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Introducing Kindle Oasis
- aaronpk 11y agoLooks like it's meant to be held with your right hand. I wonder if you can make it flip the screen so left handed people can use it too.
- BooneJS 11y agoGiven that current Kindle e-ink readers can be read in portrait or landscape, it seems within the realm of possibility.
- DanielStraight 11y agoParagraph 4: "Whether you choose to read with your left or right hand, Kindle Oasis automatically rotates the page orientation to match."
- Notre1 11y agoI am pretty sure that I saw a leaked image that showed it being held with both hands, so I am guessing there is, at least, a option to flip the orientation to use it with your left hand.
- fmorel 11y agoEvery preview I've read mentions that it's "reversible" and works held in either direction.
- AndrewUnmuted 11y agoIt could have been more clearly spelled out, but here's a promotional image from the link that should quell any fears that it is not lefty-friendly: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/dp/2016/10566252/kw-feature-unlike-any-kindle.jpg https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/d...
- mikestew 11y agoI wondered the same thing. Then it occurred to me that I have a $15 musical instrument tuner that, in addition to telling what note is being played, can figure out which way is up, so I just assumed a $289 device could do the same. The fine print confirms my suspicions, though it could have been made more clear in the copy.
- vdnkh 11y agoI don't really see the point of the charging cover. I have a 2 year old paperwhite and I charge it about once every two months. That being said, I really like the new design. Glad they're embracing physical buttons.
- shogun21 11y agoI don't know anyone who's ever said "I wish the Kindle had a better battery life."
- Haul4ss 11y agoThe long life of the Kindle battery sometimes comes back to bite me. I'm terrible about remembering to bring a charging cable with me when I travel, and when I do get the low battery warning it's usually three minutes after I sit down for some serious reading. I have to charge so infrequently, I'm never prepared to do so.
- noja 11y agoBut when do you travel without a usb charger?
- chrisan 11y agoGuessing he is not an Android user. I use iOS devices so I will have a USB charger but not one that fits my kindle from time to time (as there is just the 1 by my bed I will forget to take) Thankfully people tend to forget chargers and (so far) I haven't had a problem dumpster diving at hotel's lost and found :)
- ascagnel_ 11y agoIf I'm traveling, I bring one of these [0] cables. It handles both lightning (for phone) and micro USB (everything else). [0] http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00XINCAJA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1460597991&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=micro+usb+lightning&dpPl=1&dpID=41QDaiaMMRL&ref=plSrch http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00XINCAJA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=...
- gklitt 11y agoThe design and added features look nice, but it's hard to believe they're charging $289 -- well over twice the price of the Paperwhite, which is a great e-reader itself. Makes me wonder if this is an artificially high price point meant to drive sales of the Voyage, which now looks comparatively cheap at $199.
- morley 11y agoYou can always lower a price, but you can rarely raise it. And a high original MSRP lets them advertise a steep discount when the price does get lowered.
- monsk 11y agoInteresting, it's kind of what clothing retailers have been doing especially in the past ten years or so. I think the access to more shopping options have led consumers to expect "large discounts" so maybe companies benefit from high original MSRP more than "pricing right".
- noja 11y agoThe price includes the cover. The Voyage price doesn't.
- MBCook 11y agoRight. It's a $200 Voyage (overpriced already), with a better backlight system, and thinner plus a $90 leather battery case. I think the price, relative to the Voyage, is reasonable. I think the Voyage price, relative to the PaperWhite, is insane. I should know, I own one (I like it but wow it's expensive to buy those pseudo-buttons).
- 0xffff2 11y agoYeah, but how many people really even want a $90 cover? I don't use a cover at all, but when I did I sure as hell didn't drop $90 on one.
- 11y ago
- hartator 11y agoI wonder if it's actually now better to read things on the new ipad 9.7". Notably with true tone, night shift and the wide color gamut of the new display.
- facepalm 11y agoI've been thinking the same about my new phone. The latest screens are very crisp, and age turning is much faster.
- BooneJS 11y agoPerhaps night-shift helps now, but for me reading on e-ink has always been a more pleasant experience that results in little eye strain after long periods of time.
- falcolas 11y agoPersonally, I find eink screens easier to read, even over retina displays. There's simply less strain on my eyes with the eink.
- bryanlarsen 11y agoIMO, any good AMOLED phone is a far better reading device than a Kindle, since I do a good portion of my reading in the dark.
- Notre1 11y agoI love my Kindle Voyage, but I after the new Paperwhite came out with the same resolution as the Voyage, I thought the Voyage was overpriced. At $90 more than the Voyage and 2.4x the price of the Paperwhite, I don't know who the target market for this Oasis is.
- monkeyprojects 11y agoIt does include a leather cover which is another $60 for the voyage. So in many ways the difference is merely $30. Comparing the uk and us prices this is the first product in decades that seems to have been priced $1=£1
- venomsnake 11y agoDo this have the same display as voyage and paperwhite? 300ppi
- monkeyprojects 11y agoSame resolution but by the looks of it a different thinner display
- WA 11y agoI still use some old Kindle from 2012, which was 80$ or so and had the best design. I'd love to have the illuminated screen, but the 2012 one was the lightest, had physical page turning buttons on both sides and could be used by me as a left-handed person easily. I will stick with my old Kindle until Amazon will make a remake of it.
- chiph 11y agoSame here. Mine is the "keyboard kindle" with the physical page-turn buttons. My only regret is that I didn't buy the larger DX model while they had it, as the bigger screen is more useful for technical titles.
- tanker 11y agoI've been wanting to buy a Digital Paper from Sony since it came out for technical articles / textbooks. Overall, I think the product is worth the price (around $1000 last time I checked), but I have other things to spend the money on right now. It seems to be marketed towards legal firms (possibly a source of the high price), but I don't need the collaboration software.
- JBiserkov 11y agoThe price has dropped to $800.
- TY 11y agoCool product, but I don't see any reason to upgrade from Kindle Paperwhite that would warrant spending additional ~$300 on. Paperwhite is just good enough across all of the key dimensions - size, weight, screen resolution and battery life for the users who don't run after the latest and greatest.
