Kindle Oasis – With 7” display and page turn buttons- Ad-Supported + 3 Months Free Kindle Unlimited (with auto-renewal)

2 reviews for Kindle Oasis – With 7” display and page turn buttons- Ad-Supported + 3 Months Free Kindle Unlimited (with auto-renewal)

1. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   RcarL – August 9, 2019

   
   So I’ve been using a Kindle Paperwhite since 2014 and absolutely loved it. Despite it being five years old, it still worked great and has been a pleasure as a reading device. I’ve been debating the idea of upgrading to a new Kindle for a few months- and a few weeks ago Amazon had a really nice deal that allowed you to trade in your old Kindle for twenty-five bucks AND get 25% off the purchase of a new Kindle. So, despite the fact that my old Paperwhite worked just fine, I decided to upgrade to the brand new 2019 Kindle Oasis. I liked the idea of the color-changing LEDs for nighttime reading plus the benefit of having it be waterproof for when I read at the beach. I placed my order and shipped my old Kindle back to Amazon.I’ve been reading with my new Kindle for about two weeks, and my reactions have been mixed. In some ways, the Kindle Oasis is definitely an upgrade over my old Paperwhite. In other ways, it seems like Amazon swayed too far from the formula of what makes their e-readers great. For the sake of this review, I’ll be comparing the performance of the new 2019 Oasis to my old Paperwhite. I’ll also make comments about how the Oasis compares against the current Paperwhite, which is likely a much better option for the vast majority of people seeking an e-reader. It should be noted that I also ordered Amazon’s nice Merlot leather cover… I’ll review that too.Battery Life:Some people have complained about the battery life of the new Kindle Oasis. I’ll say that the battery definitely doesn’t last as long as a Paperwhite. My old Paperwhite’s battery was still excellent, even at five years old. My old Paperwhite had to be charged every 5-6 weeks based on my use. After two weeks of reading, my Oasis’s battery says that it’s at 52%. It’s not a big difference, but it is noticeably less than the much cheaper Paperwhite. (That said, I think the larger screen that likely consumes more battery life is well worth the fact that I’ll have to charge it every four weeks verses six for the Paperwhite) For the price premium, it would have been nice if Amazon included a battery that held a charge at least as long as the Paperwhite though.The LEDs and Night Mode:This is perhaps the best upgrade between my old Paperwhite and the new Oasis. I often read before bed- and tend to do so with the lights off so that my wife can sleep. With my old Paperwhite, the blue-hue LEDs were not easy on my eyes when reading in the dark. That has all changed with the Oasis and it’s night mode. It allows you to change the LEDs from a blue hue to a yellowish hue that makes it a lot more comfortable to read in the dark. I LOVE this feature and might even argue that the price premium of the Oasis is worth it just for that feature. It’s fully customizable so that you can find the color/hue that works best for you. You can also schedule it so that it automatically switches at a certain time. That’s handy, even though it only takes about five seconds to switch it manually.Speaking of the LEDs, there is one feature that drives me nuts about the Kindle Oasis. The auto brightness feature is extremely annoying. It’s extremely sensitive and seems to constantly auto adjust even when the room’s lighting is consistent. Over the first few hours of reading in my dining room, the auto brightness consistently changed over and over again ever thirty seconds or so- which is extremely annoying when you are trying to read. My solution was to just turn off the auto-brightness setting. To me, this is inexcusable in a premium e-reader. My 2014 Paperwhite’s auto brightness setting worked fine. Somehow with all the extra features and new design, Amazon made this feature less user-friendly in the Oasis.Comfort / Basis Design:Okay- this is purely a subjective topic- but I think that the overall design of the Kindle Oasis is far inferior to the Paperwhite. The fact that there is a large bump-out on the back for the battery along one side means that the Kindle is not balanced in your hand as you read. My old Paperwhite- and the current one for that matter- was 100% balanced when held in one hand. The Oasis isn’t balanced- which means that as I read, I’m frequently distracted by the fact that the devide is leaning to one side or the other, depending on orientation. To add to this issue, the Oasis seems to be a lot heavier than my old Paperwhite.Response / Screen Response / Display:This is something that is, for the most part, is vastly superior compared to my old Paperwhite. The touch response of the Oasis is lightning fast in terms of page turns, when you are browsing your library, or looking for a new book in the Kindle Store. There is one exception: It’s annoyingly slow when you first unlock it and have to slide your finger along the bottom. In terms of the display quality- it’s crystal clear, crisp, and impressive for an e-reader. The larger 7″ display might not seem like a large upgrade over the Paperwhite’s 6″ display- but its makes a big difference if you use your Kindle regularly. Now that I’m used to a 7″ screen, the Paperwhite’s smaller display seems tiny- even though it worked just fine for me for five years before I upgraded. Lastly, the page turn buttons are user-friendly and well-designed. You can also use the touchscreen to turn the pages, but I found that the buttons were more comfortable to use.Inexcusable Drawbacks:First, you get a charger cable, but not the wall outlet adapter… Considering that you’re buying a premium e-reader, that’s just ridiculous. You shouldn’t have to pay an extra twenty bucks to buy this- it should be included. Seriously, how much more could those little chargers cost Amazon to include? Second, I understand the advertising on the cheaper Paperwhite. Why must I pay an additional twenty bucks to avoid ads on a two hundred and fifty dollar e-reader? Really- the fact that these two things cost extra is inexcusable.Lastly, I want to comment about the Merlot Leather Cover that Amazon sells. This isn’t a review on the cover, but a comment about how the design of the Oasis really makes it hard to design a decent cover. I debated on whether or not I should buy it or if it was even worth the price that Amazon wants for it- but decided to go for it considering that I’ll probably keep this e-reader for five years or so before upgrading again. That said, I really don’t like it because it doesn’t fit the Oasis very well. Sure, the Oasis fits snugly into the case, but when you open it and fold the cover back, the binding isn’t tight so it flexes and moves a little as you read. In addition, because of the Oasis’s battery notch in the back, there is a 1/4″ gap between the front cover and the actual Oasis for about 60% of the Kindle back. The causes the binding to shift even more- which is annoying. This never was a problem for my Amazon-brand Paperwhite case from 2014. Again- this is likely more due to the design of the Oasis than the design of the cover.Overall, you really need to consider if the Oasis is worth spending twice as much as a Paperwhite. If you read A LOT and would benefit from the LEDs that change from blueish to yellowish, then the Oasis might be worth it for you. If you don’t really care about the color-changing LEDs, then the Paperwhite is likely the better option. Most of the best features of the Oasis can be found in the current Paperwhite. They both are waterproof, they both have great displays, they both have bluetooth audio capability, and they both have great battery life (the Paperwhite is likely even better than the Oasis). Unless you are a serious daily reader- or can take advantage of a deal like I did, the Paperwhite is likely the e-reader that makes more sense.

