Kindle Oasis Buyer's Thread

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

On the homepage of my new Oasis I found "Kindle Solstice User Guide", and the guide starts with the sentence "Welcome to your new Kindle Placeholder". Do I have Kindle Oasis, Kindle Solstice or Kindle Placeholder? Amazon's ways are truly mysterious.

I'll try to decipher this for you Sirtel ! Product placement name is , Sunny Placeholder = Oasis.

[Avwriter]

Originally Posted by Wearever

I'll try to decipher this for you Sirtel ! Product placement name is , Sunny Placeholder = Oasis.

Wow! Just Wow!

I can see just see the adds now: Try the new Kindle Placeholder; it will hold you over until next year when we come up with something actually worth buying!

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by Avwriter

Wow! Just Wow!

I can see just see the adds now: Try the new Kindle Placeholder; it will hold you over until next year when we come up with something actually worth buying!

We can only hope it won't be a mirage !

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

On the homepage of my new Oasis I found "Kindle Solstice User Guide", and the guide starts with the sentence "Welcome to your new Kindle Placeholder". Do I have Kindle Oasis, Kindle Solstice or Kindle Placeholder? Amazon's ways are truly mysterious.

The cover of mine actually said Kindle PaperWhite User's Guide 3rd Edition, instead of Kindle Oasis although the cover on the homescreen, the thumbnail, still said Kindle Oasis.
Mine was shipped with 5.7.4 firmware. Which firmware come with yours?

Hopefully, the new 5.8.1 firmware fixes this issue.

[cerem0ny]

Just wondering - has anybody who has received the new batch of Oasis' seeing the colour discolorations problem rear its ugly head? Asking this because if it is, I'm buying another one ASAP!

[kobayashi]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

Just wondering - has anybody who has received the new batch of Oasis' seeing the colour discolorations problem rear its ugly head? Asking this because if it is, I'm buying another one ASAP!

If it's a Kindle and has LEDs, it has the color gradient problem. Just depends on how discerning you are as to whether or not it will bother you.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by kobayashi

If it's a Kindle and has LEDs, it has the color gradient problem. Just depends on how discerning you are as to whether or not it will bother you.

They may well all have it but not all to the same degree, even within the same model. My Oasis screen is much, much better than that on my Voyage and I've seen the opposite reported as well. It does make ordering much more suspenseful than I'd like.

[kobayashi]

Originally Posted by disconnected

They may well all have it but not all to the same degree, even within the same model. My Oasis screen is much, much better than that on my Voyage and I've seen the opposite reported as well. It does make ordering much more suspenseful than I'd like.

That's true and has been the case for a long time now. No improvements were ever made to the Voyage production line. It remains to be a "luck of the draw" situation with the Voyage and the Oasis.

The good news is that Amazon's return policy is so good. Just remember to fully return a defective device rather than doing an exchange. Exchanges only yield refurbished replacement devices.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by kobayashi

Just remember to fully return a defective device rather than doing an exchange. Exchanges only yield refurbished replacement devices.

It depends... I had a super crap screen on my first PW1, asked for an exchange and I didn't get a refurb (based on serial #) and the screen was much better on that 2nd unit.

Got lucky in the screen lottery with later Kindles so haven't needed to try the replacement game again.

[cerem0ny]

I had a perfect pw2 first time, first buy. I bought it a couple months after release, from a normal shop those were the days.

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by Yolina

It depends... I had a super crap screen on my first PW1, asked for an exchange and I didn't get a refurb (based on serial #)

How does the serial # tell you that it isn't a refurbished Kindle?

[Kulamata]

Oasis 3G/Adless/Merlot arrived today. I'd waited a bit (hours)before ordering, got Aug 24 shipdate; Ouch! But schedule changed, arrived today.

Why yes, now that you mention it, I am in love.

My PW and PW2 screens were perfect, my Voyage screen was perfect, and my Oasis screen is perfect. No color shading, evenly lit, crisp, contrasty. (As was my Voyage.) Side by side, brightly lit room, both set to 15, maybe the Oasis has less glare from ceiling lights, but boy are they close in all respects.

Unsurprisingly, the ergonomics changes work. I use the Kindle several hours a day, so the changes, while not earthshaking, do add up over the day.

[Saint04jmv]

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

After unboxing the Oasis and feeling it in my hand, I was ecstatic about how natural and ergonomic it felt. In contrast to my voyage, I noticed the weight difference and how the two devices balanced in the hand... the voyage definitely felt un-natural.

So, things could only get better right? We'll.... I powered on the Oasis's screen and began looking at the Oasis screen and the Voyage's so I could see which of the fonts was the new one that was being hyped about. I found it, but something strange happened. I put the Voyage font back to the old one... the same as the one set on the Oasis. However, I second guessed myself thinking I must have selected a different font from the Oasis because the font on the Voyage was significantly more vibrant and sharp. The Oasis looked dull, scratchy and dark.

It turned out, the Oasis and Voyage were both on the same font. It's just that the Voyage had a superior screen than the Oasis... I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I don't think it's enough to deter me from keeping the device since it's significantly easier for me to hold. However, like yourself, I'm particular about the screen. With the Oasis's backlight on, the right side of the screen does look shadowy, but that's ok. What really annoys me is that the right side is a blue hue given off by the lights and fades into a warmer color towards the left side of the Oasis's screen.

So my initial impressions were excitement and disappointment. I don't plan on returning the device, but my expectations are shot considering I was hoping for a similar reading experience, if not better, to the Voyage.

Overall, I'm very please with the fit and finish of the device/Oasis.

[Kolja]

Originally Posted by Saint04jmv

It turned out, the Oasis and Voyage were both on the same font. It's just that the Voyage had a superior screen than the Oasis... I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I don't think it's enough to deter me from keeping the device since it's significantly easier for me to hold. However, like yourself, I'm particular about the screen. With the Oasis's backlight on, the right does look shadowy, but that's ok. What really annoys me is that the right side is a blue and fades into a warmer color.

I had a similar experience comparing 2 Oasis devices to my Voyage. My Voyage has an almost perfect screen and better contrast that the Oasis. The ergonomics of the Oasis are nice but not enough to overcome the uneven color and LED shadows present on the two devices I had. The screen is the most important thing to me when reading and I also like the Origami cover since I do a lot of reading while eating.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

How does the serial # tell you that it isn't a refurbished Kindle?

Well it doesn't but if you receive a Kindle with batch number 1234, get an exchange a few days later and that has batch number 1235, I'd say it's unlikely that this unit is a refurb. Also, don't they put an R on the boxes of refurbished unit?