Thanks for the review! One of the biggest features I use on my kindle is the OpenDyslexia font. It really helps with my read speeds and accuracy. I have an older kindle with less DPI. I’m thinking 300dpi would help even more to smooth out the fonts. I’ve been looking to replace it soon, and this is the best review I’ve seen so far.
The higher DPI and lighting really helps the reading experience a lot. I had the bottom end Kindle from around 2012 for a long time and had to replace it when my ex took it along to move in with the new girlfriend. I ended up getting a Paperwhite as a replacement and it's been a nice upgrade over the old one, though I feel like the old Kindle had better battery life from the start. Even with the backlight and WiFi turned off, the Paperwhite seems to require a recharge more often than I remember the old Kindle needing when it was new.
I like my entry level kindle because without the extra tech, it's the lightest kindle and the best battery life. I ditch my case all the time, making it incredibly light. But my wife loves her paperwhite, she reads in bed in the dark all the time and I get that. Every review says it's essential, but books were never backlit, right?
For bedtime reading, I wish the paperwhite etc had a redder light.
Nice to see an extended review of a niche device like this. I do enough reading on my current kindle, ~100 novels/year that if/when I need to replace it; I probably will spring for this model.
The main counter argument against doing so now are that my old Kindle Keyboard (gen3) still works and still has a reasonable battery life ~2.5-3 down from ~4.5 when new. My reading pattern's bursty enough (I might read 5 in one week and none for the next two or three weeks) that I normally leave the wifi off to avoid finding it dead if I left it off the charger for too long.
A secondary annoyance is that I don't want to keep carrying multiple sets of chargers/cables when on the road. My phone's USB-C, my next laptop will be USB-C powered, and I really don't want to still be carrying a second cable for my Kindle a half dozen years from now because it's still using a micro-B plug. I know it's less of an issue for people who've got a much larger collection of USB powered devices to pack along because they'll have multiple long tail devices on the old standard for a while and probably will want more cables for parallel charging anyway; but the 3 devices I mentioned are all I normally take with me.
I flat-out won't buy new electronics over about twenty bucks unless they have USB-C. Micro-B is on the way out and it was never a very durable connector to begin with. Even USB-A is starting to show signs of obsolescence.
I don't know why Amazon seems so resistant to USB-C, but they really need to start migrating their product lines to it. I am flat-out not buying a new Kindle or a Fire until I see USB-C on them.
My suspicion is that it's about cost because almost all Amazon branded electronic products are priced low enough they're at best barely breaking even if not selling them at a small loss to support their stores to the extent that even adding a dollar to the BOM cost is a big deal. I pricechecked on mouser.com (a electronic component supply company), and in bulk quantities (tens of thousands) you can get micro-b connectors for as little as $0.15, vs $0.95 for USB-C sockets. When the Oasis first came out the price premium was higher, IIRC over a dollar.
While the Oasis is an exception to Amazon's race to the bottom/loss leader pricing strategy I suspect they hesitate because adding it to one model would increase consumer pressure to add it to the more mass market parts.
I expect the price gap for the newer connectors to continue to narrow as supply increases and the manufacturing companies gradually pay off their capital expenses for the new manufacturing hardware. I'm skeptical that they'll ever get as low as micro-b connectors. This both because the USB-C port is more complex and because phones going USB-C has resulted in a large production excess for micro-B ports. Short of something else replacing USB-C connectors (wireless charging, and wifi/bt only, or a notional USB-D connector some years down the line) we're unlikely to see a massive excess in production capacity pushing down prices through the basement floor.
1. You can find USB-C sockets all over alibaba for under $0.35/ea and some as low as $0.08/ea 2. Oasis is the premium Kindle, for $250, even if USB-C costs an extra few cents, this is the appliance that deserves it.
I have this as well and have really liked it. The one thing that disappointed me about it, though, was that the blacks on my older Paperwhite from 3 or 4 years ago are noticeably darker. The biggest reason I decided to pay for the new device was that they finally increased the screen size, and I thought this, plus the increased resolution and storage space, would make reading manga much better. It is better on balance and worth the upgrade, but the way the pictures look a bit washed out compared to the old model is a bit disappointing. I haven't seen this mentioned in any reviews yet, which makes me wonder if it's just my device or if they are all like this.
That cost difference is completely negligible considering how much time I spend reading on a kindle. I went from a paperwhite to an oasis and it's been great. You can disable the infernal touch screen so that only the three physical buttons work (page forward, back and power to lock and re-enable the touch screen). I can't tell you how many times my finger accidentally made it a millimeter onto the touchscreen on my paperwhite and caused a page turn. Then as I poked at it angrily to flip back, I turn another page the wrong direction.
Anyway, I couldn't be happier, display is beautiful and the device feels great and has tons of great features my paperwhite didn't have, but I would have paid the difference just on the quality of the device, display and tactile buttons.
My 6 year old Kindle can read PDFs so I'd assume new ones can too.
The main limiting factor in doing so though is that it can't reflow them to fit better on the small screen. Unless newer models can do that reading PDFs designed for a standard letter/a4 page will have uncomfortably small text in many cases unless you want to be scrolling left/right to read each line of text.
For PDFs, check out the Kobo Aura ONE, with a 1872x1404 7.8" screen, using the same 300 dpi e-ink technology as this Kindle. That's almost the same vertical resolution as you get on a 4k monitor.
Assuming you don't have a lot of graphics in your PDF, the best way to do this is to use the Amazon service to send it to your Kindle, and their service will OCR it and convert it into an e-book so the text can reflow.
I read reviews like this and comments like the ones just made and wonder why the ereader experience hasn't grabbed me. I read a lot, multiple books a week. I once tried a kindle and I agree that reading on an LCD device like a phone or iPad doesn't compare to e ink. It really is just like reading print. I want to use a kindle, to have multiple books on one small but good device. So why don't I? It's the ebooks, I find almost all of them to be terrible, poorly designed, poorly executed, ridden with errors, lacking what is available in printed editions. I love kindles but I hate ebooks.
What're you using as your ebook source, and what are you trying to read? With the exception of some really old files (I've got some decade+ old files from when a publisher was giving away free samples for promotional purposes) I haven't had formatting/quality problems with any new release commercial fiction ebooks I've bought from a major publisher.
Stuff I've gotten from the Gutenberg Project's been a lot more hit and miss. Raw scans or ones that appear to've only had someone go through and fix the worst of the scanning errors are going to be awful.
