Kindle Oasis Buyer's Thread

[Strether]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

It is definitely a fuzzy cover

I also think Strether might be employing the wrong word here. A patina by definition requires the passage of time to develop, and unless Amazon has been ageing their leather in vaults for years in preparation for this, the covers do not ship with a patina.

It is NOT a fuzzy cover, no matter what you're seeing on the video. And I know what patina means and this cover, at least mine, has it. And I would guess the patina would increase as the oils from your fingertips become absorbed by the leather.

I don't know whether Amazon has two different kinds of Walnut covers, but I assure you my cover is as I've described.

Jim

[bokolobs]

All the design choices that Amazon made didn't work for me as I would have liked.
1. The asymmetric design felt novel at the beginning until you want to change hands holding the Kindle and just rotating it all the time was not only not intuitive, but cumbersome. Really, this design and Its squarish shape limit the number of ways you can hold the Kindle.
2. The lighting on the side gave the Oasis I received light cones that were more distracting than the color shifts on my Voyage. It also resulted to less contrast on the Oasis as compared to the Voyage.
3. I sorely miss the light sensor and not having to adjust the lighting myself.
4. The cover is abysmal. It feels cheap. It was hard enough to rotate the Kindle by itself when changing hands. Having the cover made it worse.
Sent this one back. I'm sticking with my Voyage.

[disconnected]

From reading this thread and some other reviews it appears that the covers are at least as inconsistent as the screens. I got a mediocre cover but quite a good screen so I'm ok with it.

Has anyone done any battery testing? I'm wasn't quite sure what to expect but the combination of my Oasis battery and cover battery doesn't seem to be behaving consistently. With cover attached all power usage is from the Oasis itself so the cover stays near 100% but the Oasis drops faster than I'd expected. When sleeping it usually but not always gets recharged from the cover. The battery meters sometimes flash on and off and sometimes disappear altogether. When plugged in the cover always gets recharged but the Oasis is hit and miss. It seems that the connection isn't totally reliable.

Now that I have a decent screen I'd hate to have to exchange it because of battery problems. Maybe it just needs a few days to settle in, I hope.

[BenG]

My 3G Oasis, which is being released today, still says "arriving May 18th" but the status has changed to "preparing for shipment." Perhaps I'll get it a little earlier than expected.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by BenG

My 3G Oasis, which is being released today, still says "arriving May 18th" but the status has changed to "preparing for shipment." Perhaps I'll get it a little earlier than expected.

It has been shipped and will be arriving tomorrow.

[detayls]

My black Oasis 3G is arriving today. Very excited.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by disconnected

Has anyone done any battery testing? I'm wasn't quite sure what to expect but the combination of my Oasis battery and cover battery doesn't seem to be behaving consistently. With cover attached all power usage is from the Oasis itself so the cover stays near 100% but the Oasis drops faster than I'd expected. When sleeping it usually but not always gets recharged from the cover. The battery meters sometimes flash on and off and sometimes disappear altogether. When plugged in the cover always gets recharged but the Oasis is hit and miss. It seems that the connection isn't totally reliable.

Yeah, it looks to me like you've got a dodgy one. For me, when it's plugged into the cover, the battery meters are always present: when it's not, they never are. They don't flash on and off. When plugged into the cover, the Oasis stays at above 90% while the cover drops slowly: when charging from the cover, the internal battery is charged at 1% about every fifty seconds.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by disconnected

Has anyone done any battery testing? I'm wasn't quite sure what to expect but the combination of my Oasis battery and cover battery doesn't seem to be behaving consistently. With cover attached all power usage is from the Oasis itself so the cover stays near 100% but the Oasis drops faster than I'd expected. When sleeping it usually but not always gets recharged from the cover. The battery meters sometimes flash on and off and sometimes disappear altogether. When plugged in the cover always gets recharged but the Oasis is hit and miss. It seems that the connection isn't totally reliable.

Originally Posted by NullNix

Yeah, it looks to me like you've got a dodgy one. For me, when it's plugged into the cover, the battery meters are always present: when it's not, they never are. They don't flash on and off. When plugged into the cover, the Oasis stays at above 90% while the cover drops slowly: when charging from the cover, the internal battery is charged at 1% about every fifty seconds.

I've also been wondering about the battery gauges, which confused me with the cover-on/cover-off thing.

I always read with the cover off, and my experience has been: When I wake up my Oasis while it's still in the cover, the battery gauge at the top of the home screen will reflect the battery level of the cover. When I tap on the quick menu, it will show two meters. The meter for the device is usually 90-94% and the meter for the cover varies depending on how long it's been since the last charge (and the cover meter and the home screen meter will match). When I pop my Oasis out of the cover, the meter on the home screen immediately tops up to reflect the device battery (90-94%), and the double-meters on the quick menu disappear.

