Amazon Kindle Oasis (2019) review
Our Verdict
The Kindle Oasis is still for merely the wealthier bibliophiles among united states.
For
- Sleek metallic blueprint
- Water resistant
- Precipitous, well-lit display
- Concrete navigation buttons
Confronting
- Expensive
- Still displays lock-screen ads
- No charger included
- Bloated interface
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Kindle Oasis is still for only the wealthier bibliophiles amidst us.
Pros
- +
Sleek metallic blueprint
- +
Water resistant
- +
Sharp, well-lit display
- +
Physical navigation buttons
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Notwithstanding displays lock-screen ads
- -
No charger included
- -
Bloated interface
The 10th-generation Kindle Oasis ($249) faces stronger headwinds than ever before, and now they're coming from within Amazon. This luxury e-reader's waterproof durability is no longer an exclusive, equally the Kindle Paperwhite ($129) now offers the exact same IPX8-level protection against liquid ingress.
Kindle sales!
Amazon's more affordable Kindles are discounted for a limited time. That starts with normal Kindle marked down to $65 at Amazon. And then in that location'south the Kindle Kids Edition at $79 at Amazon ($thirty off). Lastly, you tin relieve $35 on our favorite: the Kindle Paperwhite, currently $95 at Amazon.
To keep the Haven afloat, Amazon gave the metal e-reader a new feature: display warmth, for changing the hue of your page. But should yous spend almost twice as much as a Paperwhite costs when yous could just as easily spend that money on more books? It all depends on how much you value the fiddling things, similar buttons and an extra inch of screen, aspects that this Kindle Haven 2019 review volition compare against its competitors. Most readers, though, will encounter the Oasis as a difficult sell, even though it'southward a fantastic piece of hardware that earned its way to the ranks of our best Kindle listing.
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Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Price and release date
The current Kindle Oasis costs $249 and came out on July 24, 2019.
Kindle Haven 2019 review: Design
The Kindle Oasis' aluminum dorsum is the device'south most elegant attribute. I tested a graphite-silver model, though I'm more than intrigued by the champagne gold edition, which looks even more luxurious.
Dissimilar the Paperwhite, the Oasis has concrete buttons for navigation and page-turning, as well as a tapered dorsum. The buttons are a big plus for folks like myself. I've have never really loved interacting with e-reader impact screens, where there always seems to be a slight lag betwixt tap and activeness.
At 6.half dozen ounces, the Haven is a hair heavier than the vi.4-ounce Paperwhite, simply you won't notice this 3% divergence. The Haven' tapered back is on the same side as the device'due south concrete buttons and indicates which side of the slate you're supposed to hold.
I like the Oasis' pattern, merely after asking effectually, I institute that it's a scrap divisive. Tom'due south Guide Editor Marshall Honorof disapproves of this slate's asymmetrical design, which is absolutely un-volume-like. My mom also prefers the Paperwhite, every bit she doesn't see the need for physical buttons. In the terminate, though, I capeesh that Amazon uses its higher-end toll signal to test a unique design, while keeping its more-affordable options simple.
Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Durability
The Kindle Oasis' water resistance is no longer a unique characteristic; the Paperwhite matched the Oasis' IPX8 waterproof rating in 2018. All the same, nosotros dunked the Haven in a bath of tap water for lx minutes and watched it survive (and thrive), only equally the 2017 Kindle Haven, and the Paperwhite, did earlier. The new Oasis' buttons (merely not its screen) fifty-fifty stayed responsive while the e-reader was submerged.
Check out our video below, to see that dunk examination for yourself.
Kindle Haven 2019 review: Display
Amazon'due south best Kindle screen learned a new fox: warmth. Yes, the Oasis' seven-inch screen isn't only bigger than the Paperwhite'south 6-inch console; it also changes colour.
