LAB126, the secretive R&D arm was experimenting with many types of designs and they could not get it polished enough in time for the Paperwhite 4 to hit mass production. Last year Amazon was rumored to be developing a color temperature system on the Kindle. When you turn down the brightness level to the lowest setting, it actually turns the screen lighting system completely off, other Kindles still emitted a bit of light, which contributed towards decreased battery life.
At full brightness, the screen is glorious to behold, it is the whitest screen that Amazon has ever had on a Paperwhite. This provides even light distribution across the screen and the light does not shine directly into your eyes like a computer monitor, smartphone or tablet does.
This lighting system is primarily used to read in the dark and in low-light conditions.Īlmost every single company in the e-reader arena has a front-lit display and they put the LED lights on the bottom of the bezel and they project light upwards. The 4th generation Paperwhite has a front-lit display with 5 LED lights, whereas the Kindle Paperwhite 3 only had four LED lights. Edge to edge swiping and gesting is also easier, and ditto with page turns. One of the compelling aspects of this type of design is that it is easier to pinch and zoom, because it is using a capacitive touchscreen display and not one with Infrared technology. The recently discontinued Kindle Voyage and latest generation Kindle Oasis 2 both have this type of screen and now the Kindle Paperwhite 4 has it too. Amazon has been bullish about flat screen and bezel designs for a number of years.