- BooneJS 11y agoWhile this is a bespoke reader, I like the price point of the $120 (often cheaper with frequent sales) Paperwhite. It's always with me, and relatively inexpensive and durable enough where I don't bulk it up with a case or sleeve. Either $289 seems overkill for a single purpose device, or Amazon screwed up and provided too much value in the Paperwhite.
- BinaryIdiot 11y agoLooks pretty good maybe even worthy of an upgrade but that price is just too rich for me for an ebook reader. Maybe in a year or so when they've come down significantly. The charging cover almost seems unnecessary but if it really extends the battery life into months then that's pretty awesome. Certainly would be great for long term camping / hiking.
- projectileboy 11y agoThis is a huge disappointment. I'm kicking myself for not buying a Paperwhite when they were on sale last week. This was absolutely not worth waiting for. I wouldn't find this compelling if it were $20 more than the Voyage, much less $90 more.
- Haul4ss 11y agoMy first Kindle was the 2nd gen one, right after they dropped the price to $359 (from its original $399 debut price). Hard to believe I happily paid $359 for my first one, but $289 looks outrageous for the latest model. The Oasis looks awesome, but I have a 1st gen Paperwhite and it still runs just fine.
- elmarschraml 11y agoI've bought pretty much every previous generation of kindles, but don't see the point of this one. The voyage is already quite expensive for an ereader, and an upgrade of questionable value over the Paperwhite, and this one is still more expensive, for hardly any benefit. To put it more positively: The kindle paperwhite is amazing value for the price ;-)
- Kihashi 11y agoI bought the Voyage when it first came out (moving form a paperwhite gen 1) and I thought it was _barely_ worth the upgrade then. Now that the paperwhite 3 is out with all of the features that I bought the voyage for, I don't see any reason to pay the extra for it.
- uslic001 11y agoI have the Voyage but wish I would have gotten the Paperwhite instead as it is not worth the extra cost. The Voyage is also very buggy when trying to turn pages. There is no way I am paying even more for this new Kindle that looks to correct all the problems that the Voyage has with page turning.
- sunsetandlabrea 11y agoI also have the Voyage, at the time the Paperwhite was a lower resolution so the Voyage was a better choice - but there is no question I'd buy the newer paperwhite now instead. When you say the voyager is buggy when you try and turn pages what is the issue? I have a problem with the (stupid, hateful) haptic buttons. The ones on the right mostly both go backwards, periodically it works as expected. I thought this was a hardware fault, but maybe you are experiencing the same issue?
- Kihashi 11y agoSame. I bought the Voyage when it first came out, but the current gen paperwhite includes all the things that drew me to the voyage for less money. I recommend the paperwhite to everyone who asks me about Kindles. I had a hard time with the Voyage price, but this is just too much, even for a gadget-phile.
- dandrick 11y agoI'm not the guy you were originally asking, but I've had issues with page turns on my Voyager. I think it's a pagination ordering issue - if I've been reading on my phone, and then open my Kindle and sync to the location in the book where I left off at on my phone, the first manual page turn I make sometimes fails to match up perfectly. As a for instance, if "the quick brown fox" is the last words on my current page, and I turn to the next page, I'd expect the first words to be "jumps over the lazy dog" but in this instance "jumps over the lazy dog" is typically somewhere mid page. I've also had issues, again when syncing my position from a different device, where the location totally bugs out if I try to swipe back to the previous page. This happens infrequently, so I'm uncertain if there's any logic at play, but the location is often way off of where it should be when aiming for the previous page.
- tma-1 11y agoE-Reader for the price of a new PS4, no thanks.
- orbitur 11y agoThe copy here makes a big deal about reading outdoors. Can anyone comment on the current offerings and how reflective they are in sunlight?
- dev1n 11y agopaperweight and other e-ink readers are absolutely superb when reading outdoors.
- amykhar 11y agoThey are perfect for reading in sunlight. I use mine all summer long by the pool.
- amerkhalid 11y agoI have Kindle Keyboard and Paperwhite. Both of them are great for reading outdoors. Only time it is problem is when sun is directly reflecting in your eyes, but slight adjustment of wrist, problem is solved.
- Raphmedia 11y agoIf you can read a magazine, you can read a kindle. It's similar to glossy paper.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y agoIs it me, or is the whole product line looking a bit weak right now? Only one model has proper page turn buttons, and that's the most expensive. The cheapest is nice and cheap but has a low resolution. The paperweight looks like the best option at the moment; I'm not sure what the voyage offers for an extra $80.
- xzi 11y agoNot just you. The screen size being locked to 6 inches across the lineup is disappointing. I can understand why someone would want the small screen for portability, but an option for an 8-10 inch screen would be nice.
- Karunamon 11y agoAugh - I wish they'd stop making smaller kindles and go with another DX! Giving up all that screen space after having gained it is just painful. I wouldn't mind a hard keyboard again either, but apparently the design meme nowadays is that keyboards are a terrible thing to be virtualized or omitted entirely. (Bitter? Me?)
- sixothree 11y agoAll of the images show it being held with the right hand. Can it not be turned upside down and held with the left?
- amerkhalid 11y agoErgonomically looks great. They have fixed one of the issue with Paperwhite by adding physical page turn buttons. I prefer to use my Kindle Keyboard instead of Paperwhite everywhere but in bed. Accidentally touching the screen or tapping on a link when you wanted to turn a page is just too annoying. Now I wish that they had re-introduced Text-to-Speech feature, I would have bought it then. At present, I think it is too overpriced. There are many times when I get tired of holding Kindle and want to rest my hand. I simply plugin headphones and listen to whatever I was reading. Kindle's TTS is amazing and almost sounds like human.
- dimplesmcgee 11y agoI don't like that the page turners are only on the right side.
- GordonS 11y agoMy first thought when I say the buttons only on the right side were 'what if you're left handed!', but it seems they've thought of that: "Comfortably turn the page with either the touch display or dedicated page turn buttons located on the front of the handgrip. Whether you choose to read with your left or right hand, Kindle Oasis automatically rotates the page orientation to match." Having said that, when using my Kindle I often switch from one hand to the other to accommodate things like picking up a cup, or one arm getting tired. This is also a lot more expensive that the Paperwhite, or even the Voyage. While the dual battery concept seems nice, I can't say battery life with my existing Kindle has ever been an issue... don't think I'll be upgrading.