The only category I still generally prefer print for is non-fiction with maps/charts/etc because there's no kindle equivalent to a half dozen bookmarks stuffed in various locations so I can quickly flip to the non-text information as needed and then back to where I'm reading.
I agree that current fiction titles are fine, I should have added that much of what I read is non-fiction with charts, graphs and especially endnotes. Many ebooks seem to be done as unthinking, poorly planned replications of text, as if 99% of the work went in to the book and then they told an intern to take the afternoon and port it to an ebook to capture some extra dollars. There seems to be little focus on ebooks as a unique product that take advantage of electronic text.
And what you say about Gutenberg kind of illustrates what I would love to have a Kindle for and why I find ebooks so lacking. I'd love to have a library of classic literature, the books I want to read someday but never get around to. But I've been constantly disappointed with the quality of those kind of books. I'm willing to pay but I find that many of the paid versions as lacking as the free versions. You type in a title in Amazon, say Don Quixote, and you get dozens of versions, some paid, some free. How do you successfully weed out the poor ones without making it a day's work of downloading and sampling each one? I'd love to have a source of classic lit ebooks that has consistent quality of design and execution.
I contribute to the Standard Ebooks project and that does everything you’re asking for: takes Gutenberg sources and makes high quality ebooks from them.
Wow Threska, who wouldn’t have thought to read the reviews? Three problems with that, first, these kind of books don’t get much traffic, there aren’t many reviews. Second, the reviews that do exist rarely address usability, it doesn’t seem to be an issue for most people. Third, like many things that are similar on Amazon, they frequently aggregate reviews of different kindle editions together under the same general title so many times you don’t know what edition the reviewer has.
Most technical books are available in PDF format, from the publishers. The layout (in my experience) is exactly the same as the printed copy. So, an e-reader need only be larger enough and have enough resolution. See my other posts, for more about that.
I'm not a light reader. I read 2-3 books per _week_. I read on a Kindle for many years, until larger phones started becoming popular and I switched to reading on an 5.5" iphone 6+. My last Kindle was a Paperwhite.
Kindle pros: Much better screen, particularly outdoors. Incredible battery life.
Kindle cons: It's another device to carry around. This is a HUGE DEAL. The UI was terrible unless you bought all your books from Amazon, which I didn't.
These days I read using the _amazing_ Marvin iOS app. It's infinitely configurable so I have it working exactly how I like it. I keep all my books on Dropbox, which Marvin can access directly. When I buy from Amazon I just strip the DRM. Battery life doesn't approach an eink device but I charge my phone every day anyway, and of course it's always on me.
UI can be improved if you jailbreak your device and take advantage of 3rd party hacker utilities. Unfortunately this is not a user-friendly task and on many devices requires opening it up to physically connect to serial port pins.
I don't know how you can read on such a small device, I can for short stints but for reading an actual book or magazine I'm busting out my iPad. Marvin is great & love the Dropbox functionality.
Other than at home I'm reading on a plane, beach, hotel room, etc and I use my iPad, yes an eReader would be better but only for that one task and now I have to tote two devices. I find the iPad is more than adequate and is actually quite good for magazines since you can actually read them with pages mapped 1:1.
What do you mean "no it isn't"? A 4k monitor has 2180 pixels, vertically. So, unless you tip it sideways, it's just a bit higher than than the 1872 pixels on the Kobo Aura ONE.
Now, do you ever find letter or A4-formatted PDFs readable on a computer monitor, much less 4k? I do. Even 1080p is adequate for it to be legible (although a pretty hard lower bound, IMO). I refuse to read them on my phone's 5.5" screen, but I think 7.8" should be fine.
It's surprising to me that you've written the whole article and haven't mentioned Kobo once. You even dismiss other e-Ink devices with a flippant "There’s other E-Readers on the market, but if you’re in the market for a Kindle, you’re likely after the Amazon ecosystem, so the Oasis really needs to compete against the rest of the Kindle lineup". Really? We've got 4 Kobo Glo devices. Sturdy as anything, with touch screens and good lighting, space for more books than I could read in a decade, a good online store, and at a very reasonable price point. We're extremely happy with the product, and yes, we also have 2 Kindles. They're hardly used - awful user interface and ridiculous physical keys, no thank you!
New kindles are really nice, especially anything paperwhite and above. They also benefit from Amazon's store. I'd definitely take an Oasis over anything else in the e-reader market. The main competitor to Kindle Oasis is less expensive Kindles like the Voyage and Paperwhite.
With that being said Kobo is probably the best alternative.
I had the same thought. I searched the article for Kobo references, to see if there were any comparisons. Otherwise, such reviews have little value, as Kindle is basically the default option.
There was an article on Ars Technica just yesterday about how Walmart was going to start carrying Kobo e-readers, so perhaps you might consider reviewing it once that happens. One headliner feature is that it has a light that is adjustable in color temperature so you're not being blasted with blue light when reading at night.
Huh. Not sure if I should wait and buy it from them... or maybe they'll do some cost reductions that end up annoying me. Walmart will "help" vendors cost-reduce their products, even going so far as to negotiate with their suppliers and component vendors for the units Walmart purchases.
They'd have to give it a different SKU then. Part of the reason people get bitten, and remember Wal-mart isn't the only one who does this, is they don't pay attention.
@Carmen00: In regards to not including Kobo, the article title clearly states the review is about the Kindle Oasis (2017). If you want a review of the Kobo models, look for one of those.
Don't try to fault the reviewer for doing exactly what he said the article was about. Now if this review was entitled "A Review of Ebook Readers", then you could fault him.
Perhaps you haven't read many reviews on this site, but they often feature comparisons with comparable products. This is true of most product reviews, since they're intended to answer the question: "do I buy this?", with the possible answers being: "yes", "no - something else", and "no - save your money". It's not like Oasis is a completely one-of-a-kind product, with zero alternatives on the market.
Got to stick strictly to the title, right? Following that line of thinking, articles about Ryzen should clearly not be mentioning Intel chips, articles about Huawei's latest and greatest shouldn't be mentioning Samsung's products, and so on! It's standard practice to make some comparisons with the relevant competition, and Kobo is both quite relevant and very competitive in this niche. That is why I took exception to the particular statement that I quoted: it makes it appear as though there isn't such competition. I take Brett's point that this is just his own experience, but that said, perhaps he could take the opportunity to broaden that experience so that this kind of review is better and more useful to Anandtech readers.