After reading @disconnected's post, I tried reading with the cover on and was surprised to find the device battery meter going down rather than the cover's battery meter. Was this because the device had a 94% charge? If my device battery goes below 90%, will it switch to the cover?

For me, the home screen battery meter is always there. When plugged into the cover, the quick menu meters are always present; when not plugged into cover, the quick menu meters disappear.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I've also been wondering about the battery gauges, which confused me with the cover-on/cover-off thing.

I always read with the cover off, and my experience has been: When I wake up my Oasis while it's still in the cover, the battery gauge at the top of the home screen will reflect the battery level of the cover. When I tap on the quick menu, it will show two meters. The meter for the device is usually 90-94% and the meter for the cover varies depending on how long it's been since the last charge (and the cover meter and the home screen meter will match). When I pop my Oasis out of the cover, the meter on the home screen immediately tops up to reflect the device battery (90-94%), and the double-meters on the quick menu disappear.

After reading @disconnected's post, I tried reading with the cover on and was surprised to find the device battery meter going down rather than the cover's battery meter. Was this because the device had a 94% charge? If my device battery goes below 90%, will it switch to the cover?

For me, the home screen battery meter is always there. When plugged into the cover, the quick menu meters are always present; when not plugged into cover, the quick menu meters disappear.

My experience is similar. I agree with your observations.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I always read with the cover off, and my experience has been: When I wake up my Oasis while it's still in the cover, the battery gauge at the top of the home screen will reflect the battery level of the cover. When I tap on the quick menu, it will show two meters. The meter for the device is usually 90-94% and the meter for the cover varies depending on how long it's been since the last charge (and the cover meter and the home screen meter will match). When I pop my Oasis out of the cover, the meter on the home screen immediately tops up to reflect the device battery (90-94%), and the double-meters on the quick menu disappear.

That's what I see, too.

Originally Posted by odamizu

After reading @disconnected's post, I tried reading with the cover on and was surprised to find the device battery meter going down rather than the cover's battery meter. Was this because the device had a 94% charge? If my device battery goes below 90%, will it switch to the cover?

I suspect it always runs from the internal battery, and the cover just tops that up if it drops below 90--94% or so. This would make the wiring simpler and has no real downsides.

Originally Posted by odamizu

For me, the home screen battery meter is always there. When plugged into the cover, the quick menu meters are always present; when not plugged into cover, the quick menu meters disappear.

Indeed.

[Strether]

Originally Posted by NullNix

{I suspect it always runs from the internal battery, and the cover just tops that up if it drops below 90--94% or so. This would make the wiring simpler and has no real downsides.

Since I got mine, I've been reading all the time with the cover on and have seen the device battery as low as 80%, but it's usually in the 90's. Not sure what triggers the device battery to charge from the case.

Jim

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Strether

Since I got mine, I've been reading all the time with the cover on and have seen the device battery as low as 80%, but it's usually in the 90's. Not sure what triggers the device battery to charge from the case.

We know already, have you not been paying attention to the thread?

... passing tuna

[disconnected]

It seems to be ok now. Maybe the cover was just a bit stiff or something.

I removed the cover and read off and on until the Oasis battery went dead. Then I put the cover back on. At first the Oasis wouldn’t turn on but after a few anxious minutes it came on and went through a restart. (I didn’t try plugging it in so I don’t know if that would be any different).

At that point the Oasis battery was up to 15%. I read for a while and the Oasis continued recharging from the cover. I put the cover on and off several times and the Oasis recognized it every time. I let it go to sleep and when I picked it up later the Oasis was up to 94%. I left it a while longer and it didn’t go up any higher but I guess that’s normal.

Now I just need to do a few timing tests to make sure I’m getting approximately the amount of time expected with and without the cover. I really would have hated returning a Kindle with a good screen.

It's not important but I wonder why the cover has to be on to display the meter for the Oasis itself.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by odamizu

For me, the home screen battery meter is always there. When plugged into the cover, the quick menu meters are always present; when not plugged into cover, the quick menu meters disappear.

Are you looking at the top line of the screen when you say the battery isn't displayed, @"disconnected"? Odamizu says they disappear from the "quick menu" but not from the home screen. Or perhaps the top of the page while you read (but I'm just guessing cuz I don't have an Oasis. Yet.).

[Bookworm_Girl]

I think what disconnected means is that the battery meter with percentage is not displayed for the Oasis in the Quick Settings menu unless it is plugged into the cover. When the cover is attached it displays percentages for both the Oasis & the cover in the Quick Settings menu. The battery icon is always in the status at the top like other Kindles.