- blakeyrat 11y agoThe older Kindles, like the keyboard one I have, simply put the buttons on both sides. Seems like a more sensible solution. ;)
- riffraff 11y agoI don't think I've ever heard of anyone complaining of the buttons on both sides on the old kindles. I cannot understand why they chose to change something so obviously good.
- GordonS 11y agoTotally agree. Going by the excessive price, removing them from both sides certainly wasn't a cost decision!
- GordonS 11y agoDownvoter care to comment? Genuinely interested in what you find disagreeable!
- Aleman360 11y agoBecause the grip and weight balance will make one-handed reading more comfortable.
- jenkstom 11y agoIt is about time that an e-Reader works one handed. I have no idea why this wasn't done years ago.
- mynameisvlad 11y agoThe original Kindles had page turn buttons on each side. The Kindle Voyage has capacitive page turn buttons on each side. I don't really see what's so special about this other than that it has a bigger bezel on the side with the buttons.
- eb0la 11y agoI love my 2nd gen Kindle for having those page turn buttons on both sides. Not just for left or right hande people. Sometimes you want to rest and can't stop reading.
- ljf 11y agoStill look my Nook which allows you to determine the function of the buttons, so I can happily use it one handed down at the beach etc. Great bit of kit and was so cheap!
- reustle 11y agoPrevious (current) discussion from 1 hour ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11488082 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11488082
- treehau5 11y agoThis solves the problem I am having with my kindle paperwhite -- difficult to read with one hand, often I hold it at the bottom with my thumb awkwardly sideways across the front to not invade the reading area, with my hand spread out across the back so it doesn't fall out of my hand. It gets tired after a while, so I end up switching hands, until eventually I have to put it down on a table, and then I am reading with my head down, which is also inefficient. I hope this creates demand for a paperwhite attachment / cover that will achieve this same ergonomic design for those of us that don't feel like forking over that much money after only just buying their paperwhites.
- pibefision 11y agoBooks are also difficult to read with one hand. I'm not sure if one hand is really important as a spec.
- nbb 11y agoRidiculous. Books also burn very easily, so apparently flammability should be an important spec of any e-reader.
- hsitz 11y agoNot a great analogy. The designed use-case for a book is to be held in your hands and read. Whereas burning is almost never desired, generally only happens if something goes awry. Given that two-hand holding is the norm for paper books I would say single-hand holding isn't a terribly important spec for an e-reader. Maybe it's desirable for some, maybe not. I would definitely give up a little bit of single-hand holdability for a larger screen, someone in thread above pointed out the 8" Bookeen Cybook Ocean, which at $180 looks like a good Kindle alternative: http://www.bookeen.com/en/cybook-ocean http://www.bookeen.com/en/cybook-ocean
- treehau5 11y agoI think that was the point of the analogy -- to illustrate how silly it is to compare the two based on that. They are different mediums. Books are books, and ebooks are ebooks.
- RodericDay 11y agoLooks really nice, but $500 CAD for the 3G version seems very steep.
- 0xCMP 11y agoWow it's significantly lighter than previous kindles, with more battery, and a nice case. People are going to say "ah, same old" but there are a lot of big changes here without going and breaking what makes kindles great. Will lots of people upgrade though? Probably not, the existing Kindles are also very good in their own right.
- stupidcar 11y agoSeriously? It significantly lighter without the cover. And is charging every few weeks really so burdensome that you'll pay an additional $170 (compared to the Paperwhite) to avoid it? That figure really bears repeating: ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY DOLLARS more. They're charging over twice the price of the Paperwhite, for a device with the same screen size, same resolution, same connectivity, etc. Madness.
- creshal 11y agoI can buy three Kobo Glo HD for the price of this, which are, in my experience, superior to the Voyage in everything but looks. And should, combined, have a comparable battery life to the Oasis…
- sk8ingdom 11y agoThis might be a niche market, but 4.7 oz (Oasis) down from 7.6 oz (Paperwhite) is nothing to scoff at for through hikers. People will gladly spend MUCH more than $170 to shave ounces on other equipment. The additional battery life also removes the need to carry a charging cable reducing weight further.
- GordonS 11y agoMy first thought when I say the buttons only on the right side were 'what if you're left handed!', but it seems they've thought of that: "Comfortably turn the page with either the touch display or dedicated page turn buttons located on the front of the handgrip. Whether you choose to read with your left or right hand, Kindle Oasis automatically rotates the page orientation to match." Having said that, when using my Kindle I often switch from one hand to the other to accommodate things like picking up a cup, or one arm getting tired. This is also a lot more expensive that the Paperwhite, or even the Voyage. While the dual battery concept seems nice, I can't say battery life with my existing Kindle has ever been an issue... don't think I'll be upgrading.
- DomBlack 11y agoInterseting to see that the UK price is £269.99, and the US price is $289.99 (£203.95). Seems a steep price different, even accounting for VAT. Edit: Wasn't taking into account Sales tax, it's not that bad actually
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- zepto 11y agoIf by steep you mean £25.
- koralatov 11y agoUsual caveats apply: U.S. sales tax is still to be added to that £204 figure, so it's not actually £204 for an American buying it. Adding vat to your £204 figure takes us to about £245, so even if we assume that an American does pay just £204 for it, it's only a £25 difference (~10%). It's not ideal, but it's actually not bad either --- I've seen that difference being much, much bigger in the past.
- DomBlack 11y agoI was under the impression that online shops didn't get Sales tax (not sure where I heard that, thanks for clarifiying)
- steve-howard 11y agoUsed to be the case, but it's happening less and less.
- ghaff 11y agoSpecifically, by default, mail order stores are not required to collect sales tax unless the have a physical presence in the state (retail store, sales office, distribution center, etc.) Quill Corp. v. North Dakota from 1992 is the major SCOTUS case law. In theory--at least in most states with sales tax--residents are supposed to pay a use tax on out-of-state purchases bought to be used in their state of residence. A number of states have put pressure on online retailers like Amazon to collect. One of their levers has been to argue that Amazon Associates constitute a physical presence. And Amazon has agreed to collect sales tax (although not for affiliate sales) in several states. Massachusetts for one.