It's almost impossible to overstate how dominant Amazon's market position is in eBook sales. If a device doesn't have a Kindle app, it's basically useless as an ebook reader except for the tiny portion of the market that jailbreaks books or uses alternative stores.
You can buy ebooks directly from publishers. O'Reilly and InformIT provide PDFs, MOBI, and EPUB - all of which are supported by Kobo Aura ONE. For my needs, this is enough.
Kobo is fairly popular outside the USA.
All of this is to say that people should *look* and see if they can find the titles they want, for other e-readers they might be interested in using. Don't simply assume that Amazon is the only way.
I bought the original Oasis, and I loved it. Felt great, looked great.. The problem was it was just too fragile. It slipped out of my hands while I was sitting down, reading on the porch. When it hit the ground, the case went flying off and the screen cracked. I'd only had it about 6 months. So I went back to the paperwhite. I can be as rough as I want with it and it's fine.
My dad has the second-gen Oasis and it's pretty darn nice. A lot nicer than the first-gen Oasis. Also doesn't have the split battery design of the first gen either (which in hindsight had issues like the case flying off). Though I would still recommend the case for protection and grip.
I will say the build quality of his first-gen Voyage was also meh. So maybe just avoid the first-gen models. :P
My only concern is...with lighting (people freak out if I call it backlighting even though iPads aren't actually backlit either)-I wonder if it's any better for your eyes/sleep than an iPad. Like a non-lit Kindle is, but I don't know what adding lighting to them does. I don't think anyone's actually done the research on that, and given the niche within a niche status...
Otherwise it's a cool product! 7" is nicer than 6, high resolution, etc. eInk is SO pleasant to read on compared with other screen tech.
I still wish I could have a color eInk reader that did Marvel Unlimited and whatnot! Comics on eInk that worked as well as eInk does for prose stuff would be awesome...
Funny thing is the Qualcomm display only showed up in Korea. There seems to be a big story not being told in a sort of "whatever happened to...". Maybe the "good enough" of LCD stole their thunder? E-ink themselves came out with color E-ink.
My non-scientific, anecdotal experience says the lighting is EXTREMELY sleep friendly. Quite often I will spend about 15-30 minutes reading my paperwhite before turning it off and falling asleep immediately.
iPads aren't frontlit like the lighted Kindles. Even though OLEDs are better (generally) than LCD displays, eInk is better than both for reading overall. It's also much more compatible with late night reading habits and doesn't hinder sleep as much. Night Light settings (or whatever they're called on non-Windows platforms) might help for extended late-night reading, but it still isn't as good.
Just do a search on the web. eInk is better for sleep.
I really like everything the Oasis offers - I have the 2nd gen Kindle Paperwhite (wifi, no adverts) - but dang, $300 (after tax) for no adverts wifi Oasis... I just can't justify it unless/until my Paperwhite breaks.
Thank you for the review. With the asymmetrical form factor, you DID say that us left-handers can flip it over and use it backwards, didn't you? :-) Anyway, two years or more ago I took up Amazon on an offer to upgrade (very old) original Kindles to latest version with Paperwhite, which I loved. Was fine for my wife, but I found out that the latest generation (7th?) would no longer support 'active content' (whatever that means ???) and so Amazon was very helpful in taking my newest Kindle back and arranging a source for an overhauled (reconditioned?) 5th Gen Kindle which was the last to support 'active content.' The 'active content' allows use of a simple game that I have found both entertaining and instructive - Every Word. (Problem is the 5th Gen reconditioned Kindles come with a 90 day warranty but seem to last only about 5-6 months, so I keep buying them to keep playing Every Word...oh, and read other Amazon titles as well.) Stoopid question, maybe, but is this Oasis coming with support for 'active content?' (I really DO wish I knew what that term meant of implied....and why the Amazon game Every Word needs it. I really am clueless on the subject, but do like having the game.) If not, Amazon has one user 'stuck in the past' not able to progress beyond their 5th Generation Paperwhites.
Really would like to see comparison to the Kobo and Waterproof Nook. I have gone through two Kobo's (warranty replacement failed shortly after the warranty ended) But so far the waterproof Nook has worked well. All the mobi and epub books I have put on it have been great.
Just not sure I want to pay the premium to move up the Oasis if its not that much better then the Nook.
The only eBooks I read are PDFs, which you can usually buy in bundle discounts, directly from the publishers. Whenever I check Amazon reviews for technical books, it seems most of the negative reviews are trashing the kindle version, whereas the PDFs are (in my experience) identical to the printed copy. Plus, I read a fair number of academic papers - all PDFs.
The main downside of PDFs is the resolution and screen size they require, to be legible. For that, I've found an even better solution than Kindle Oasis - the Kobo Aura ONE. Not only does it have a larger screen (7.8" vs Oasis' 7") with the same 300 dpi e-ink display technology, but it's also cheaper! And for my purposes, the lack of being so deeply integrated into Amazon's ecosystem is really no disadvantage... maybe even a benefit!
Check out informit.com and oreilly.com. InformIT often has sales and promotions (esp. when you buy 2+ titles), which brings their prices in line with (or better than) Amazon.
"... dim the display over time when reading in the dark,"
Can you completely turn off the light, though?
Not being able to switch off the light, and lack of screen-size improvements, have been stopping me from upgrading the trusty Kindle 4 for years. I love the look and tactile button feel of my Kindle 4, and prefer it to an all-touch device. I would like a bigger, higher resolution screen, though. I've tried using Paperwhite, but can't stand the fact I can't turn off the light as I prefer to read under a lamp or sunlight. I know it's possible to mod it and kill the LEDs for good, but I wouldn't like to do that.
Oh, wow. Are you sure? I genuinely did not know that's possible. Last time I tried, I used the slider to dial it all the way down, then went into the bathroom to check, and there was this faint glow still. Is there an new option in the menu to completely turn off the light, and if not, can you, please, confirm that dialing brightness down disables the light, and does not leave a faint glow?
The Paperwhite doesn't turn right off, although at minimum brightness it's only 0.05 nits, so it's practically off. The Oasis though does turn completely off.
Thank you so much for confirming this! It is vital information to me, and a major deciding factor, despite whether it’s the most objective thing in the world. Cheers!
I read a couple hundred books on my Paperwhite over the last couple of years. Since I got my Galaxy S8 this summer though I've just used that instead. With the OLED screen and blue light filter it doesn't keep me up late. I like the dark background option which gives many hours of reading since OLED only powers active pixels. One fewer thing to keep maintained. Kind of sad though to see my Kindle sitting there begging for a recharge.