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Airmid – May 13, 2021

   
   Before I start this review, I just want to say that I adore this e-reader regardless of any negative feedback. In fact, I took it over to show my mother and she loved it so much she got one for herself. For both of us, trying to read on a tablet for longer periods of time just isn’t enjoyable. This is the first e-reader purchase for both of us after many years though I have had occasion to play with the newer generation of paperwhite/kindle in person before making this purchase.First things first – this device uses E-Ink. It works by having a multitude of microcapsules that when charged display either black or white. Just from that description alone, it’s pretty obvious why this has no color, though color is in the works by the E-Ink developer, it’s just years away from being workable on these types of devices. Obviously, this works differently than a tablet and its main purpose, as with all e-readers, is to give a good reading experience and mimic a page of a book as best as possible while also being easier on the eyes.Display: Very, very sharp on the Oasis. It’s lovely to look at and I have found zero ghosting while reading. It’s clear and crisp. While only an inch, the benefits of the 7 inch are noticeable but hard to explain outside of it just feels better reading-wise. The screen is matte and while not glare-proof it helps a good deal and the pages are lovely to look at.Touch: Very responsive. Again, due to the tech of this product, it’s kind of a wonder we have touchscreens with them. It’s very responsive for an e-reader, more than any other that I’ve looked at. I can’t say I was all that impressed with the Paperwhite’s touch screen as it seemed to get finicky at times and could turn multiple pages on you, a problem I’ve not had with any other device. While sometimes it doesn’t always register the touch, for the most part, it does, and highlighting, accessing the menu, shopping in the store, etc. have all been easy. Sometimes it doesn’t register when scrolling but that’s been the biggest issue encountered so far.Page Turning – I am partial to the buttons and am a believer that these devices should come with them baseline. However, buttons or touch, the pages turn fast, fluid, and cleanly with close to no delay whatsoever.Screen Brightness – The warm light is great and is the other reason I got this model over a Paperwhite (buttons were the other). I have issues with my eyes where blue light really bothers me. Not only does the Oasis seem to have less blue light in general compared to Paperwhite/Kindle/Older Oasis models, but the warm light works well. It doesn’t take a lot to solve the issue and being able to adjust brightness and warmth separately is good. You are able to set the warmth to auto-activate from sunset to sunrise based on time zone, set your own time, or do it anytime easily.Options: There are many ways to change the layout from font style, boldness, and size. I haven’t seen it really mentioned, but you can set it horizontal also. Yes, you do need to go through settings to do this but given how this device works, that’s not a surprise. There is a feature to save all your layouts so it’s simple enough to hit the saved format for horizontal to switch to that or back again to vertical. The buttons come default as up = forward down = back, but these can be reversed. There is no scrolling option but I’m not someone who likes that when reading books, but keep that in mind, especially for certain media like comics/manga. You are able to have it display page numbers, the clock, percentage left/read, or none of the above.Personal Library Access – Amazon, for the love of all creation fix this mess. I knew going in that it would be a pita but still. Even after going through each book and adding them separately back into their collections I still can’t sort by them. I don’t know what I did wrong but it’s been a frustrating endeavor, and the inability to really have decent sort options can make it a pain for those who want to keep the library on this device instead of just a book or two at a time. Fortunately, the search works well but I shouldn’t have to look one of my Fires to sort through my library and then bring it up on the Oasis. That’s terrible and to my understanding has been a longstanding problem.Wifi – I had no problems with accessing the Kindle store to browse or purchase books. This is probably