A warmer display pick made me think that Amazon's pushing a blue-light filter, a characteristic that's are often meant to help y'all fall asleep easier (there'south some science backside that idea). As I tucked into Jenny Odell'south anti-productivity book "How to Practise Naught" (Melville House, 2019) at bedtime, I upped the warmth to encounter if the change would affect how fast I fell comatose.
The amber hue reminded me of the Night Shift mode from my iPhone, which is designed to reduce bluish calorie-free, but I didn't discover the Oasis' functionality as sleep-inducing as the iPhone's. Just similar with Night Shift, you tin can schedule the display warmth to "gradually change with sunset and sunrise," as Amazon notes, or to match your own schedule.
MORE: The Kindle Oasis Adds Screen Warmth For Night Reading
Amazon is positioning screen warmth equally a customization pick, so y'all can accommodate the color of your virtual page. This way, the Haven' screen can look more like an aging, yellowed page, if that'due south your preference.
The Oasis' 300-points-per-inch, 7-inch screen is still my favorite of the east-reader pack. This display's supercrisp resolution is only as sharp every bit the Paperwhite's; text looks similar it's physically printed on the E Ink screen. Just that actress inch of screen real manor is welcome for those who are reading anything other than a traditional book.
For example, if you read PDFs on your Kindle — which I'g doing with the script for the horror motion picture Hereditary — those documents cannot be resized or formatted, which means you lot'll want to view them on every bit large a screen equally possible. The panel-by-console view way for graphic novels made it easier for me to read dialogue and run across details from "Saga" on the Haven, simply full-page viewing is still ameliorate on this slightly larger screen.
Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Reading Experience
No thing where I brought the Kindle Oasis, I ever got a dandy reading experience. And that's how it should be. After all,you lot're using an Eastward Ink tablet, as opposed to your telephone, for reading because its screen is easier on your eyes.
This by weekend, I brought the Oasis with me to the park, where I connected to page through the Hereditary script. I could all the same read the hyper-creepy text, even with the superbright daylight (and an intense heat wave) hitting the screen. The Oasis' display can take hold of a glimmer of glare, merely I saw that only when I was actively adjusting the device's bending.
The Oasis' automatically adjusting backlight is another standout feature, every bit it saved me time when I opened the e-reader in my bedroom for some pre-sleep reading. While adjusting backlighting takes only about iv taps total, this way I jumped straight into Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation" (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2014), rather than futzing with the brightness meter.
That automatic brightness, though, tends to err on the side of over-illumination. Every bit I read Don Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" (Basic Books, 2013) at a subway station, where I had enough of light, I could tell that the device's automatic setting was brighter than it needed to be. This isn't a trouble, per se, but I definitely think it led to the battery draining a little faster than it needed to.
MORE: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) Review
The Oasis features a whopping 25 LED lights, more than twice what Amazon put on the 2017 Oasis (12 LEDs) and five times as many as yous get in the latest Paperwhite (5 LEDs). The new Oasis maxes out at 167 nits of effulgence, which handily outshines the 78-nit Paperwhite and narrowly edges out the 155-nit 2017 Oasis.
Kindle Haven 2019 review: Interface
The Kindle appeals to those looking to declutter stacks of books, merely its interface is in dire need of some spring cleaning. I become why each of its special features exists (and that they tin can be disabled), but they're all turned on by default, and most readers won't spend the fourth dimension to disable these settings.
Just look at what happens when you open up a new volume. Instead of jumping direct into the bodily text, you get an About This Book pop-over, which gives yous metadata about the volume and cloyingly prods you to employ Goodreads past noting (incorrectly) that "Reading is more than fun with friends." Detritus besides clouds the domicile screen, where the lesser 3rd of the screen throws curated recommendations at yous.
Equally I read Lux Alptraum'due south "Faking Information technology" (Seal Press, 2018), and most other books, I saw underlined passages with notes nigh how many people highlighted that section. I don't mean to sound hating, but I don't care which sections of a novel other people constitute interesting. I only want to read a book, not participate in some thousand social experiment that feels similar a instructor is managing my assignments.