The need to carry something else around is probably the biggest drawback to dedicated eReaders like the Kindle. Sure eInk is lots better for reading and the longer battery life is a benefit too, but I already have a phone with me and it's sometimes hard to justify an additional device. I love my Paperwhite, but there are lots of times when I've left it at home because I don't want to carry it around or just don't remember to pick it up on the way out. They're large enough that you're basically carrying a tablet and phone with you if you do take it and that can get sort of cumbersome.
Back in the day, I'd be debating how many books and papers to put in my backpack. Heavy textbooks and technical books, no less.
I still think it's amazing that I could carry my entire technical library in an e-reader. Physical media of some form or another actually comprises much of my possessions.
So true. A few years back, I had the revelation that most Millennials and younger probably own close to zero physical media. Maybe with the exception of a crate a vinyl records.
Exactly what I had been waiting for, but finally I decided that even a couple current monochrome e-readers would be adequate for my needs and provide enough benefit to justify the expense.
Does anyone have solid info on the prospects for color e-readers? Is there any tradeoff vs. resolution or contrast?
The article touches on a few downsides, but for anyone considering an Oasis, I want to give a heads-up on some of the issues that have bothered me with the Oasis.
I bought an Oasis because it is the first Kindle to offer the ability to invert the screen colors. That alone is a sufficient counterbalance to the downsides for my particular preferences. But if that feature were absent, I would consider the Oasis a downgrade from my Paperwhite.
The most important downside (and the article does mention this briefly) is that the material is smooth and lacks any texturing. Combined with the positioning of the hard buttons and inability to turn off paging via the touch screen creates a situation where it can become very fatiguing to hold the device upright while reading.
Additionally, although the Oasis has screen rotation, it does not have a rotation-lock feature. I've had several circumstances where the screen flips unintentionally for a moment. This is irksome at best and actually disruptive at worst (sometimes the software does re-flows the document when rotating which can cause the sentence you were reading to move).
Size matters, but not the way you might think. Voyage fits my pockets, while Oasis wouldn't. This was deciding factor why I decided to stick with Voyage instead of buying Oasis.
Can you actually turn *off* the light on the Oasis? It doesn't let me on my Paperwhite, it only let me turn it way down, and it would save battery when you're at the beach for a week and have more sunlight than you know what to do with.
Big warning for DIY'ers: No one has located any serial pins on the Oasis, which means it cannot be jailbroken. Paperwhite/Voyage models can be jailbroken by opening the case and using a serial connection to open up permissions on the device.
Love reading on a Kindle. Just received the OASIS. Everything is great, except when I go to My Library, it shows my books in 'book cover ' format as opposed to title . And I'm not able to see whether or not I have already read the book. Is there a setting I.m supposed to put in? Please Help!
I have posted previously, but it seems to have been deleted. My comment involves the Library List on the Oasis. I am only able to see my books in a 'front cover' format, as opposed to title format. Is there a setting I should be using? Thank you, any help would be appreciated.
My wife and I own about 3000 books (mostly paperbacks), and another 750 eBooks on Kindle. In other words, we read a lot.
And the Kindle Oasis is amazing. Reading one-handed is the norm, not the exception, and the Oasis is the first device to emphasize that. It's far more comfortable to hold in one hand than previous Kindles (or any competing devices), and the physical page-turn buttons are very welcome.
Together, my wife and I read about 250 books a year (me around 80, she about double that) so we're way out on the edge of the bell curve when it comes to book consumption. The cost of the Oasis pales in comparison to our yearly book purchases.
We have two other Kindle readers, both still working fine. But the Oasis is my first choice to read on if my wife hasn't grabbed it first. :-)
It seems like the biggest feature this model has over the Voyage (and the other Kindles) is the audiobook support, though I wonder what using it does to the battery life. The fact that it's waterproof could be nice too for those who might like to relax near the pool with their book.
Thanks for this amazing review! The best features I found in kindle oasis are like It has more storage facility. It is ergonomically satisfied and is lighter. It has the touchscreen and page turn buttons moreover the best thing is it is waterproof let us read books in a pool too..find more amazing honest reviews at ebookwebsite.com
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LeftSide - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Thanks for the review! One of the biggest features I use on my kindle is the OpenDyslexia font. It really helps with my read speeds and accuracy. I have an older kindle with less DPI. I’m thinking 300dpi would help even more to smooth out the fonts. I’ve been looking to replace it soon, and this is the best review I’ve seen so far.PeachNCream - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
The higher DPI and lighting really helps the reading experience a lot. I had the bottom end Kindle from around 2012 for a long time and had to replace it when my ex took it along to move in with the new girlfriend. I ended up getting a Paperwhite as a replacement and it's been a nice upgrade over the old one, though I feel like the old Kindle had better battery life from the start. Even with the backlight and WiFi turned off, the Paperwhite seems to require a recharge more often than I remember the old Kindle needing when it was new.nico_mach - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
I like my entry level kindle because without the extra tech, it's the lightest kindle and the best battery life. I ditch my case all the time, making it incredibly light. But my wife loves her paperwhite, she reads in bed in the dark all the time and I get that. Every review says it's essential, but books were never backlit, right?For bedtime reading, I wish the paperwhite etc had a redder light.
mode_13h - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Kobo Aura ONE has a nighttime reading mode, for the light.DanNeely - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Nice to see an extended review of a niche device like this. I do enough reading on my current kindle, ~100 novels/year that if/when I need to replace it; I probably will spring for this model.The main counter argument against doing so now are that my old Kindle Keyboard (gen3) still works and still has a reasonable battery life ~2.5-3 down from ~4.5 when new. My reading pattern's bursty enough (I might read 5 in one week and none for the next two or three weeks) that I normally leave the wifi off to avoid finding it dead if I left it off the charger for too long.
A secondary annoyance is that I don't want to keep carrying multiple sets of chargers/cables when on the road. My phone's USB-C, my next laptop will be USB-C powered, and I really don't want to still be carrying a second cable for my Kindle a half dozen years from now because it's still using a micro-B plug. I know it's less of an issue for people who've got a much larger collection of USB powered devices to pack along because they'll have multiple long tail devices on the old standard for a while and probably will want more cables for parallel charging anyway; but the 3 devices I mentioned are all I normally take with me.
erwos - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I flat-out won't buy new electronics over about twenty bucks unless they have USB-C. Micro-B is on the way out and it was never a very durable connector to begin with. Even USB-A is starting to show signs of obsolescence.I don't know why Amazon seems so resistant to USB-C, but they really need to start migrating their product lines to it. I am flat-out not buying a new Kindle or a Fire until I see USB-C on them.