the biggest area that had a delay, lack of sensitivity to input, and a large amount of screen refreshing, but again, given what it is, it wasn’t an issue really. Wifi does drain the battery (even more so if downloading a lot of books, like at the start and it does give a warning for this) but that is a problem on most modern devices. I wish there was a battery saver option for this like there is for the Fire’s as I would like to use the Translation feature at times while reading some books and that is only available via wifi. Fortunately, the dictionary is not so dependent.Battery Life – The Kindle base model has 4 LEDs, the Paperwhite has 6. The Oasis – 25. That’s a lot of LEDs (12 for white, 13 for the warm lighting system) and it is understandable that while in use this isn’t going to have as long of a life as other models, especially older ones that don’t have a backlight at all. When indoors, I tend to have everything set to as close to zero as possible as personal preference and would say that depending on reading habits you’re looking at charging every few days to a little over a week. I would also say that one should never believe any company’s rhetoric on battery life – it’s usually under the most minimal of conditions. That being said, if you’re coming from an older model of Kindle, especially the really early ones, you aren’t going to get the same battery life due to the LEDs but it isn’t as terrible as a tablet, for example. It does hibernate after a period of inactivity and takes a few seconds to wake back up when starting again. This isn’t a bad thing to me but has been off-putting to others with the slight delay.The Micro USB – I know this a point of contention with a lot of people but I didn’t find it that big of a deal. I still have several devices include Kindles/Fires that use this. I would assume that when Amazon does make the switch to USB C that they want to ensure all their tablets/Kindles can make the switch over.Shape – I love it. The only thing I can think of is that it would be nice if the metal was grooved a little in a couple of places on the back to help with a firmer grip and to reduce sliding potential. Otherwise, it’s lovely to both me and my mother – easy to hold, easy to operate the buttons, etc.Waterproofing – I can’t speak to how this works and hope to never have to.The Ads – Amazon, we are buying your top-of-the-line product. We should not have to pay you more to not have you advertise at us, especially since you have a recommended for you on the homepage that does the job somewhat better. When Kindles/Fires were launching way back when it did make some sense as the price difference was $40 and made the lower-end models especially more accessible to a wider range of people. But now, it’s just gross. Yes, I have the one with the ads because I cannot justify giving you an extra $20 for something that is top of the line and already highly priced.The Price – So, this is really expensive. There is an option to do payment plans on it, which is nice, but it’s still pricy. If you have an e-reader that at least is functional, it might do for you to wait until Prime Day or Cyber Monday to get a deal and shave off $50-75. Is it worth it? That depends. If you’re like me and need the warm light then this is the only Kindle that has it, along with the buttons. I look at it as an investment. The products I have gotten from Amazon have lasted years. On top of that, I am a reader and have been looking for something that would allow me to access my Kindle library easily while having the features I needed/wanted. If you’re not reading a whole lot and/or do not need the buttons/warm light then this probably isn’t the Kindle for you. Personally, I knew I would not be happy with the Paperwhite, and while there are things I dislike about the Oasis, as a whole I am happy that I own this.Probably the biggest question to ask yourself before spending this kind of money is how much do you read and/or were you someone who used to read a lot? The biggest question is whether one will use it enough to justify having a device that is only for reading and if the features for them personally justify the purchase. For me, yes, for others, it may be a different answer.I listened to and read many reviews on the Oasis and other Kindles and one of the comments was that with the Oasis that one might spend more money due to just buying more books to read. I can see that. It’s a joy to read on this.