- serge2k 11y agoThe design does look way better, but 300 is a stretch for me for a kindle.
- satysin 11y ago£269 in the UK for the Wifi model which also has "special offers" (which is just advertising). Umm no thanks Amazon.
- monkeyprojects 11y agoI said elsewhere that it's years since I saw a $1=£1 conversion rate
- username223 11y agoTo avoid the ads, just leave it in airplane mode unless you're syncing. This has the added advantage of saving battery.
- Sgt_Apone 11y ago$399 in Canada before sales tax. At that price they'll sell dozens if they're lucky.
- takno 11y agoI've mostly gone back to physical books. The Kindle was a nice experiment and all, but honestly it's more expensive and less convenient
- chucknelson 11y agoWell, a little more nuanced than that. I'd argue the convenience of getting books at the touch of a button outweighs some of its inconveniences (battery, etc.).
- takno 11y agoI don't particularly experience the inconveniences since I like going into bookshops and usually have a backlog to read. I still have the kindle app and a few kindle books for the occasions when they are useful. The real killer for me though is that at least a third of the books I read are lent to me by a friend, and most of the books I buy are shared on. Kindle doesn't really support this, and that makes the economics of ebooks rather poor for me.
- nicpottier 11y agoFrom what I can tell this is still micro-usb. What happened to the everything is type-c dream? Honestly that's probably the only thing that'll get me to upgrade from my current one as I just want the same damn connector for everything. (which I did for a while with micro-usb, but damnit, we are moving on in theory!)
- anoonmoose 11y agoBefore I got my Nexus 5x, I would have thought your comment nitpicky, but it really is a vastly superior connector.
- paulojreis 11y ago... except for power. Damn Apple for replacing the MagSafe with USB Type-C.
- blakes 11y agoIt is still much better than Micro-USB for power.
- toxican 11y agoI'm still annoyed they didn't ship it with a Type-A -> Type-C cable. Would that have ruined their ability to do the fast charge? Because if not, it would be really nice to not have to bottleneck it through an adapter or buy new PC hardware that supports a Type-C port to xfer data or charge it via PC.
- donatj 11y agoI don't see what makes this worth $100 more than the Kindle Voyage other than it being thin? Am I missing something?
- monkeyprojects 11y agoComparing like for like with the voyage, the voyage is missing $60 of leather case that Amazon is including this time around
- wallzz 11y agoso thin that the screen breaks at the slightest pressure, I owned 2 kindles, they ended up with the screen broke in two after every travel.
- jon-wood 11y agoWhat were you doing to them? I treat my Kindle terribly and the only damage its ever had is a small part of the screen which no longer works because my keys pushed into it.
- creshal 11y agoWhat Kindle do you have? My Kindle 3 (complete with physical keyboard!) still keeps rocking, but my Voyage broke after less than half a year. I moved to a Kobo Glo HD after that. DRM free, account free, same screen, more robust.
- jon-wood 11y agoI've got a Paperwhite, so maybe that's what did it. I don't really see the point in the higher end models myself, I wouldn't even have bought the Paperwhite if it weren't for the screen backlight.
- creshal 11y agoI bought the Voyage for its better screen… a week or so before Amazon announced an updated Paperwhite with the same screen.
- 0xffff2 11y agoI abuse the hell out of my Paperwhite, and it only suffered any ill effects when it got dropped into a campfire on a recent trip. I literally cannot imagine what you could be doing to reliably destroy Kindles during normal travel.
- clement75009 11y agoYeah for physical buttons! I miss them on the Paperwhite.
- verytrivial 11y agoI have two Kindle 4s, the last with physical page turn buttons on the edge (until know). I have drooled over the Paperwhite screens but was holding out for one with physical buttons. If the Oasis and its Apple Watch market segment price is anything to go by, I'll be holding on to the 4s for quite some time.
- iagooar 11y agoAs a leftie, I feel like it is going to be uncomfortable to use, given that most of the weight of the device sits on the right hand side.
- justinv 11y agoFrom the photos, it seems you can flip it around and it works for lefties.
- dragontamer 11y agoHold it upside down. The pages will flip orientation if you do that, and all the weight will be on the left side.
- thrownaway2424 11y agoTurn it upside-down.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- glaberficken 11y agoWithout looking it up, I'm guessing its rotatable?
- kawsper 11y agoThe only thing that have held me back from upgrading to a Paperwhite is that the background LED is always on. I hope this allows you to turn it off, but like the information about the Paperwhite, it is probably going to be buried in the forums.
- mgberlin 11y agoYou're not the first person I've heard to complain about this, but is it really an issue? When it's on the lowest setting you're hard pressed to see the glow in even the darkest of rooms, and the battery life is still amazing.
- bitL 11y agoI have Voyage with the lights turned off. Maybe it's just Paperwhite issue?
- ortusdux 11y ago10 whole leds!
- unethical_ban 11y agoI'll echo everything else: far too much money. I felt like a chump for buying the Voyage weeks before the new Paperwhite came out with the same screen. The voyage is nice, but I would have gladly saved money with the PW3. And that's at $200! The Oasis is definitely a tool for the really hardcore reader, or otherwise for the wealthy. And frankly, I really like the Voyage case for setting it on tables or laying in bed.
- BlackjackCF 11y agoThis feels like Amazon putting out a new Kindle for the sake of... putting out a new Kindle to keep the product line looking fresh. If this somehow knocks down the price for the Paperwhite, I'm all for it... so I can get a Paperwhite. :P
- chm 11y agoThey did bring back physical buttons though. And the ergonomics have change significantly - for better or worse. I really think they're trying their best and not just trashing around products every x months... And frankly, I've only owned one Kindle v4 and it's been going strong ever since, albeit I use it much less than before.
- tushar-r 11y agoWhy not talk to customer support and see if they'll let you exchange it by paying the difference?
- jerrycruncher 11y agoThe pricing is especially egregious as it appears that this model shows ads on the lock screen with no way of disabling them. With some previous models you could pay ~$30 more and have an ad-free experience.
