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Proper comparison would probably be Oasis 1, which like this one has LEDs aligned on the ‘grip’ side rather than the bottom, and it has 10. The LEDs need to be close enough to each other so as to minimize gaps, so the longer the side they are located on, the more you need to use. The ratio 10/12 is very close to 6”/7” so the spacing is similar to Oasis 1. Both Oasis models have LED spacing narrower than Voyage so that probably means they can cover a broader range of brightness levels (I think that was part of the ‘message’ when Oasis came out).
My Voyage is perfect to my eyes, significantly better than Paperwhite 3. Paperwhite seemed to have more issues with ‘color blotches’ (prism effect) and ‘light cones’ and ‘pinholes’ than the Voyage or Oasis. I don’t expect to see new issues with Oasis 2, as this is the third iteration on the same basic lighting scheme, or at least second try at lighting from the side instead of the bottom. I recall some people complaining about Oasis they see a gradient emitting from the grip side, and when you switch hands it goes the other direction, and they find it too distracting compared to Voyage which is L-R symmetric. So we’ll see if there’s been improvement there (ideally there would be no detectable gradient but some eyes are more sensitive than others).
SD slot would be another thing to waterproof, and they aren’t necessarily trouble free, may need to be re-seated every so often, etc. 32GB isn’t really enough for a smartphone or tablet these days but it is unimaginably vast for an ereader, which traffics mostly in text, and most people will not read 32GB of text in their entire lifetime. So if they had to pick only 2 configurations, 8 and 32 is better and more forward-leaning than 4 and 16 or 8 and 16. There will always be people who want more than even 32 but this has to be pretty far down the tail of demand.
They added SD storage to Fire, because that whole business is based on low price and low margins. Plus once you start downloading video and fancy games there is no amount of memory they could pre-configure that would be enough for everyone, while keeping the price down.
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