Amazon announces Kindle Oasis

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by robko

If I were to buy the device I would consider it a $100 premium. I would not be purchasing a case with a Voyage, so why would I consider what the price of a Voyage + case be when I was comparing to an Oasis.
A comparison would be looking if I was looking at two houses to decide which one to buy. One has a pool and is $50,000 more than the other without a pool. If I want a pool and it's going to cost me $40,000 to put one in if I buy the house without, then there isn't a $50K premium on the one with the pool. If I don't want a pool, then yes the house with one is priced at a $50K premium for me.

You have to add in all that is offered since they don't offer a naked Oasis.
I am coming up in your analogy, a $10,000 difference if you put in the pool yourself.
The other question in your analogy is are the houses identical except for the pool?
Otherwise you might not be paying 50k for that pool.
Rather like is the kitchen equipped with a Mixer plus and a 7 in one kitchen mate or does it have the entire Kitchenaid line of small appliances?
The first is $25, the second is $500 to $2000.
Note: own the first set, need a sugar daddy for the second idea.

[Avwriter]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Maybe the adaptive light was adding too much weight

Hey, it's a wonder that they did not decide that the screen was too heavy as well. Just imagine the world's lightest ereader is just a plastic frame with some LEDs on the bottom (with an adaptive light sensor of course) that you can hold over any pbook to improve the contrast

[badgoodDeb]

If I use up the 7 hours of battery on the naked Oasis, do we have any specs that indicate how fast the cover will recharge it? I suppose not.

[Conan46]

I honestly would not buy it at $100. If this thing is still around at this time next year I'll be astounded. If it is not at fire sale prices by Christmas I'll be equally astounded.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You have to add in all that is offered since they don't offer a naked Oasis.

I'm sorry, but no you really don't. If you have no intention of getting a case, and don't want one, the Oasis is a step backward in one regard. And the extra cost is not something you would mitigate by adding the price of a cover to the voyage.

To use a better analogy than what was used. Say I'm buying a car. I find two that appeal to me. However I don't want GPS and one comes with it and costs 400$ more than the other. Why would I need to factor in the cost of getting GPS installed in the car that doesn't have it if I don't want it. I don't, I'd either go with the cheaper car, or see if the seller of the one with GPS will match the cheaper price.

[DiapDealer]

I'm pretty sure there's going be a lot of astounded naysayers before all is said and done.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by emellaich

You can't do something special by trying to do everything. Not saying right or wrong, but if your one design goal is to make the reader disappear then you focus on that and saying no to everything else.

I agree that the goal was to make it easy to hold one handed for long periods and all of the design decisions were made with that in mind. It looks like they did a pretty good job of that.

Splitting the battery makes sense to me. You can only read for so many hours straight and when you dock the reader to the case the small battery will recharge from the large one.

That decision is probably the main reason that it isn't waterproof. There is no way to protect the contacts between the reader and the case while at the same time having them connect and detach so easily.

That said, I think there is a major failure in the pricing of the Oasis. Just looking at the components it seems like it should be priced about halfway between the Paperwhite and the Voyage. By my thinking it is priced about double what it should be. (Three times in the UK!)

[badgoodDeb]

Gracious -- there are 80 pages of user questions on the Amazon product page already, of the kind where you write in to previous owners of the device (makes me wonder who is answering???) It's astounding how many of the questions are "is there a left handed version?". Don't people even read? Left/rightness is mentioned on the page, though it is in normal print. I think Amazon needs a video there.

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm pretty sure there's going be a lot of astounded naysayers before all is said and done.

It is possible. I still see awesome new cars that are in an ungodly color I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but someone bought the thing
e.g.
http://jalopnik.com/5949270/the-wors...s-ever-offered

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Conan46

I honestly would not buy it at $100. If this thing is still around at this time next year I'll be astounded. If it is not at fire sale prices by Christmas I'll be equally astounded.

I definitely would buy it at that price, but I seriously doubt you'll see these fire sales you talk about.

I'm kind of amazed at the bitterness towards Amazon displayed here (and not talking just about you). So the Oasis is not your cup of tea? Fine. No one is forcing anyone to buy one. Since I bought my Kobo Glo, my impression of Kobos has not been enhanced -- too many glitches and too much required tweaking -- but I don't spend my life whining about it (or a Kobo I don't plan on buying) on the Kobo forum. I'm not obsessed with them. As for waterproofing, which seems to be a really BIG deal to a lot of folks here ... I could care less, I don't plan on swimming with my Kindle and -- so far -- I've never spilled anything on any eReader (knock on wood).

