From this, we can conclude that at least the 6th and 7th generation Paperwhite devices are identical from the inside. But that's not my main interest. I'm curious about two things- Has there been any improvement in the user interface from the 4th through the 5th to 6th and 7th generation of touchscreen Kindles? If so, what has improved? What would you still improve in (edit: maybe it will be called the 9th generation), basic touch device with backlight ($119 with ads) softwarewise?- Are there any annoying bugs left in the 4th and 5th version?
I for one have the non-touch Kindle 4, with some pretty annoying user interface decisions and bugs, but I can still live with them somehow until is on the horizon.The two main aspects of the user interface for me are the ease of use of the dictionary, highlighting, and note taking. Of course, you may find other aspects of the interface more important. You are welcome to do so!A collector with all the above devices to the rescue?That would greatly help. I have all three Paperwhites and I used to have the original Kindle Touch, which is their predecessor.
I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I've narrowed it down to a couple and the only difference is one is a 6th generation i7 while the other is a 7th generation i7. New Surface Pro vs Surface Pro 4 – Price and availability. You can get your hands on the Surface Pro 4 right now, starting at £749. Prices go all the way up to £2359 if you go for the top-end. Jul 23, 2018 - Thickness only differs by 0.5mm (7th gen is thicker than 6th gen). Another thing to notice is the slight difference in the location of the Micro SD.
The Paperwhites are all enough different from the Touch that it's kind of pointless to compare them. I haven't had my Touch for a while so I can't give a point by point comparison but, of course, it didn't have a light and that's a huge difference.Among the Paperwhites the 8th generation latest Paperwhite is nearly identical to the 7th generation except that it has a higher resolution screen. I personally can't tell the difference but many people can. Also some of the 7th generation Paperwhites only had 2 gig storage. The later 7th generation and all the 8th generation Paperwhites have 4 gig. I think I'm right about that.The 6th generation Paperwhite is noticeably slower than the later ones.
Also the 6th generation hasn't received the last few updates so it doesn't have a few of the newer features. I read with all three of these and they're all just fine but I prefer the later two because they're faster.
The light on the later two is also more even. Once I'm reading, though, none of that really matters. I get absorbed in the book and I don't really care which one I'm using.I also have a Voyage, which has a couple of extra features but I keep those turned off so they have the same interface as the most recent Paperwhite models but it feels a lot different in my hand, being smaller and lighter.Barry. Let me see if I can write a more productive reply than my first above.I have:KT, KT-2, and KT-3 (all without light and with IR touch scanner).I can see a definite improvement in the screens over that model range.Within that model range, I would have to say my preference is the KT-3.I have several PW devices, some with lighting problems, some without.No PW-2One PW-3Now the PW-3 I really, really like and I also think it is the best price/feature combination of the Kindle line.I am in the habit of turning off new features, I.E: dumb down all versions in use to the lowest common denominator. At least as close to that as the firmware allows.I also like the new menu layout for 'settings' - a great improvement over the old way that 'settings' worked.IIRC, that change started somewhere around firmware version 5.7.x (well maybe early in 5.8.x).That was a major user interface change, but it was a 'must do' for Amazon because of the quickly expanding number of user options. No, you can't conclude that they are identical from the inside or from the outside.They are not.OK. Let's say I can at least reasonably assume their software from a user interface standpoint are identical.
Are the interfaces of the 6th and 6th generation Paperwhites different? Do you own both?I did say nothing about the outside of any of the devices. Unless there is a noticeably difference in hardware between the 4th to 7th generation touch devices - from the user interaction standpoint.
A better screen and bigger storage doesn't count here; how you interact with the device does. Among the Paperwhites the 8th generation latest Paperwhite is nearly identical to the 7th generation except that it has a higher resolution screen. I personally can't tell the difference but many people can. Also some of the 7th generation Paperwhites only had 2 gig storage.
