Kindle Oasis Buyer's Thread

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by disconnected

There's a whole bunch of enablers here.

I ended up ordering Treasure Hunt. I have the same one on my H2O (actually on the front of a cover for the H2O, thanks to someone here giving me the idea) and I think the colors look ok with the merlot. It's not the sort of subject that usually appeals to me but for some reason I've always liked it. With any luck the pattern will be placed in such a way that I won't end up with half a girl showing.

Yolina, I'm not in favor of giant branding either but I'm grateful that at least it isn't in gold letters. It really isn't very obtrusive on the merlot cover.

Didn't you read the fine print, enable is a must.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Didn't you read the fine print, enable is a must.

That's ok. It gives me someone else to blame for making me do something I'd have done anyway.

[detayls]

Too many little niggly things so not worth the money to me.

1. No automatic brightness
2. Battery issue - sudden drop from 33% to zero
3. Not quite as dark as my Voyage
4. Strangely the backlight for me was fine. YMMV
5. Voyage case allows standing up the reader

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by detayls

Too many little niggly things so not worth the money to me.

1. Battery issue - sudden drop from 33% to zero

Caveat: this is a typical consequence of a not-yet-calibrated charging circuit: I saw it on my first charge from the case after purchase, although in my case it fell from 41% to zero. Future discharges should be fine as long as the battery's discharge curve is more or less unchanged (which it damn well should be if it's working right).

[detayls]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Caveat: this is a typical consequence of a not-yet-calibrated charging circuit: I saw it on my first charge from the case after purchase, although in my case it fell from 41% to zero. Future discharges should be fine as long as the battery's discharge curve is more or less unchanged (which it damn well should be if it's working right).

Good to know. Academic for this Kindle, which is on its way back to Amazon.

[pssquirrel]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Caveat: this is a typical consequence of a not-yet-calibrated charging circuit: I saw it on my first charge from the case after purchase, although in my case it fell from 41% to zero. Future discharges should be fine as long as the battery's discharge curve is more or less unchanged (which it damn well should be if it's working right).

Do you need to run it down to zero to calibrate, or will it calibrate itself through normal use?

[HarryT]

The fastest way to calibrate is to let it run down to the low battery warning, but it'll improve its calibration through extended use anyway.

[cerem0ny]

First impressions! Mine just arrived!
I'm pretty happy but yeah its definately not worth the cash and so far I'm thinking the voyage display looks better... The Oasis screen is definately not as dark in black text which is a noticeable shame. The gradient is obviously there and if you noticed the gradient on the voyage (and got used to it too) then you'll do the same on the oasis. There is also indeed 'scalloping' on the right from LEDs but if I learned anything from the Voyage it is easy to ignore. The black leather cover doesn't have anywhere near the character of the red or brown and reminds me a lot of the non-premium Origami voyage cover.
However it is incredibly light and feels amazing in the hand! For $450 I'm not completely sold on keeping it but so far, I am very happy

Edit: if you're a real stickler for quality like me, you will probably be quite dissapointed with the quality of the screen, it really is quite terrible. If you were annoyed with the two toned voyage, this is going to be an even worse experience as a top to bottom gradient is probably easier to deal with than a left to right one... Also the scallopping LED's is another whack in the face, and spending $450 on this thing kind of makes me feel like a chump! I'll spend a couple of days with it and see what happens but good lord, Amazon sure is taking people for a ride with devices like this, it is kind of ridiculous. and another thing is that the text has SIGNIFICANTLY less contrast than the voyage to my eyes, which is annoying. I suppose I could go into the old exchange a thousand times til I get a half decent one but I have a job these days :P

I'm not really comfortable with letting these faults with the screen slide, but I absolutely -love- the weight, the form factor, the asymmetry, and the size. If this was priced the same as the Voyage I'd be slightly happier, but still unhappy with the quality control... Like I said, the whole 'screen changes in colour as you read from left to right' thing might take a while to get used to but otherwise it's a beautiful rose with some painful thorns also I feel like the gradient is more apparent than on the Voyage but that could just be my discerning first day eyes, after a while the gradient pretty much just disappeared to my eyes on the Voyage. Why is it that it's only ereaders than continue to disappoint me with their screen tech! Not sure whether I'm going to exchange it or not, looking through the threads I might be one of the really, really unlucky ones with a particularly prominent gradient

[SCION]

I would exchange it at least once, while you can. Why not. But don't expect no shadows from the LEDs. The gradient should be subtle, which is what mine has. I tried 7 Voyages and just couldn't ignore that yellow top, so I'm very sensitive to seeing a gradient. But my Oasis gets a pass in that regard.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

[kobayashi]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

First impressions! Mine just arrived!
I'm pretty happy but yeah its definately not worth the cash and so far I'm thinking the voyage display looks better... The Oasis screen is definately not as dark in black text which is a noticeable shame. The gradient is obviously there and if you noticed the gradient on the voyage (and got used to it too) then you'll do the same on the oasis. There is also indeed 'scalloping' on the right from LEDs but if I learned anything from the Voyage it is easy to ignore. The black leather cover doesn't have anywhere near the character of the red or brown and reminds me a lot of the non-premium Origami voyage cover.
However it is incredibly light and feels amazing in the hand! For $450 I'm not completely sold on keeping it but so far, I am very happy