- fmorel 11y agoYou can buy the upgrade afterwards like the other Kindles.
- hudo 11y agoI was really looking forward to upgrade my paperwhite, but this is total disappointment. Almost 3x more $$ than paperwhite, but the very similar specs; LED lights are just fine on paperwhite, same DPI, same size, same touchscreen, absolutely nothing worth upgrading IMHO! Buttons are ok but never missed them, definitely not worth money. And I still can't read IT books on that 6" screen. What a shame. Amazon is without ideas, and money. Or paperwhite is simply good enough?
- TillE 11y agoSame. I have an original Paperwhite, which doesn't have the latest firmware with the Bookerly font and everything. So I was really excited about buying a new Kindle. But not for $300. Now? I dunno. I'm not terribly eager to buy a year old Paperwhite, so maybe I'll just wait until the next generation.
- colin_jack 11y agoSame for me, it looks good but £270 is too much for me to justify.
- ascagnel_ 11y agoI have the 2013 Paperwhite with the Bookerly update. The font looks great, but the system is now so laggy it borders on unusable.
- therein 11y agoI really don't understand why they aren't targeting students that have to carry a ton of heavy textbooks. Why not target medical students with a product? Why just make a device with a screen that can only accommodate a novel?
- readams 11y agoBecause e-readers are just really bad for textbooks. They work really only for things you want to read from start to finish (they work great for that though!). Paper textbooks are a lot better if you're flipping back and forth or trying to use it for reference.
- paol 11y agoStill 6 inches. I'm not sure why ebook readers standardized on that size, it feels too small at least to me. Finally bought one last year and ended up choosing the Kobo H20 partly because of that - it's 6.8" which is not bad, but I suspect the sweet spot would probably be somewhere between 7 and 7.5. Edit: for people looking for big readers (for technical books and such, where 6" is quite useless), the ones I'm aware of are the 8" Bookeen Cybook Ocean and the inkBOOK 8 (the later was still vaporware when I looked into it, not sure if it's available now).
- desireco42 11y agoI am like you, here is my money, just get me a larger format kindle, or kobo for that matter. You can't read comic books or magazines in such small edition. Kobo honestly looks better. There must be some technical challenge to issue something 7-8" sized.
- pawelkomarnicki 11y agoWho would read comic books on a monochromatic display? :D There're tablets for that :P
- benologist 11y agoComics can be black and white - I grew up reading one called The Phantom decades ago printed in b&w, and more recently I read The Walking Dead comics that are b&w too.
- zyxley 11y agoAlso, most manga is 90+% percent black and white, with many series having at most maybe one or two colored splash pages per issue, or the occasional promotional or plot climax issue that's all color.
- riffraff 11y agoPlenty of the popular comics in Italy are published in b&w too, color was only used for premium/special editions.
- elevensies 11y agoApropos nothing, I just checked my email records and I have 294 purchase receipts from Amazon Kindle books going back to 2010. I've read the vast vast majority of these on various iPhones and I have no complaints. It works great for me for 6+ hour sessions of reading. I'm still looking for the right PDF reader, currently using GoodReader which for me is merely acceptable.
- tallanvor 11y agoI've owned about 4 Kindles (always upgraded, never had one break), but I just don't see any reason to upgrade to this model, especially given the price. I don't understand why they haven't included waterproofing yet. Or at least IP68 certification so you don't have to worry at the beach or by a pool.
- toxican 11y agoI don't know how many years its been, but all this time and the only reason I see to upgrade from my gen4 Kindle is my lack of back light, which has never really been a huge issue as I don't do much night reading.
- criddell 11y agoI also have a gen 4 Kindle and a few months ago bought a Paperwhite. The Paperwhite backlight is fantastic, but what really stands out for me is the improved layout engine. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3046678/the-kindle-finally-gets-typography-that-doesnt-suck http://www.fastcodesign.com/3046678/the-kindle-finally-gets-...
- pfooti 11y agoI got a paperwhite for the touchscreen and backlight - both made the device a lot better for reading in bed, and that was a long time ago: a 1st gen paperwhite replaced a 2nd gen kindle, and the turn-page button on the 2nd gen was loud enough to bug my wife if she was trying to sleep. The battery on my paperwhite still lasts a week or more of regular reading, so I'm not about to upgrade for battery life (I have an anker for long trips anyway). I guess maybe the big bezel would have to be a lot more comfortable for me to want to spend on the upgrade. OTOH, I'm a loyal customer who buys kindle books from the amazon store (or gets them from the library), so amazon already has me as a customer anyway, so maybe the device sale is no big deal.
- undoware 11y agoI already have a great portable e-book reader that's light enough to hold in my hand. It's my phone. And it's a sunk cost. Oh, and it's not locked to a single bookseller. I spend all day reading text on screens; when it comes to recreational reading, why are my eyes suddenly so precious that they need a special display that's supposedly easy on them? Like, the rest of the day I'm beating them up or something? $500CAD is almost the up-front cost of a Nexus 6p. And when I get tired of reading Proust I can play Neko Atsume. This is vesselmancy -- the same wayward urge that had fools plonking out for leatherbound copies of Encyclopedia Britannica as late as the '00s, when they could have -- should have -- known better. The container has been abstracted. The value is not there anymore. Amazon is just doing arbitrage on the delayed response the background culture has to value migration. $60 leather case included indeed.
- bendykstra 11y agoIt's funny that you mention vesselmancy. As an early adopter of e-ink, I had to endure years of talk about how e-ink will never smell or feel like a real book. I'm the opposite of the person who ordered the leatherbound Encyclopedia Britannica. I bought an early ereader and put all my books in the attic! Phone displays and computer screens are just fine for reading text, but the fact that you completely discount the value of e-ink makes me wonder if you've seen a recent e-ink display in person. The advantages really become apparent at the extremes: bright sunlight or dim rooms in the evening. Also, the ergonomics of reading on a phone or a computer are not great for books and long articles. It's no coincidence that e-readers tend to be about the size of paperback books. Tablets are better, but they are more expensive, more fragile and more power-hungry.