DanNeely - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
My suspicion is that it's about cost because almost all Amazon branded electronic products are priced low enough they're at best barely breaking even if not selling them at a small loss to support their stores to the extent that even adding a dollar to the BOM cost is a big deal. I pricechecked on mouser.com (a electronic component supply company), and in bulk quantities (tens of thousands) you can get micro-b connectors for as little as $0.15, vs $0.95 for USB-C sockets. When the Oasis first came out the price premium was higher, IIRC over a dollar.While the Oasis is an exception to Amazon's race to the bottom/loss leader pricing strategy I suspect they hesitate because adding it to one model would increase consumer pressure to add it to the more mass market parts.
I expect the price gap for the newer connectors to continue to narrow as supply increases and the manufacturing companies gradually pay off their capital expenses for the new manufacturing hardware. I'm skeptical that they'll ever get as low as micro-b connectors. This both because the USB-C port is more complex and because phones going USB-C has resulted in a large production excess for micro-B ports. Short of something else replacing USB-C connectors (wireless charging, and wifi/bt only, or a notional USB-D connector some years down the line) we're unlikely to see a massive excess in production capacity pushing down prices through the basement floor.
grant3 - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
1. You can find USB-C sockets all over alibaba for under $0.35/ea and some as low as $0.08/ea2. Oasis is the premium Kindle, for $250, even if USB-C costs an extra few cents, this is the appliance that deserves it.
kcladyz - Friday, August 2, 2019 - link
That is stupid to not buy something over a charging port. Amazon charges super fast and it fits many of my other devices such as my NOOK.shonferg - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I have this as well and have really liked it. The one thing that disappointed me about it, though, was that the blacks on my older Paperwhite from 3 or 4 years ago are noticeably darker. The biggest reason I decided to pay for the new device was that they finally increased the screen size, and I thought this, plus the increased resolution and storage space, would make reading manga much better. It is better on balance and worth the upgrade, but the way the pictures look a bit washed out compared to the old model is a bit disappointing. I haven't seen this mentioned in any reviews yet, which makes me wonder if it's just my device or if they are all like this.vanilla_gorilla - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
That cost difference is completely negligible considering how much time I spend reading on a kindle. I went from a paperwhite to an oasis and it's been great. You can disable the infernal touch screen so that only the three physical buttons work (page forward, back and power to lock and re-enable the touch screen). I can't tell you how many times my finger accidentally made it a millimeter onto the touchscreen on my paperwhite and caused a page turn. Then as I poked at it angrily to flip back, I turn another page the wrong direction.Anyway, I couldn't be happier, display is beautiful and the device feels great and has tons of great features my paperwhite didn't have, but I would have paid the difference just on the quality of the device, display and tactile buttons.
Scrote - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Typo here:"The 2017 Oasis adds some nice features over it’s lower brethren though."
over it is lower brethren? :)
prateekprakash - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Is it possible to read PDF created by us on the display?In that case Kindle would be useful to me that I would be able to read my notes.
DanNeely - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
My 6 year old Kindle can read PDFs so I'd assume new ones can too.The main limiting factor in doing so though is that it can't reflow them to fit better on the small screen. Unless newer models can do that reading PDFs designed for a standard letter/a4 page will have uncomfortably small text in many cases unless you want to be scrolling left/right to read each line of text.
mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
For PDFs, check out the Kobo Aura ONE, with a 1872x1404 7.8" screen, using the same 300 dpi e-ink technology as this Kindle. That's almost the same vertical resolution as you get on a 4k monitor.Brett Howse - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Assuming you don't have a lot of graphics in your PDF, the best way to do this is to use the Amazon service to send it to your Kindle, and their service will OCR it and convert it into an e-book so the text can reflow.KLC - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I read reviews like this and comments like the ones just made and wonder why the ereader experience hasn't grabbed me. I read a lot, multiple books a week. I once tried a kindle and I agree that reading on an LCD device like a phone or iPad doesn't compare to e ink. It really is just like reading print. I want to use a kindle, to have multiple books on one small but good device. So why don't I? It's the ebooks, I find almost all of them to be terrible, poorly designed, poorly executed, ridden with errors, lacking what is available in printed editions. I love kindles but I hate ebooks.DanNeely - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
What're you using as your ebook source, and what are you trying to read? With the exception of some really old files (I've got some decade+ old files from when a publisher was giving away free samples for promotional purposes) I haven't had formatting/quality problems with any new release commercial fiction ebooks I've bought from a major publisher.Stuff I've gotten from the Gutenberg Project's been a lot more hit and miss. Raw scans or ones that appear to've only had someone go through and fix the worst of the scanning errors are going to be awful.
The only category I still generally prefer print for is non-fiction with maps/charts/etc because there's no kindle equivalent to a half dozen bookmarks stuffed in various locations so I can quickly flip to the non-text information as needed and then back to where I'm reading.
KLC - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I agree that current fiction titles are fine, I should have added that much of what I read is non-fiction with charts, graphs and especially endnotes. Many ebooks seem to be done as unthinking, poorly planned replications of text, as if 99% of the work went in to the book and then they told an intern to take the afternoon and port it to an ebook to capture some extra dollars. There seems to be little focus on ebooks as a unique product that take advantage of electronic text.And what you say about Gutenberg kind of illustrates what I would love to have a Kindle for and why I find ebooks so lacking. I'd love to have a library of classic literature, the books I want to read someday but never get around to. But I've been constantly disappointed with the quality of those kind of books. I'm willing to pay but I find that many of the paid versions as lacking as the free versions. You type in a title in Amazon, say Don Quixote, and you get dozens of versions, some paid, some free. How do you successfully weed out the poor ones without making it a day's work of downloading and sampling each one? I'd love to have a source of classic lit ebooks that has consistent quality of design and execution.
robinwhittleton - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I contribute to the Standard Ebooks project and that does everything you’re asking for: takes Gutenberg sources and makes high quality ebooks from them.KLC - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Robin, thanks, I’ve never of that, I’ll check it out.Threska - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Read the reviews naturally. Most people are pretty helpful in pointing out flaws AND directing one to a better edition.KLC - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Wow Threska, who wouldn’t have thought to read the reviews? Three problems with that, first, these kind of books don’t get much traffic, there aren’t many reviews. Second, the reviews that do exist rarely address usability, it doesn’t seem to be an issue for most people. Third, like many things that are similar on Amazon, they frequently aggregate reviews of different kindle editions together under the same general title so many times you don’t know what edition the reviewer has.mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Most technical books are available in PDF format, from the publishers. The layout (in my experience) is exactly the same as the printed copy. So, an e-reader need only be larger enough and have enough resolution. See my other posts, for more about that.schizoide - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I'm not a light reader. I read 2-3 books per _week_. I read on a Kindle for many years, until larger phones started becoming popular and I switched to reading on an 5.5" iphone 6+. My last Kindle was a Paperwhite.Kindle pros: Much better screen, particularly outdoors. Incredible battery life.