Since I might be an outlier in all of these complaints, I call up Amazon should offer an option for a minimalist interface. Telephone call it Kindle Lite. Just let u.s.a. read books, and don't go far our mode. These "features" all add upwards to create a burden in the Kindle experience. The whole reason I use the device is for its focused, lark-gratuitous feel, which I can't find on my notification-filled phone.
But speaking of obstructions, let'southward talk nigh Amazon's Special Offers, the ads for other books that take over your Kindle's screen. You tin pay $twenty to get rid of them, simply since the Haven already costs $250, which is $100 more the ad-complimentary Kindle Paperwhite, I had hoped Amazon would merely take away ads as a favor.
Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Battery Life and Storage
The Kindle Oasis' bombardment life is good; y'all won't be charging it every day, possibly in one case a week — simply that can vary. Amazon rates the Kindle Oasis for up to 6 weeks of battery life, but that's based on one-half an hour of reading per day, with wireless and Bluetooth off and lighting gear up to 13 out of 24.
Over the form of iv days — when I read for most an hour per day and downloaded novels, graphic novels and audiobooks — I managed to bleed its charge down to 66%, from 100%. That means I'm probably going to empty its accuse in most 11 to 12 days.
The new Oasis frustrates me, but as the old one did, because it does not include a ability adapter. Yes, almost of u.s. have a spare ability brick or USB-A port to use with the included charging cable. Merely Amazon's asking $250 for this east-reader, and at that cost, the visitor should throw everything in, even if information technology costs an executive somewhere an ivory back scratcher.
MORE: Amazon Kindle (2019) Review: A Skilful Upkeep E-Reader
Nearly of the novels I've downloaded onto the Oasis take up 1MB of space, which means you tin can store thousands of books on the entry-level, 8GB version of the eastward-reader. And don't worry — that includes larger, graphic-intensive titles, such as "Saga Book 3" (Image Comics, 2019), a collection of 18 comic books, which takes upwardly 64 MB. Consider the 32GB model (which costs $thirty more) merely if you lot love audiobooks, as the Audible version of "How to Do Nothing," for case, is a hefty 114MB. Of form, you tin can annal any and all content to the cloud and redownload it later.
Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Content and Audiobooks
Much similar Amazon'southward Fire tablets and Echo speakers, the Kindle Oasis is a fantastic device for consuming content in Amazon's ecosystem. The Kindle store is filled with bestseller novels from pinnacle authors, too as magazines, short-class fiction, comics from Comixology (an Amazon subsidiary) and Kindle-optimized versions of major newspapers (The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' own Washington Post).
The Oasis also includes the ability to heed to audiobooks from Audible (another Amazon-owned outlet). This device'south lack of an internal speaker or headphone jack, however, means you can heed simply over Bluetooth speakers or headphones. If you're asking, "Why wouldn't I just practice that on my telephone?" the answer is simple: The Haven makes switching from text to audio unproblematic. If yous ain both the Kindle and Aural versions of a book, you can easily switch betwixt them by tapping the headphone or book icon in the lower right corner of the Kindle screen.
As I mentioned earlier, the Kindle isn't as great for dealing with PDFs. Y'all can go frontwards and backward in a file, and that's it. No zooming, no tweaking, merely reading — just page turning. (Ironically, the overall interface could learn a lesson from this minimalist situation.)
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You can also bank check out library books with a few simple taps, though we've observed that our local library organization offers thousands more Barnes & Noble Nook-compatible epubs than it does Kindle-compatible mobis.
Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Lesser Line
With its sleek metallic pattern, clicky buttons and new customizable page hues, the Amazon Kindle Haven offers more than your average e-reader. If only its toll weren't nearly twice as much equally the Paperwhite's.
While this Kindle Oasis 2019 review shows why it's my personal favorite Kindle, it's non the rex of the e-book castle. The Kindle Paperwhite, with its midrange price and waterproof design, is yet the model virtually readers should get.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/kindle-oasis-2019-10th-generation
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