I do, however, like a light eReader. I like the buttons. In theory I like the ergonomics of the Oasis -- though I haven't held one so I don't really know yet. I think the case is a good idea -- its dual purposes (protection and charging) appeals to me. Since the case so easy to separate from the Oasis, I would spend most of my time reading without the case -- and plug it in when I needed a recharge. (I read somewhere that a relatively short time in the case gives you hours more of reading time with the Oasis, sans-case -- 10 or 30 minutes for 3 hours.)

So not everyone has the same priorities or likes. I still think the "high end" Oasis will do fine in the market. I also expect others will copy the design -- the wedge part anyhow.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

How good is the Voyage's adaptive brightness? I ask because I've had to turn it off on any device I've ever had that touted it as a feature. I was always seeing fluctuations in the lighting whenever I moved the slightest bit. Couldn't deal with it. Made me feel like it was the '60s again. Have they smoothed out the algorithm a bit, or can you still see it change simply by angling the device a millimeter in any direction?

This is the first time I've ever used one, and it works for my needs perfectly.

In bright light, it goes to the highest setting (which it is supposed to do).

In dim light, it gets low - very low.

I discovered that the trick for setting it is to read in the dark in my normal area (bed) and adjust the light to where I like it. I only had to do this once. Then, when in any other kind of light, it adjusts to a bright level based, I would presume, on the algorithm.

The trick, then, is to fine tune it to your nighttime reading environment. That's all there is to it.

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I definitely would buy it at that price, but I seriously doubt you'll see these fire sales you talk about.

I'm kind of amazed at the bitterness towards Amazon displayed here (and not talking just about you). So the Oasis is not your cup of tea? Fine. No one is forcing anyone to buy one. Since I bought my Kobo Glo, my impression of Kobos has not been enhanced -- too many glitches and too much required tweaking -- but I don't spend my life whining about it (or a Kobo I don't plan on buying) on the Kobo forum. I'm not obsessed with them. As for waterproofing, which seems to be a really BIG deal to a lot of folks here ... I could care less, I don't plan on swimming with my Kindle and -- so far -- I've never spilled anything on any eReader (knock on wood).

I do, however, like a light eReader. I like the buttons. In theory I like the ergonomics of the Oasis -- though I haven't held one so I don't really know yet. I think the case is a good idea -- its dual purposes (protection and charging) appeals to me. Since the case so easy to separate from the Oasis, I would spend most of my time reading without the case -- and plug it in when I needed a recharge. (I read somewhere that a relatively short time in the case gives you hours more of reading time with the Oasis, sans-case -- 10 or 30 minutes for 3 hours.)

So not everyone has the same priorities or likes. I still think the "high end" Oasis will do fine in the market. I also expect others will copy the design -- the wedge part anyhow.

I don't think anyone is bitter, probably more shock and amazement than bitterness. This is a thread for sharing thoughts on the new Kindle, some of us honestly think it is ugly, expensive, lacks features to set it apart, etc.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Conan46

I don't think anyone is bitter, probably more shock and amazement than bitterness. This is a thread for sharing thoughts on the new Kindle, some of us honestly think it is ugly, expensive, lacks features to set it apart, etc.

Okay. My bad then. But there does seem to be a lot ridicule mixed in with the "shock."

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Okay. My bad then. But there does seem to be a lot ridicule mixed in with the "shock."

It's not just in this thread:
http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...tfxblnk0000004
http://mashable.com/2016/04/14/kindl.../#SIVfKsQH6gqb
http://nymag.com/following/2016/04/w...dle-oasis.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/c...look/82872938/

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Conan46

I don't think anyone is bitter, probably more shock and amazement than bitterness. This is a thread for sharing thoughts on the new Kindle, some of us honestly think it is ugly, expensive, lacks features to set it apart, etc.

Personally, it is too expensive for me. Note I'm cheap.
I don't really see needing the lights. I don't read in bed.
And the big reason is I don't need another ereader right now.
Now since I am NOT spending my money, it is up to each person to decide for themselves.
Unless it means your children will go hungry. In which case, you might have your priorities mixed up. (Yes, I have met a few people like that.)