger screen, but as it turns out all frontlit Kindles still have just one standard light color (that can vary greatly from one device to the next).
Kobo was the first to release an ereader with an adjustable frontlight color, the Kobo Aura One.
They followed that up with the 2nd gen Kobo Aura H2O.
And now even the latest ereader from Barnes and Noble, the Nook Glowlight 3, has a frontlight with adjustable color tones.
Personally I’ve been a bit skeptical of adjusting the frontlight color because I’ve never read a book with orange paper, nor have I wanted to, but after using night mode on the Glowlight 3 I can see why people like it (the orange light is too blotchy on my Aura One so I never used it much). The color has more of a softer tone and you can blend the color from warm to cool so you don’t have to use the extreme settings.
Amazon offers a similar feature on Fire tablets called Blue Shade that changes the screen color to an orangish red color at night, so it’s kind of surprising they still haven’t brought the same idea over to the Kindle line.
So do you think Amazon should add the option for adjustable frontlight color on the next new Kindle?
The reason I am holding off on getting an Oasis 2, apart from the price, is the fact that the front light does not change colour temperature.
Yes, although all other things being the same, it wouldn’t be enough on its own to get me to buy one.
I personally think that Amazon’s Blue Shade is a complete fail. Apple did a way more superior job with their night shift. If I am reading a book on my Paperwhite I usually end up switching to the iPad mini and night shift mode to continue reading at night. If I am reading a Kobo or Nook book – I continue on the e-ink device due to their color change capabilities. I usually have the warmer shades activated all of the time since for me it is more comfortable. The inverted color option on the Oasis 2 was one of the things (of many) I did not like about the device. It made the print blurry on the one I had. I truly hope Amazon does not make inverted available on their other devices. I hope they will opt for the color changing option instead.
After the reviews of the Kindle Oasis 2, not liking what I saw there (Aluminium Backside, Akku on one side), looked at the Tolino epos, which does have adjustable (and if you wish, automatic) colour adjustment and it is waterproof.
And bought it in a Thalia store, after having it in my hands on Black Friday for 20% less (which is 199 Eur).
Software for Epubs is good, PDF not (complained to Thalia, as I might want to read PDF Comics on that device), basically the Device with its 7.8 inch e-ink (Carta, I think) 300dpi is very good hardware with ok Software, no email sending docs to device. PDF is the area I am most angry about.
Also, this is an android device, so it is possible to install a launcher and additional software, but you lose warranty, and it is not too different from rooting the device (complicated, instructions are for Windows).
The colour adjustment is a nice touch, but I do not change it, after an initial setup. So I use it, but I could do without it.
It’s a 2 year-old technology that has been adopted by every manufacturer except for Kindle so … yep, just about time for Kindle to discover it; no doubt to the rave reviews of the Kindle Bois. “It’s the bestest thing ever!”, they will scream. “Nobody does it better than Amazon”.
When it comes to weird features not many will want, Kindle leads the way. Really, really useful stuff? That’s gonna take awhile. If ever.
I *like* Amazon. Most every book, most every *thing* I buy comes from them. E-readers, though? They need to fire somebody.
As far as the temperature control goes though, for me, getting rid of blue light and going all orange & whatnot isn’t the point … for one thing, Trump has made me *hate* orange and I don’t want to be reminded of him when I’m reading. (EXCEPT, perhaps, when reading Michael Wolff’s Fire & Fury where it seems kinda fitting. … Great book, btw)
The more practical use for temperature control is in varying it between beige/yellow, gray and white during long reading sessions because it helps fatigue.
FWIW, the full-on orange of my original Aura One *was* blotchy. My Aura One LE? Completely uniform.
You need therapy.
You need to take a break from politics, it’s stressing you out to the point of insanity.
Personally the lighting on the Kindle’s now is fine for me. I really don’t see myself wanting to read my Kindle in an orange glow. The current lighting doesn’t keep me up at night. Especially if you you have the lighting on a dimmer setting at night.
Frontlight color is IMHO a very minor feature enhancement.
Would rather see other stuff on a e-reader first like physical buttons or expandable storage. 🙂
That’s the one thing I don’t like about my new Oasis 2. I’m sensitive to blue light and it wrecks my sleep when viewing it at night, with the Kobo Aura One it was perfect to use orange light at night. If the next Kindle has amber light option I’d upgrade again tomorrow. Now that there is a screen larger than six inches, amber is my most wanted feature.
Brian, dude, you need to buy a kobo. I have several kobo and Clara, and they all good. but you need the orange light. why did you buy Kindle?
I have no interest in this feature, provided they get the LED color right to begin with. The KO2 is nice and warm. Great display.
I’ve read at night with iPads and Kindles for years, and the blue light issue has never been a problem for me with Kindle. I’ve even come to believe it’s an inflated issue for most LCDs, too, unless they’re turned up so bring you can feel the heat on your face. Yeah, that’s not natural. Avoid it.
In fact, I think I like Kindle more precisely because they’ve avoided this gimmick. Just another thing to fiddle with. Does anyone really use the more orangish tints? Seems most would just add a bit of warmth to the color, and never fuss with it again.
I’m not bothered by blue light when reading at night, so that isn’t something I would look for when buying a new ereader. Having said that, I have a Kobo Aura One and I’ve ajusted the temperature to something less blue and left it there. As vrf said, it’s something you adjust once and mostly everybody don’t touch it again, except a few minority specially sensitive to light, but if you have it, each person is going to adjust it to a different level of “oranginess”, so the control makes sense.
Really couldn’t care less about this feature. While some may find it helpful, I’ve never had any problems falling asleep due to light temperature.
That being said, since it seems to be the new “it” feature in e-readers these days, Amazon will probably have to add it to stay competitive. Like I said, I find it rather useless and would never use it, but to each their own.
Nice feature to have but I’d prefer Amazon to release a Kindle with a superior Infrared Screen. I’m tired of all these Kindles with uneven Capacitive screens. It would be nice if Amazon also fixes the poor font boldness with their next software update. The boldness setting is too bold with only one click, not cool.
I have migraines, and blue light really hurts, so yeah, for me, an orange light would be really nice. The light on my 1st gen Oasis is so blue that, in a dark room, I can turn it so dim I can barely read, and it still hurts. I had to make a screen cover for it out of an orange lighting gel filter.
But my old Paperwhite never gave me this problem, so I guess if they just made certain that the light on every unit was consistently a nice warm white, I wouldn’t need it to change colors. I just don’t know how to trust them about it at this point.
I have horrible issues with insomnia and find using blue light filters does help. I currently my Kindle covered with a film lighting Amber filter. I have a Voyager and no plans to upgrade untill they add the ability to change the color.
Yes, I suffer from migraines and use the warm light on all my apple devices even during the daytime.