- maxaf 11y agoMy 5.5 year old Kindle 3 is still going strong. I could definitely see a strong case for a backlit display, but the device I have right now is not worse than a dead tree book in this regard. My attitude might seem reactionary, however, I feel that in the case of a device that is used for an intimate and intellectual activity, more does not always equal better.
- mseebach 11y agoNo, but better is better. The paper-white display (with backlight) is substantially, appreciably better than the old displays. The absence of the extremely rarely used keyboard is also welcome. The Paperwhite model doesn't have page buttons though which is a regression (fixed on later models which still has the paperwhite display).
- maxaf 11y agoYeah, the keyboard is just a gimmick. I only ever use it to enter wifi passwords. So, in this case less is actually better! :P
- nicole_express 11y agoJust recently bought a Kindle Voyager (to replace my Kindle 2, which ended up having its screen crack after a fall), and I have to say the physical buttons on this are appealing-- definitely something I miss about the Kindle 2, though the Voyager's pressure-sensitive sides aren't terrible. Not sure it's $90 appealing, though.
- mrbill 11y agoI owned a Kindle 1, 2, Keyboard, and then a Paperwhite. The first-gen PW was EXTREMELY disappointing - their much-hyped backlighting was uneven and splotchy, and I hated being forced to use a touchscreen instead of having page-turn buttons. So, when the Nexus 7 FHD came out, I switched to using that (despite having to use a touchscreen) and the PW has gathered dust. If I ever dig it back out, I'll have to do a manual firmware update for the SSL cert issue, but I need to do that for the K1 I have in storage as well. It was surprising when I dug the K1 out of a box last year and the built-in 3G still worked fine.
- zephyrus1985 11y agoYes finally an ereader designed for Africa the land of wild animals and no electricity !
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- sebular 11y agoI really wish the Kindle team had more imagination. It's a tablet designed for reading enthusiasts-- what about making one for writing enthusiasts? Imagine a very affordable, portable laptop with week-long battery life, completely free of distractions like youtube. It writes. It reads. It sends emails. That's it. Maybe as a stretch, they could quietly make it attractive to the tech community with a Unix-compatible shell and SSH ability. Call it the Kindle TypeLighter. You're welcome, Amazon. I'll accept my royalty payments in personal check. EDIT: Before anyone says anything about refresh rates, there's plenty of electronic ink technologies that are more than capable of supporting the rates needed to rapidly add characters to the screen. This thing, for example: http://www.dasung.com.cn/ http://www.dasung.com.cn/
- galistoca 11y agoThey probably already thought about it ten years ago and probably working on it. It's not some groundbreaking and original new idea you're suggesting, it's natural that once you're able to read you want to write. I at least had the same thought the first day I bought my first kindle. Probably the reason we don't have it is because of implementation details.
- Erwin 11y agoYou can buy this Sony thing right now: http://www.sony.com/electronics/digital-paper-notepads/dpts1 http://www.sony.com/electronics/digital-paper-notepads/dpts1 -- thin A4 display.
- ghaff 11y agoIt looks interesting if it works as advertised. (The reviews seem a bit mixed.) But at $799 you'd need to have a pretty compelling use case (like reading an annotating a lot of PDF journal articles) to justify it vs. just annotating articles on a tablet.
- protomyth 11y agoIs Amazon still refusing to support ePub on their devices? It looks like that from the spec and conversions didn't look correct last time I tried.
- beeboop 11y ago>Our thinnest Kindle ever *except for the half of the device that makes it the thickest Kindle ever Almost as bad as HP advertising their new laptop as being as thin as a AAA battery: http://www.blogcdn.com/slideshows/images/slides/384/908/4/S3849084/slug/l/p1010313-1.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/slideshows/images/slides/384/908/4/S3...
- markatto 11y agoPer the specs on the store page, the thickness is 3.4-8.5 mm. This means that even at the thickest point, it is still thinner than the normal kindle (10.2 mm) and the paperwhite (9.1 mm), and slightly thicker than the voyage (7.6 mm).
- bitL 11y ago4GB in 2016. Amazon, it's not funny, really! Or actually it is very funny... Good luck!
- criddell 11y agoHow much on-board storage do you think would be enough? I'm guessing Amazon has a pretty good idea of how much storage their best customers need.
- bitL 11y agoI have to read plenty of PDFs (imagine recent research articles) and have many books in PDF format I bought (a single photography/visual art book PDF can be easily 100MB) - if Amazon had incorporated a silly microSD card slot, I could stuff everything I got into it. Now my Voyage is relegated to "hot items" only, the ones I need to read right now, and often I don't bother. Now what is the cost of a microSD slot? $0.20? They insist on some silly business model and they just ruin it for the resourceful clients that don't want to waste time switching between multiple devices, could buy a lot from them and inspire other people to "ape" after them as well. Now I rather stuff a 200GB microSD card into my Android phone (iPhone has the same issue), put everything there instead and buy ebooks elsewhere. Win for Amazon?
- mynameisvlad 11y agoHow can you even read PDFs on it? Whenever I try it tries to cram it from a 8.5x11 down to he 6in screen and everything turns out blurry. Images also don't seem to be fantastic on the devices, so I don't know how many high-image documents you could even use on that device.
- bitL 11y agoVoyage has 300ppi as well, so it's readable from close distances (kinda like low-quality laser print); research articles often have two columns per A4 so I just zoom in 200% and am more-less fine. I would rather have 8"+ 4:3 of course. And sometimes PDF rendering is extremely slow as well, but... On the other hand if I need a certain photography setup for achieving a certain look, I can use Voyage for that - imagine instead of a PDF book with lighting setups and examples of results you had a piece of paper with a drawing - seems pretty comparable quality-wise.
- piinbinary 11y agoIt feels like innovation on e-readers has stalled. Where is our color eink? Flexible screens?
- incepted 11y agoWow, $289?!? I loved the previous generation priced under $100 but that's a huge jump and I'm not convinced the feature list justifies such a price. I predict this is not going to sell very well. And I would have loved a slightly larger screen (7 inches).
