Amazon announces Kindle Oasis

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Atunah posted her ship date.

Wait, now they are delivering to a tuna first

[samosa]

Originally Posted by Katie1

That messes up my calculations. I figure 15 hour each. Sounds like with out the case the Reader is Worthless.

Amazon website says 6 weeks for the voyage, 8 weeks for the oasis. Assuming half an hour of reading per day. That should work out to be 21 hours non-stop reading for voyage and 28 hours non-stop reading for oasis.

I think Voyage is enough in terms of battery power. There is only 24 hours a day, even if you read for 21 hours straight, the remaining 3 hours you can use to sleep or do something else while the Kindle recharges...

The Oasis without the cover has as much battery power as the Voyage. I read it somewhere but forgotten where...

[samosa]

Originally Posted by Barty

I don't know if this has been pointed out (this thread is moving fast), but the LEDs are now on the (fat) side pointing horizontally instead of the bottom pointing up. Since the kindle is longer than wide, more LEDs are needed. This is looking at portrait orientation of course.

The interesting thing is the lights (or maybe more accurately, light guides) now have a shorter distance to cover, which means we should have marginally better uniformity. Recall there were complaints that the voyage had different tones at the bottom and top. Personally, I think post paper white 1, the front light on all the kindle are "good enough" to be non issue. But there it is.

Are the LEDs all on one side, or do the have 5 on each side? The older Kindles used to have uneven lighting because all the LEDs are sitting at the bottom, so one way to eliminate this problem, I would think, is to have LEDs on two sides, or four sides...

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

Well, to be fair, electroplating of plastics isn't exactly common in the home electronics industry, so there may very well be technology being pushed forward. Just not something that is obvious on a spec sheet. But otherwise I agree completely here.

Your kidding right? I worked in a plating on plastics operation when I was a college chem major in the 70s. Let me see, Chrysler radio and heater knobs, stanley tape cases, and even gold perfume bottle tops. All were plated on plastics by chemical application of electroless nickel, then various other coats ending in either chrome or gold. Printed circuit boards are also very common now days.

[Waylander]

It's weird looking with that off-centre screen and thick side. A real disappointment and step back in my opinion. I'm sticking with my Voyage.

[pdurrant]

I've added various details about the Oasis to the first post. If anyone has more information they think would be useful there (or that I've overlooked in their previous posts), please mention it. (Sourced, if possible.)

[murg]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Jeff is obsessing about "thin" the way Jobs used to. What a shame.

Maybe. But he hasn't quite gotten it down completely, yet...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Steve H

Fjtorres,
You may have a challenge if the device is unbundled. It is said to have only a couple of weeks/30 min per day of charge. So significantly less battery than any of the other models without the cover.

As long as the internal battery is good for ten-twelve hours of continuous reading I'll be set. My mother is very diligent recharging her readers going back to the rocketbook days. All she needs is a day's worth and she doesn't use covers. The case would simply lie in a drawer, unused, even if the bundle cost $199. The buttons are welcome and worth the price, even if it means reduced battery life. But for her use case the cover might as well be a boat anchor, just more clutter getting in the way.

(And a trigger for the regular reminder I shouldn't have spent the money on a new reader when the Paperwhite still works. )

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by samosa

Are the LEDs all on one side, or do the have 5 on each side? The older Kindles used to have uneven lighting because all the LEDs are sitting at the bottom, so one way to eliminate this problem, I would think, is to have LEDs on two sides, or four sides...

Correct.
The uneveness is most noticeable at low brightness settings. The added LEDS are to maintain uniformity at a broader range of lighting settings, especially at the low end of the range.

[June]

I bit the bullet and placed an order on the German Amazon site, black one delivers immediately, while burgundy and walnut showed end of May. So got the black one Now I must find a separate stand for reading while eating

[kennyc]

ZDnet is pretty much calling Amazon a monopoly in this piece on the new reader:


"With Kindle Oasis, Amazon's Apple moment arrives
Amazon achieves near-monopolistic market control, apex agility in terms of supply chain, and sustained consumer zealotry for its devices. A lot like Apple....."

http://www.zdnet.com/article/with-ki...oment-arrives/

[haydnfan]

I'm bothered by the fact that Amazon listened to people that were not going to upgrade their kindles due to lack of page turn buttons and keep their older devices. Why? Because they responded by introducing premium models whose stand out feature are page turn buttons. The Voyage and the Oasis are the result of a company listening yes, but then charging exorbitant amounts for cheap additions that used to be common place.

This is exactly what a company that monopolizes the market would do. Because they don't have to worry about truly innovating or being competitive. If they couldn't depend on milking ereaders by ever increasing prices for cosmetic changes they would instead of worked all the harder to have a liquivista screen working or produced some other stand out feature.

Just a couple of years ago I had soured on the Kobo experience. Coming back over the past few months I have to admit that their devices are superior in many ways. I can list off (which I did on the digital reader) many things the Aura H2O has going for it that the Oasis does not. And customer service has improved and software stability has also improved.

I hope that Apple and Kobo both continue to grow and force Amazon out of complacency.

For all those that pre-ordered with glee just because it was a new Kindle, shame on you for teaching amazon that it can get away with this. When you look back at previous premium kindle releases they each had improvements in at least 1 of these 3 things: screen, resolution, processing power. That way it looked better, was more responsive or had less ghosting.

In this release Amazon improved none of those three and greatly increased the price just for a cosmetic change. And all those that pre-ordered this device just sent the message that is all you care about. You've just made the future ereader market worse for everyone. Great job. Thanks. I really appreciate that.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

As long as the internal battery is good for ten-twelve hours of continuous reading I'll be set.

I've seen seven hours mentioned (two weeks at 1/2 hour per day).

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by kennyc

ZDnet is pretty much calling Amazon a monopoly in this piece on the new reader:


"With Kindle Oasis, Amazon's Apple moment arrives
Amazon achieves near-monopolistic market control, apex agility in terms of supply chain, and sustained consumer zealotry for its devices. A lot like Apple....."

http://www.zdnet.com/article/with-ki...oment-arrives/

I totally agree, in fact while I trust Apple I don't trust Amazon. Amazon only has fantastic customer service if you don't fall foul of unwritten and unacknowledged rules. If you do that it doesn't matter how much you spend with them they are going to screw you. Yes I like my Kindle Voyage and don't regret buying it, but it's the last high end device I will ever buy from them, I can't trust that I will always be able to use a device tied into Amazon anymore. I'll never return another item but till the day I die I won't trust them to put the customer first anymore.

£270 on an ereader from a company I can’t trust is out of the question, hell even the Paperwhite would be a risk at £110. Amazon are dangerous and insidious.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

In this release Amazon improved none of those three and greatly increased the price just for a cosmetic change. And all those that pre-ordered this device just sent the message that is all you care about. You've just made the future ereader market worse for everyone. Great job. Thanks. I really appreciate that.

That's laying it on a bit thick. Not to mention that you're ignoring the fact that there are many posts in this thread pointing to things about the Oasis that actually appeal to people. It's presumptuous and rude to suggest that your opinion of the Oasis is the "correct" one, and that people who are ordering them are sheep with no common sense--destroying the market for all the other enlightened souls.