There are a lot of reports of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Colorsoft (which is exactly the same as the Paperwhite but with a color screen) having frontlights with a yellow tinge at the cool end of the frontlight spectrum. And some have a yellowing that is more pronounced at the bottom of the screen.
That was a big issue when the Kindle Colorsoft first launched. Amazon said they fixed it, and maybe they have to some extent, but it’s still an issue on the Kindle Colorsoft and Kindle Paperwhite.
I just bought a new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition from Amazon during Prime Day, and it has a frontlight with a slightly yellower tone than my other Paperwhite, and there’s a subtle gradient on the bottom third of the screen that’s even yellower.
The frontlight on my standard 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite (pictured left) is perfectly even, with no detectable frontlight gradient at all. But my new Signature Edition has a slightly yellower color tone and a visible gradient. The yellowing is less obvious than the yellow bar was on the Kindle Colorsoft, but it is noticeable when not using the warm light.
I personally don’t mind the yellower tint to the frontlight in general. I find the warmer tone more pleasant than the cold blue or green tones on some frontlights (like the Boox Go 7 BW that I recently reviewed). In fact, I usually add a few extra notches of the warm light when using the frontlight on the Paperwhite to make it even mellower.
To me the frontlight doesn’t even really look yellow on its own until you compare it side-by-side with a different ereader that has a lighter frontlight. But the gradient does have a more obvious yellowing to it.
I’m fine with the frontlight tone on the Paperwhite overall; it’s the frontlight gradient that’s visually annoying. Frontlights have had this issue since the very beginning so it isn’t anything new—all brands have this issue to some extent. But in the past Kindles were the least likely to have frontlight gradients, from my experience. Now it’s a crapshoot whether or not you’ll get a Kindle with an even frontlight.
If Amazon doesn’t want to fix this problem then I think maybe they should consider changing the name of the Kindle Paperwhite to the Kindle Paperyellow. Set some realistic expectations for customers.
Paper yellows with age. Just saying 😉
Amazon’s marketing team will probably try to put that spin on it if things don’t improve. It’s a feature, not a defect!
The new gen definitely varies a lot more across devices. My Paperwhite 11, Oasis and original Scribe all have a kindof mellow light orange hue that I got used to. They’re all the same as each other basically.
My 12th gen I like a lot but I had a replacement device that was super green! I couldn’t stand it.
The weird green-colored frontlights are the worst. I don’t know why they can’t just standardize the color of the LEDs to make the colors more consistent.
I just bought a Kindle Kids Paperwhite & I haven’t noticed anything like that. I wasn’t looking for it though & I tend to keep my KIndles that have the frontlight at the very far end of the warmth spectrum.
Yeah, you can’t see it at all with the warm light cranked or when using dark mode or with the frontlight off, and it’s pretty subtle with the frontlight on, but I can see why people get annoyed by it. The weird thing is it’s pretty common with other brands (my Libra Colour has it too and it goes across the screen so it’s even more annoying) but you rarely hear people complaining about it except when it comes to Kindles.
This is depressing. There isn’t a single manufacturer of eReaders that you can count on to sell you a quality device.
I think I got lucky as my Colorsoft doesn’t have yellowing or at least it’s not noticeable.
Not a fan of yellow tint without warm light since mixing yellow with red makes it more brown. Plus I rather start from neutral and then add more red as needed.
When I compared in store colorsoft with 12th, the colorsoft looked very neutral (some would say bluish), the 12th way to yellow for my taste and adding red made it worse. I found the 11th much better but there might be production variances per device.
Tell me about it. In the last three months I bought two Colorsofts and they both had the yellow stripe. Then I bought three Paperwhites SE and they all had the yellow stripe as well, plus the first one had a hardware issue and the last one had much dimmer screen. I wasn’t able to get one functioning Kindle. Terrible generation. That never happened to me before with Kindles.
The frontlight lottery has always been like that with other brands, but Kindles have generally had better frontlights over the years. I wouldn’t call it a terrible generation because the speed of the 12th gen Paperwhite is unmatched, and the screen looks fantastic if you get one with a nice frontlight. It makes me appreciate my standard Paperwhite more. I just wish all these companies could iron out the inconsistencies with frontlights. I was checking my Kobos yesterday and they all have gradients or shadow cones too, except the Libra 2 (Kobo really should have kept that model around).
I have tried so many eReaders of all brands. Even the same models have different gradients on the screen. The best one I have used is the 2024 basic kindle. The lighting is near perfect.
However the touch screen on a few I’ve tried all occasionally skip a page when turning pages. I wonder if others have had that problem with the 2024 basic?
I’ve been using the basic more lately since it’s so much smaller and lighter than the Paperwhite, and I haven’t encountered the page skip issue.
Thank you. Yes I love the lightness and size as well.
To me the yellower tone makes it look more like real paper and I like it, but I understand that some people are used to a more neutral tone.
I ordered the Signature Edition and saw that too.. It made me return it. But now I might try the standard Paperwhite since it isn’t “booger yellow..” 😁
I think it’s just the luck of the draw either way. I would advise using it for a while to see if the yellowing actually bothers you while reading or not. I found that I don’t even notice it now unless I’m looking for it, and the frontlight is actually better on my SE than the standard otherwise—it has a lighter tone that makes the text pop more. It’s weird because the picture I posted here makes the SE look yellower, but when I compare them now the SE looks lighter. Frontlights are so weird…