The later 7th generation and all the 8th generation Paperwhites have 4 gig. I think I'm right about that.According to my sources (and I double checked again:, ), there is no such thing as a 8th generation Paperwhite.I updated the OP with this:The two main aspects of the user interface for me are the ease of use of the dictionary, highlighting, and note taking. Of course, you may find other aspects of the interface more important. You are welcome to do so! I think after all of this back-and-forth, what you want to ask about is the features and their usability as provided by the GUI of different firmware versions.At least that is a description of the three examples you gave.I can't be of any help, those are among the things I turn off or don't use even if I can't turn them off.The model of the device is not relevant to you here.The hardware aspects of the different devices is not relevant to you here.You don't want to know about software differences per-say, just the behavior provided to the user of different software versions. Amazon seems to do generations in a more global sense - sort of like a set of devices - so currently for sale from Amazon are 8th generation devices (kindle oasis, kindle (basic)) and 7th generation devices (kindle voyage, kindle paperwhite). There was a 7th generation kindle basic, but that was replaced by the 8th.
The generation seems to have less to do with the hardware, and more to do with when the device was released.For the software version, I am guessing it's sort of like PC operating systems - as machines age, they might not have the hardware to run the latest and greatest OS - probably the same deal with the kindles - if a particular version can't implement what's added in the new software properly, it doesn't get the upgrade. (obviously with some exceptions - such as the autodimming feature on the Voyage, which is exclusive (so far) to that model. The Kindles had been in production for years before Amazon adopted the 'generation' terminology.They where just running out of consumer distinctive marketing names for the models.Such as:There had already been five models built and sold with keyboards before the marketing people named a model: 'Kindle Keyboard'.No, it is not like a (general purpose) PC operating system.These are (specific purpose) embedded operating systems. Each built for that specific purpose.
Difference Between 6th 7th And 8th Generation
Were here 'purpose' is more defined by consumer features than by changes in hardware.The last (OS significant) hardware change was the adoption of the i.MX6 series of SoC chips (at the PW-2 point of evolution).There are two reasons at work here for why new firmware versions are not backported to older models:.) Planned obsolescence.How can you expect to sell 'new' models ('generations') if the currently promoted features are made available on the older models?To further that thinking, why not at the same time take advantage of some people's search for 'bragging rights'? I.E: They must have the model associated with the next larger number (generation number). The most notable hardware difference between 6th and 7th generation Paperwhite is RAM size: 256 vs 512K.
This improves performance and makes it possible to do VoiceView (accessibility).I have a 5th generation Paperwhite (as well as 7th gen). The display is not as good and it is noticeably slower. Moreover the interface improvements in the newer devices are significant.The increase in RAM size has nothing at all to do with the increase in performance.The devices use a different computer, running at a significantly higher speed.Check the technical documents on both part numbers, you'll see where the improvement comes from.Kindles have done TTS for many models prior to those you have.And we have an add-in that gives the KT speaker independent voice control of the device.The earlier devices where not limited by the amount of RAM on board. The increase in RAM size has nothing at all to do with the increase in performance.The devices use a different computer, running at a significantly higher speed.Check the technical documents on both part numbers, you'll see where the improvement comes from.Kindles have done TTS for many models prior to those you have.And we have an add-in that gives the KT speaker independent voice control of the device.The earlier devices where not limited by the amount of RAM on board.I'm not sure which Paperwhites you are comparing. PW2 and PW3 have the same 1GHz processor AFAICT, but the latter has more pixels to manipulate. Both would be faster than the 800MHz PW1, of course.
Difference Between 6th And 7th Generation I7
I would think PW3 is faster than PW2 for some things at least (like PDF viewing), because it has more RAM. But I have not compared this myself.The requirement for high quality voice synthesis was the main driver for increased RAM, as the Ivona voice requires this. The voice on the 7/8th gen kindles is much better than TTS on previous Kindles. Note that it will play back at speed increments between.66x and 4x.But I would not say VoiceView is 'TTS'. It is a screen reader, designed for folks with visual impairments, and a bit annoying to use for the rest of us.
In fact Kindle operates with a reduced feature set when in VoiceView mode.
Non-tech guy here.I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I've narrowed it down to a couple and the only difference is one is a 6th generation i7 while the other is a 7th generation i7.So my question is.Will I notice a difference between the two processors?
Is the 6th generation sufficient?Note - I don't game. I surf the web, edit Go Pro videos, watch the occassional movie, work on my websites (shopify and wordpress). I'd reckon that the Go Pro editing is the most intensive thing I do on my PC.Thanks!