Kindle cons: It's another device to carry around. This is a HUGE DEAL. The UI was terrible unless you bought all your books from Amazon, which I didn't.
These days I read using the _amazing_ Marvin iOS app. It's infinitely configurable so I have it working exactly how I like it. I keep all my books on Dropbox, which Marvin can access directly. When I buy from Amazon I just strip the DRM. Battery life doesn't approach an eink device but I charge my phone every day anyway, and of course it's always on me.
grant3 - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
UI can be improved if you jailbreak your device and take advantage of 3rd party hacker utilities. Unfortunately this is not a user-friendly task and on many devices requires opening it up to physically connect to serial port pins.Icehawk - Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - link
I don't know how you can read on such a small device, I can for short stints but for reading an actual book or magazine I'm busting out my iPad. Marvin is great & love the Dropbox functionality.Other than at home I'm reading on a plane, beach, hotel room, etc and I use my iPad, yes an eReader would be better but only for that one task and now I have to tote two devices. I find the iPad is more than adequate and is actually quite good for magazines since you can actually read them with pages mapped 1:1.
bug77 - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Man, nobody want to do 10" readers anymore :(I mean, not everybody needs to read on the road...
mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Kobo has a 7.8" model.bug77 - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Sadly, they didn't when I bought mine. And 7.8" is not a difference worth an upgrade :(mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
At 300 dpi, it might be. 1872x1404 is more pixels than you'd get on a computer monitor, unless it's >= 4k.bug77 - Saturday, January 27, 2018 - link
Considering I just need it to show text, no, it isn't.mode_13h - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
What do you mean "no it isn't"? A 4k monitor has 2180 pixels, vertically. So, unless you tip it sideways, it's just a bit higher than than the 1872 pixels on the Kobo Aura ONE.Now, do you ever find letter or A4-formatted PDFs readable on a computer monitor, much less 4k? I do. Even 1080p is adequate for it to be legible (although a pretty hard lower bound, IMO). I refuse to read them on my phone's 5.5" screen, but I think 7.8" should be fine.
bug77 - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
I mean text books look fine already on my Kobo Glo.Carmen00 - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
It's surprising to me that you've written the whole article and haven't mentioned Kobo once. You even dismiss other e-Ink devices with a flippant "There’s other E-Readers on the market, but if you’re in the market for a Kindle, you’re likely after the Amazon ecosystem, so the Oasis really needs to compete against the rest of the Kindle lineup". Really? We've got 4 Kobo Glo devices. Sturdy as anything, with touch screens and good lighting, space for more books than I could read in a decade, a good online store, and at a very reasonable price point. We're extremely happy with the product, and yes, we also have 2 Kindles. They're hardly used - awful user interface and ridiculous physical keys, no thank you!Alexvrb - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
New kindles are really nice, especially anything paperwhite and above. They also benefit from Amazon's store. I'd definitely take an Oasis over anything else in the e-reader market. The main competitor to Kindle Oasis is less expensive Kindles like the Voyage and Paperwhite.With that being said Kobo is probably the best alternative.
mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
I had the same thought. I searched the article for Kobo references, to see if there were any comparisons. Otherwise, such reviews have little value, as Kindle is basically the default option.Brett Howse - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
I've used a Kindle for about ten years but I've only used a Kobo for about 10 minutes. I can't comment on a device I've never really used.mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
So... maybe you can review it, next?Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer - Saturday, January 27, 2018 - link
There was an article on Ars Technica just yesterday about how Walmart was going to start carrying Kobo e-readers, so perhaps you might consider reviewing it once that happens. One headliner feature is that it has a light that is adjustable in color temperature so you're not being blasted with blue light when reading at night.mode_13h - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
Huh. Not sure if I should wait and buy it from them... or maybe they'll do some cost reductions that end up annoying me. Walmart will "help" vendors cost-reduce their products, even going so far as to negotiate with their suppliers and component vendors for the units Walmart purchases.Threska - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
They'd have to give it a different SKU then. Part of the reason people get bitten, and remember Wal-mart isn't the only one who does this, is they don't pay attention.romrunning - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
@Carmen00:In regards to not including Kobo, the article title clearly states the review is about the Kindle Oasis (2017). If you want a review of the Kobo models, look for one of those.
Don't try to fault the reviewer for doing exactly what he said the article was about. Now if this review was entitled "A Review of Ebook Readers", then you could fault him.
mode_13h - Saturday, January 27, 2018 - link
Perhaps you haven't read many reviews on this site, but they often feature comparisons with comparable products. This is true of most product reviews, since they're intended to answer the question: "do I buy this?", with the possible answers being: "yes", "no - something else", and "no - save your money". It's not like Oasis is a completely one-of-a-kind product, with zero alternatives on the market.mode_13h - Saturday, January 27, 2018 - link
I'll add that failing including meaningful comparisons puts it at greater risk of simply turning into a sales pitch.Carmen00 - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
Got to stick strictly to the title, right? Following that line of thinking, articles about Ryzen should clearly not be mentioning Intel chips, articles about Huawei's latest and greatest shouldn't be mentioning Samsung's products, and so on! It's standard practice to make some comparisons with the relevant competition, and Kobo is both quite relevant and very competitive in this niche. That is why I took exception to the particular statement that I quoted: it makes it appear as though there isn't such competition. I take Brett's point that this is just his own experience, but that said, perhaps he could take the opportunity to broaden that experience so that this kind of review is better and more useful to Anandtech readers.drothgery - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link
It's almost impossible to overstate how dominant Amazon's market position is in eBook sales. If a device doesn't have a Kindle app, it's basically useless as an ebook reader except for the tiny portion of the market that jailbreaks books or uses alternative stores.mode_13h - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link
You can buy ebooks directly from publishers. O'Reilly and InformIT provide PDFs, MOBI, and EPUB - all of which are supported by Kobo Aura ONE. For my needs, this is enough.Kobo is fairly popular outside the USA.
