Amazon’s latest e-reader – the Kindle Oasis – is a slick new device that’s thinner and lighter than anything that’s come before it and provides a luxurious reading experience anywhere you go.
Tech Guide got its hands on the Kindle Oasis and we were surprised at how small it is.
It’s just 3.4mm at its thinnest point and is lighter than a smartphone at just 131g.
But that wasn’t the surprising part.
The Kindle Oasis is the same size as a CD case (14.3cm wide and 12.2cm long) and it was actually small enough to fit in the back pocket of our jeans.
Despite being so small, it still manages to fit in an improved 6-inch Paperwhite touchscreen display and physical controls to move forward and back through your book.
Once again Amazon has produced a superb screen that gives the user the impression they’re reading off a piece of paper.
It has 300ppi (pixels per inch) so the text looks sharp and clear even if you choose the smallest font size.
It’s even more glare resistant than the previous model – the Kindle Voyage – so you can take your reading anywhere from bright sunlight to a dark room.
There are 10 LEDS onboard – that’s 60 per cent more than the last model – so the screen brightness is even and consistent.
And the beauty of the lighting system on the Kindle Oasis is that, unlike a backlit tablet or smartphone, it directs the light into the device rather than outwards.
This way you can read in bed next to your partner without flooding the room with light and keeping them awake.
The Kindle Oasis is designed with a wedge shape so the thicker portion of the device can sit comfortably in your palm.
You can feel a nice balance when reading one-handed because the weight of the thicker end of the product pushes it into your hand.
And there’s an accelerometer on board so that thicker portion of the product can rest in your palm no matter whether you’re holding it in your left or right hand.
The screen simple flips the right way round to suit how you’re holding it.
Kindle Oasis comes with a magnetic cover that’s also got its own battery.
It attaches to the thinner portion of the base of the e-reader and links to charging contacts to recharge the battery from the reserve power in the cover.
We imagine a large battery was one of the trade-offs to make the Kindle Oasis so insanely thin so it was a smart move to put an additional battery in the cover.
With two batteries at your disposal, Kindle Oasis users can literally go for months without charging.
And when you charge the device it will also charge the cover when it’s connected as well.
The front flap of the microfibre-lined cover also closes softly into place with a magnet to protect the screen and also put it sleep and wake it up again when it’s opened.
And despite its svelte appearance and a display that’s as thin as a sheet of aluminum foil, the device is also still pretty tough thanks to its chemically reinforced cover glass.
The Kindle Oasis software is the same as the other current models and is really easy to navigate.
Users can turn pages forward and back by also touching the screen on the left or right side and also do things like adjusting the font size, look up words and even share your favourite passages on social media.
There’s also wi-fi on board, of course, so the Kindle Oasis can connect to the Kindle Store so users can browse and buy a book in seconds.
And with 4GB of internal memory there is enough room to store thousands of book – an entire library.
VERDICT
Now while we rate the Kindle Oasis as a premium device, it’s not cheap at $449.
That higher price could be justified by the fact that you get a cover with the Kindle – a product in the past that had to be purchased separately.
But without a doubt, the Kindle Oasis is the best e-reader Amazon has produced.
For anyone who loves reading their books in digital form, it doesn’t get better than this.