- j_s 11y agoKindle keyboard (and text-to-speech) for life! :)
- douche 11y agoThe test-to-speech on the old kindles was surprisingly good. I used to walk to work, and listen to my kindle on the way. Also worked pretty good with one of those audio-to-tape adapter rigs in my old car - way better than trying to find non-abridged audiobooks on tape and then deal with switching through a box of a dozen tapes on long drives.
- amerkhalid 11y agoYup I love my Kindle Keyboard. TTS is really useful when you are driving or want to give your eyes a break.
- mintplant 11y agoI really wish they'd bring back the Kindle Developer Program in a better form than what it was. My Kindle is jailbroken, and software like KOReader [1] and KindleExplorer [2] have become must-haves. In the case of KOReader, the flexibility offered is just miles ahead of Amazon's stock reader app—even though reading is the central purpose of the device. [1] https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader [2] http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206296 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206296
- zyxley 11y agoDo you happen to know if there's any of these alternative reader apps for Kindle that'll sync ebook files from Dropbox?
- mintplant 11y agoSorry, I don't know of any that do that directly. KOReader can sync with Calibre on the desktop, so you could perhaps set that up as a passthrough. Or you could use something like BookDrop [1] or IFTTT that sends ebooks from Dropbox to the Kindle over Amazon's WhisperSync service. Those are stored in the "documents" folder on the Kindle, where KOReader could read them as well as the stock reader app. [1] https://getbookdrop.com/ https://getbookdrop.com/
- cableshaft 11y agoYou and me both. I have a turn based strategy game I had half developed for the Kindle, but I had some issues getting some things working (lots of limitations and peculiarities, especially supporting the 1st and 2nd gen devices, which was required) and life got in the way for a little while. Once I was motivated to start working on it again, it wasn't long before it became pretty clear that Amazon didn't believe in Active Content anymore and the rumors were flying that Amazon was going to pull the plug entirely, so I decided to move on. It's a shame, too, because the game really looked nice, and I think it would look amazing on the Paperwhite. The game stopped working on my Kindle Keyboard a couple of years ago (expired certificate).
- pitchka 11y agoWhy leather? It only increases the price for no value. A synthetic material would have been a far better choice. This is a no-buy for me.
- jsnk 11y ago"Buy once, read everywhere" I can't get this to work for my Kindle. I export lengthy articles and journal papers to mobi and save it on kindle device, but I can't find it on my mobile or my laptop ever.
- ghaff 11y agoThe key word is "buy." If it's associated with your digital purchases on Amazon, you can directly access them from any device. If you've downloaded/saved a document to a specific device, it's only on that device. However, my understanding is that you can import content to your personal Kindle library. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201974270 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_...
- fhood 11y agoI suspect that Amazon has realized that people don't upgrade their kindles the way they do their phone per say and they think that people will be willing to pay a lot more for something that lasts them 4 or 5 years, if it feels higher quality.
- neves 11y agoOk, I have a Kindle Paperwhite 7th generation. It's 300dpi. There's no reason even to desire this, right?
- artursapek 11y agoYou shouldn't let other people tell you what to desire ;)
- cmrdporcupine 11y agoThis is a terrible price, especially at the CAD ($400!) pricing. I would love page turning buttons on my paperwhite like my older kindles had. But I'm not paying $400 for the privilege of getting back what Amazon took away. The touchscreen on the paperwhite is a terrible idea.
- mmanfrin 11y agoAmazon sure has a problem pricing things. When they announced the Fire Phone I was all set to buy one out of plain curiosity, assuming it'd be priced at $299 -- then it came in at $699. Nope. I have bought every iteration of Kindle (other than the large one they sold when they first came out). This one I might skip. $300 for the same internals as the Voyage is steep. The only major changes are the form factor and a few more LEDs. I do like that it has physical buttons, but not $300 like. e: Also chiming in that I probably would have bought it anyway had it had usb-c, but it doesn't, still stuck on micro.
- terda12 11y ago$289.99 for an ugly looking kindle that isn't that different from the paperwhite... no thanks.
- jmspring 11y agoLate last year I upgraded from a kindle 3 (keyboard) to the Voyage. I like the Voyage quite a bit and the cover flipping over the top rather than to the side is more usable than the case for the paperwhite. As others have said, additional battery life isn't an issue for me.
- cooper12 11y agoWow, while I'm still disappointed that this doesn't support EPUB, I'm impressed by the feature set. It's clear that the team that did product design is really starting to understand book readers and their needs. The price-point seems to be targeting more dedicated readers it seems, especially with "luxury" offerings like leather covers. My only gripe is that a lot of the touted features will probably only be available for a select few books. It's good to see that even though the e-ink technology isn't maturing that much, the software integrations are increasing. Though personally I'd still go for a Kobo because of size and compatibility issues. Fingers crossed for that experimental color e-ink to ever make a debut...
- paulcole 11y agoWas looking forward to buying this, but have no interest in buying leather for ethical reasons. I emailed jeff@amazon.com about this and am curious what kind of response I get.
- dchest 11y agoIndeed, it's stupid that such high-tech device ships with dead animal skin.
- k_bx 11y agoFor someone who never had e-reader: how good are they to read PDFs with code? Most of my "books" are just PDFs and I've read e-readers were bad for them some time ago. Is it better now?
- darklajid 11y agoI'm on a paperwhite (the newest, I think?). Honestly, I think it works quite well. Code is fine. Graphics / Illustrations might be bad at times, depending on the formatting job. But then .. you know .. if you want an ebook reader, I'd consider this ~300 bucks one too expensive.
- coreyoconnor 11y agoStill bad IMO. I do not recommend using an e-reader for PDFs. I use a Kindle DX on a rare occasion. A tablet computer with pen provides the best experience IMO. I've used a iPad and an Android tablet before. Both have excellent PDF reading software. I recommend Bookari on Android. The Microsoft Surface, however, beats everything else I've tried.
- dcre 11y agoNot great -- the screen is too small, though the high DPI helps a bit. IMO the iPad is the only way to go for technical PDFs. The iPad Air 2 is a magnificent device.