All of this is to say that people should *look* and see if they can find the titles they want, for other e-readers they might be interested in using. Don't simply assume that Amazon is the only way.
reckless76 - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I bought the original Oasis, and I loved it. Felt great, looked great.. The problem was it was just too fragile. It slipped out of my hands while I was sitting down, reading on the porch. When it hit the ground, the case went flying off and the screen cracked. I'd only had it about 6 months. So I went back to the paperwhite. I can be as rough as I want with it and it's fine.Alexvrb - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
My dad has the second-gen Oasis and it's pretty darn nice. A lot nicer than the first-gen Oasis. Also doesn't have the split battery design of the first gen either (which in hindsight had issues like the case flying off). Though I would still recommend the case for protection and grip.I will say the build quality of his first-gen Voyage was also meh. So maybe just avoid the first-gen models. :P
Wolfpup - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I want one of these!My only concern is...with lighting (people freak out if I call it backlighting even though iPads aren't actually backlit either)-I wonder if it's any better for your eyes/sleep than an iPad. Like a non-lit Kindle is, but I don't know what adding lighting to them does. I don't think anyone's actually done the research on that, and given the niche within a niche status...
Otherwise it's a cool product! 7" is nicer than 6, high resolution, etc. eInk is SO pleasant to read on compared with other screen tech.
Wolfpup - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I still wish I could have a color eInk reader that did Marvel Unlimited and whatnot! Comics on eInk that worked as well as eInk does for prose stuff would be awesome...Threska - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/mirasol.htmlI believe Amazon bought the technology.
grant3 - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
"Ebook Readers with these types of displays are expected to hit the mainstream market in Fall of 2010." <-- apparently not.Threska - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Funny thing is the Qualcomm display only showed up in Korea. There seems to be a big story not being told in a sort of "whatever happened to...". Maybe the "good enough" of LCD stole their thunder? E-ink themselves came out with color E-ink.Threska - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
https://qz.com/112444/amazon-is-working-on-display...Liquavista is another.
grant3 - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
My non-scientific, anecdotal experience says the lighting is EXTREMELY sleep friendly. Quite often I will spend about 15-30 minutes reading my paperwhite before turning it off and falling asleep immediately.Alexvrb - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
iPads aren't frontlit like the lighted Kindles. Even though OLEDs are better (generally) than LCD displays, eInk is better than both for reading overall. It's also much more compatible with late night reading habits and doesn't hinder sleep as much. Night Light settings (or whatever they're called on non-Windows platforms) might help for extended late-night reading, but it still isn't as good.Just do a search on the web. eInk is better for sleep.
jaydee - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
I really like everything the Oasis offers - I have the 2nd gen Kindle Paperwhite (wifi, no adverts) - but dang, $300 (after tax) for no adverts wifi Oasis... I just can't justify it unless/until my Paperwhite breaks.dennphill - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Thank you for the review. With the asymmetrical form factor, you DID say that us left-handers can flip it over and use it backwards, didn't you? :-) Anyway, two years or more ago I took up Amazon on an offer to upgrade (very old) original Kindles to latest version with Paperwhite, which I loved. Was fine for my wife, but I found out that the latest generation (7th?) would no longer support 'active content' (whatever that means ???) and so Amazon was very helpful in taking my newest Kindle back and arranging a source for an overhauled (reconditioned?) 5th Gen Kindle which was the last to support 'active content.' The 'active content' allows use of a simple game that I have found both entertaining and instructive - Every Word. (Problem is the 5th Gen reconditioned Kindles come with a 90 day warranty but seem to last only about 5-6 months, so I keep buying them to keep playing Every Word...oh, and read other Amazon titles as well.) Stoopid question, maybe, but is this Oasis coming with support for 'active content?' (I really DO wish I knew what that term meant of implied....and why the Amazon game Every Word needs it. I really am clueless on the subject, but do like having the game.) If not, Amazon has one user 'stuck in the past' not able to progress beyond their 5th Generation Paperwhites.docbones - Thursday, January 25, 2018 - link
Really would like to see comparison to the Kobo and Waterproof Nook. I have gone through two Kobo's (warranty replacement failed shortly after the warranty ended) But so far the waterproof Nook has worked well. All the mobi and epub books I have put on it have been great.Just not sure I want to pay the premium to move up the Oasis if its not that much better then the Nook.
mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
The only eBooks I read are PDFs, which you can usually buy in bundle discounts, directly from the publishers. Whenever I check Amazon reviews for technical books, it seems most of the negative reviews are trashing the kindle version, whereas the PDFs are (in my experience) identical to the printed copy. Plus, I read a fair number of academic papers - all PDFs.The main downside of PDFs is the resolution and screen size they require, to be legible. For that, I've found an even better solution than Kindle Oasis - the Kobo Aura ONE. Not only does it have a larger screen (7.8" vs Oasis' 7") with the same 300 dpi e-ink display technology, but it's also cheaper! And for my purposes, the lack of being so deeply integrated into Amazon's ecosystem is really no disadvantage... maybe even a benefit!
So, please review the Kobo Aura ONE.
KLC - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
mode, how do you get the bundle discount on pdfs from the publisher?mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Check out informit.com and oreilly.com. InformIT often has sales and promotions (esp. when you buy 2+ titles), which brings their prices in line with (or better than) Amazon.Threska - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Especially technical books which are obscene, even for the old stuff.yhselp - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
"... dim the display over time when reading in the dark,"Can you completely turn off the light, though?
Not being able to switch off the light, and lack of screen-size improvements, have been stopping me from upgrading the trusty Kindle 4 for years. I love the look and tactile button feel of my Kindle 4, and prefer it to an all-touch device. I would like a bigger, higher resolution screen, though. I've tried using Paperwhite, but can't stand the fact I can't turn off the light as I prefer to read under a lamp or sunlight. I know it's possible to mod it and kill the LEDs for good, but I wouldn't like to do that.