Edit: if you're a real stickler for quality like me, you will probably be quite dissapointed with the quality of the screen, it really is quite terrible. If you were annoyed with the two toned voyage, this is going to be an even worse experience as a top to bottom gradient is probably easier to deal with than a left to right one... Also the scallopping LED's is another whack in the face, and spending $450 on this thing kind of makes me feel like a chump! I'll spend a couple of days with it and see what happens but good lord, Amazon sure is taking people for a ride with devices like this, it is kind of ridiculous. and another thing is that the text has SIGNIFICANTLY less contrast than the voyage to my eyes, which is annoying. I suppose I could go into the old exchange a thousand times til I get a half decent one but I have a job these days :P

I'm not really comfortable with letting these faults with the screen slide, but I absolutely -love- the weight, the form factor, the asymmetry, and the size. If this was priced the same as the Voyage I'd be slightly happier, but still unhappy with the quality control... Like I said, the whole 'screen changes in colour as you read from left to right' thing might take a while to get used to but otherwise it's a beautiful rose with some painful thorns also I feel like the gradient is more apparent than on the Voyage but that could just be my discerning first day eyes, after a while the gradient pretty much just disappeared to my eyes on the Voyage. Why is it that it's only ereaders than continue to disappoint me with their screen tech! Not sure whether I'm going to exchange it or not, looking through the threads I might be one of the really, really unlucky ones with a particularly prominent gradient

Great review!

[cerem0ny]

Originally Posted by kobayashi

Great review!

Hehehe, thanks! A little too 'passionate' in parts upon a second read today but my criticisms still stand. I have no idea how long a replacement is going to take so for now I just want to read a bit on it and enjoy it... I exchanged a few Voyages and kept the one I liked the best but the Oasis seems to have a far more pronounced gradient, I have noticed however that when reading in landscape mode the gradient is much less annoying but reading in landscape defeats the novelty of reading one handed, which is nice for now.
It took me 3 weeks to receive this bloody device so no idea how long a replacement is going to take, will have to ring up and ask. I would do anything for just a normal screen! The gradient is far more annoying than the cones though, that one I can deal with personally but the colour shift is a non-sale.
I suppose I'll hit up Officeworks (kind of like a Best Buy in Australia) and see if I can get a replacement but not excited for any possible month-long wait!

[nurseshelly]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

Hehehe, thanks! A little too 'passionate' in parts upon a second read today but my criticisms still stand. I have no idea how long a replacement is going to take so for now I just want to read a bit on it and enjoy it... I exchanged a few Voyages and kept the one I liked the best but the Oasis seems to have a far more pronounced gradient, I have noticed however that when reading in landscape mode the gradient is much less annoying but reading in landscape defeats the novelty of reading one handed, which is nice for now.
It took me 3 weeks to receive this bloody device so no idea how long a replacement is going to take, will have to ring up and ask. I would do anything for just a normal screen! The gradient is far more annoying than the cones though, that one I can deal with personally but the colour shift is a non-sale.
I suppose I'll hit up Officeworks (kind of like a Best Buy in Australia) and see if I can get a replacement but not excited for any possible month-long wait!

I just finally got my replacement Oasis ... it wasn't supposed to arrive until August, but it got updated to yesterday. Mine has either dead pixels or dust under the screen which is annoying. You can see little silver/black spots that shine white in some positions - but never go away unlike other little glittery things in the screen which come and go. The new one isn't really much better than the one I have, so I have to decide which one to return. It took about 3 weeks or so to arrive.

[cerem0ny]

Originally Posted by nurseshelly

I just finally got my replacement Oasis ... it wasn't supposed to arrive until August, but it got updated to yesterday. Mine has either dead pixels or dust under the screen which is annoying. You can see little silver/black spots that shine white in some positions - but never go away unlike other little glittery things in the screen which come and go. The new one isn't really much better than the one I have, so I have to decide which one to return. It took about 3 weeks or so to arrive.

It's strange, sometimes I feel like I live in a different universe to the hundreds of reviews without any criticism of the display... I bought the PW2 a few months after its release and it was flawless so perhaps a good long wait is in order before we start seeing devices that ensure the reading experience is as 'seamless' as they advertise... Distraction free indeed. I'll have a bit more of a read on it before I somehow find the time to hand it back in for an exchange next week, but I'm trying not to let disappointment get the best of me, it's such a wonderful device otherwise and totally worth the expense of you ask me!

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

Do you need to run it down to zero to calibrate, or will it calibrate itself through normal use?

I heard that running the battery down to zero is not recommended since it would shorten the battery life expectancy in the long run. Is that true?

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

I heard that running the battery down to zero is not recommended since it would shorten the battery life expectancy in the long run. Is that true?

Sort of..

Complete discharge / recharge, as well as keeping the battery completely fully charged *all* the time, both increase wear on the battery and will reduce the total expected service life. However, neither is considered damaging, and you shouldn't really stress over it. It's only been an area of concern when LiIon were first becoming popular, because people were often reading best advice for the previous generation NiCd Batteries. (those you had to completely discharge *every* time to maintain battery life.)

One thing you should *not* do however, is drain the battery to zero then mothball the device without recharging. (This is tricky with older generation Kindles. They can not be turned off, so if left in storage, they will relatively quickly drain their batteries before shutting down.)