- SyneRyder 11y agoI think the Oasis is for a different market than most people here. It started making sense to me once I looked at the math: * The Oasis weighs less than my current Kindle Keyboard 3G, even with the Oasis case. The 3G device weighs 247 grams - the Oasis is 133g, plus 107g for the battery cover (240g total). Never mind that my Keyboard 3G case itself weighs another 225g! * The Oasis is not the "thickest Kindle ever". At the thickest point of 0.33", it's still the same thickness a Kindle Keyboard 3G (0.335"). With a case, the Keyboard 3G was 0.75" thick! * The Oasis and the Voyage are roughly the same price. The Voyage doesn't include a cover, and it costs $85 to add an Amazon premium leather cover. That makes it just $5 less than an Oasis. Weight, size & battery life are important criteria for digital nomads or perpetual travellers. If you're trying to keep under a baggage weight limit, saving 225g can make a big difference. So if you're upgrading from a 5 year old device (that still works!), this is potentially a huge upgrade. This isn't a device for everyone, in fact I'm still unsure I'll upgrade my 3G yet (I don't travel as often nowadays). But I can at least see how it could improve my life.
- dmix 11y agoI'm definitely the target market for this. I spend so much time on my Kindle that I'd be willing to invest a few hundred in upgrading from my PaperWhite just to have a slightly better UX. Having buttons again to change pages is what I'm most excited about. Plus I've always wanted faster page turns, which is always increasing with each new release. I didn't get excited for the Voyage since it seemed so much like PaperWhites. Knowing I spend each night and hours on weekends holding and interacting with the device makes the price point for a 'pro'-style version reasonable.
- pjmlp 11y agoI love the Kindle and ebook readers in general, but my beloved Kindle doesn't like PDFs. Is there any Kindle that does a proper job displaying PDFs without one having to play all the time with zoom?
- racl101 11y agoStill doesn't support epub? Why bother?
- 15charlimit 11y agoPositives: -Physical buttons -Lighter -Smaller -Better frontlighting (supposedly) Negatives: -Shorter battery life (without the case) -STILL no memory expansion slot -Very, very expensive for a small-formfactor monochromatic e-reader I've owned every e-ink Kindle model released to date. Going to be skipping this one because there's no real value added over a last gen paperwhite except for physical buttons, which, while very nice, aren't worth tripling the price. Why do you hate people actually hauling around decent sized libraries, Amazon? Why no SD slot? The device isn't even waterproof yet, there's no excuse. Their pricepoint is a mistake, unless they just don't want to sell very many of these for some reason. Not much more to say about that.
- djhworld 11y agoI've owned a kindle paperwhite since 2013, it works fine tbh I don't feel the need to upgrade. Even the touted 10 LED backlight on the Oasis is meaningless to me, I never use the backlight on my Kindle as it is. The thing that is frustrating me more and more about the Kindle (and e-readers in general) is the amount of books still not available as ebooks, I don't understand why publishing houses like Penguin books have such a mixed bag when it comes to having a Kindle offering for some titles.
- Havoc 11y ago> the amount of books still not available as ebooks And the retarded pricing. Its regularly at the same or higher as mass paperback. Unless shipping costs have turned negative thats just bullsht.
- piquadrat 11y agoThere's a conspiracy theory going around that the nonsensical pricing for Kindle ebooks is caused by a strategy from the big publishers to make the Kindle less attractive. Their worst nightmare of an Amazon monopoly on digital distribution is becoming more and more a reality. Setting the price for Kindle editions unrealistically high is one way to fight that.
- Havoc 11y ago>There's a conspiracy theory going around that Well something definitely is screw-y with the pricing so I'd consider that theory quite plausible.
- shostack 11y agoI wonder how much battery might be saved with an "invert colors" mode for nighttime reading. I love that feature for my various iPad reading apps and desperately wish my Paperwhite had that capability. It would be so much easier on the eyes as well.
- geoelectric 11y agoProbably not much. e-ink only sucks battery when it's changing pixels, and the same ones change whether or not it's inverted.
- shostack 11y agoBummer--makes sense though. Thanks for the explanation.
- swiecki 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink
- heisnotanalien 11y agoWhy have the buttons on just one side? That means I can effectively only read with one hand. I basically just want a paperwhite with page turn buttons on both sides.
- WalterBright 11y agoI'm glad the buttons are back!
- Frenchgeek 11y agoSo, if you're left handed it's upside down by default?
- Slippery_John 11y agoDisappointing. I can see some very small demographics being interested in this, but I don't see the average consumer benefiting purchasing it.
- adventured 11y agoThis is a terrible price point for what's at best a weak upgrade to the Voyage. $290? That's nuts, unless you're going to give me a 10" screen with it. I was waiting on buying a new Kindle, hoping the Oasis would have a larger screen. Now I'll just buy the Voyage instead.
- vanous 11y agoNice. We have a Kindle for book reading but I have been considering letter/a4 size epaper reader for music score notes for my children, the amount of paper they carry around is incredible. Too bad Amazon doesn't offer anything like this yet.
- bborud 11y agoI'm sorry but the device didn't need fixing. The shitty user experience of getting content on it and managing it needed fixing. Until that is taken care of this is still not the device it could be.
- peletiah 11y agoCalibre solves that for me. Also I barely buy books on Amazon thanks to it.
- graffitici 11y agoI wish Amazon would start investing more effort into the software of the Kindle, and make it more into a platform. I still use mine mainly to read eBooks. I would love to use it for reading my Pocket list, for instance. I've been waiting for such an integration for a while. Amazon's doing a much better job with third party integration in the smart home domain. I still hope the eBook division will follow suit..
- harrisonhunter 11y agoCheckout https://p2k.co/ https://p2k.co/, I think it does a good job solving the specific Pocket problem. I agree with your general sentiment though
- DennisP 11y agoCan anybody tell where the power button is? The Paperwhite has it at the bottom, which isn't ideal for setting it on the elliptical machine.
- bb101 11y agoA new Kindle, and still the size of a postage stamp. Do people really like to read on such a tiny screen? I ended up buying a Kobo H2O when I compared it next to a Kindle Voyage - bonus is I can use it in the bath without worrying about getting it wet!
- d_theorist 11y agoIt doesn't have the adaptive light sensor from the Voyage? It always feels like one step forward, one step back with this product line.
- meehow 11y agoIsn't it easier/cheaper to add small solar panel than second battery?