Brett Howse - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
You've always been able to turn off the lighting on the Paperwhites, and the Oasis is no exception.yhselp - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Oh, wow. Are you sure? I genuinely did not know that's possible. Last time I tried, I used the slider to dial it all the way down, then went into the bathroom to check, and there was this faint glow still. Is there an new option in the menu to completely turn off the light, and if not, can you, please, confirm that dialing brightness down disables the light, and does not leave a faint glow?yhselp - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Edit: I went to the bathroom without turning the lights on to make sure it's completely dark, is what I meant.Brett Howse - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
The Paperwhite doesn't turn right off, although at minimum brightness it's only 0.05 nits, so it's practically off. The Oasis though does turn completely off.yhselp - Saturday, January 27, 2018 - link
Thank you so much for confirming this! It is vital information to me, and a major deciding factor, despite whether it’s the most objective thing in the world. Cheers!bobsmith1492 - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
I read a couple hundred books on my Paperwhite over the last couple of years. Since I got my Galaxy S8 this summer though I've just used that instead. With the OLED screen and blue light filter it doesn't keep me up late. I like the dark background option which gives many hours of reading since OLED only powers active pixels. One fewer thing to keep maintained. Kind of sad though to see my Kindle sitting there begging for a recharge.PeachNCream - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
The need to carry something else around is probably the biggest drawback to dedicated eReaders like the Kindle. Sure eInk is lots better for reading and the longer battery life is a benefit too, but I already have a phone with me and it's sometimes hard to justify an additional device. I love my Paperwhite, but there are lots of times when I've left it at home because I don't want to carry it around or just don't remember to pick it up on the way out. They're large enough that you're basically carrying a tablet and phone with you if you do take it and that can get sort of cumbersome.mode_13h - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Wow, first world problems!Back in the day, I'd be debating how many books and papers to put in my backpack. Heavy textbooks and technical books, no less.
I still think it's amazing that I could carry my entire technical library in an e-reader. Physical media of some form or another actually comprises much of my possessions.
Threska - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Moving day's easier when most is digital.mode_13h - Saturday, January 27, 2018 - link
So true. A few years back, I had the revelation that most Millennials and younger probably own close to zero physical media. Maybe with the exception of a crate a vinyl records.I do have LDs, but zero LPs.
xchaotic - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
Thank you for the review. I read a lot and this confirm that there isn't enough to upgrade from Voyage.Hixbot - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
Hmm, I was hoping to finally see a color e-ink display. Perfect for comics. Oh well, I'll stick to a 7" tablet.mode_13h - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
Exactly what I had been waiting for, but finally I decided that even a couple current monochrome e-readers would be adequate for my needs and provide enough benefit to justify the expense.Does anyone have solid info on the prospects for color e-readers? Is there any tradeoff vs. resolution or contrast?
bhauertso - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
The article touches on a few downsides, but for anyone considering an Oasis, I want to give a heads-up on some of the issues that have bothered me with the Oasis.I bought an Oasis because it is the first Kindle to offer the ability to invert the screen colors. That alone is a sufficient counterbalance to the downsides for my particular preferences. But if that feature were absent, I would consider the Oasis a downgrade from my Paperwhite.
The most important downside (and the article does mention this briefly) is that the material is smooth and lacks any texturing. Combined with the positioning of the hard buttons and inability to turn off paging via the touch screen creates a situation where it can become very fatiguing to hold the device upright while reading.
Additionally, although the Oasis has screen rotation, it does not have a rotation-lock feature. I've had several circumstances where the screen flips unintentionally for a moment. This is irksome at best and actually disruptive at worst (sometimes the software does re-flows the document when rotating which can cause the sentence you were reading to move).
More here: http://tiamat.tsotech.com/kindle-oasis
wiper - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Size matters, but not the way you might think. Voyage fits my pockets, while Oasis wouldn't. This was deciding factor why I decided to stick with Voyage instead of buying Oasis.torp - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Can you actually turn *off* the light on the Oasis? It doesn't let me on my Paperwhite, it only let me turn it way down, and it would save battery when you're at the beach for a week and have more sunlight than you know what to do with.grant3 - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Big warning for DIY'ers:No one has located any serial pins on the Oasis, which means it cannot be jailbroken.
Paperwhite/Voyage models can be jailbroken by opening the case and using a serial connection to open up permissions on the device.
Threska - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Check to see if they're any JTAG pads on the unit?grant3 - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
I imagine that's exactly what enthusiastic Kindle hackers have been doing ever since the Oasis was released :)judecee - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Love reading on a Kindle. Just received the OASIS. Everything is great, except when I go to My Library, it shows my books in 'book cover ' format as opposed to title . And I'm not able to see whether or not I have already read the book. Is there a setting I.m supposed to put in? Please Help!judecee - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
I have posted previously, but it seems to have been deleted. My comment involves the Library List on the Oasis. I am only able to see my books in a 'front cover' format, as opposed to title format. Is there a setting I should be using? Thank you, any help would be appreciated.MyrddinE - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
My wife and I own about 3000 books (mostly paperbacks), and another 750 eBooks on Kindle. In other words, we read a lot.And the Kindle Oasis is amazing. Reading one-handed is the norm, not the exception, and the Oasis is the first device to emphasize that. It's far more comfortable to hold in one hand than previous Kindles (or any competing devices), and the physical page-turn buttons are very welcome.
Together, my wife and I read about 250 books a year (me around 80, she about double that) so we're way out on the edge of the bell curve when it comes to book consumption. The cost of the Oasis pales in comparison to our yearly book purchases.
We have two other Kindle readers, both still working fine. But the Oasis is my first choice to read on if my wife hasn't grabbed it first. :-)
sonicmerlin - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
Why don’t they out a small solar panel on these things so they never have to be charged?stun - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link
> over it’s cheaper brethrenover **its** cheaper brethren
twtech - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link
It seems like the biggest feature this model has over the Voyage (and the other Kindles) is the audiobook support, though I wonder what using it does to the battery life. The fact that it's waterproof could be nice too for those who might like to relax near the pool with their book.ebookwebsite - Friday, August 31, 2018 - link
Thanks for this amazing review! The best features I found in kindle oasis are like It has more storage facility. It is ergonomically satisfied and is lighter. It has the touchscreen and page turn buttons moreover the best thing is it is waterproof let us read books in a pool too..find more amazing honest reviews at ebookwebsite.comkcladyz - Friday, August 2, 2019 - link
I got the Oasis 3. I read at a level between 13 and 18 and I can get almost 17 hours battery life