Kindle Oasis: To Buy or Not To Buy

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Jason90

Thought I'd write this here but I got my kindle oasis today and sending it straight back for the following reasons:

THE OASIS IS NOT MORE COMFORTABLE TO HOLD,in fact I found the opposite and can't believe no one has brought this up before,having to position and grip the small wedge I found actually to be more UNCONFORTABLE than the standard back of the PW3 or voyage,the texture is also not as 'grippy' and all in all is just not a pleasant experience for me.

I found I had to get used to it, mostly to learn the right way to hold it, which is *not* to grip it -- that'll tire your hand out really fast -- but rather to let gravity hold it against your fingers fanned across the back of the screen, with your thumb over the top. If you're holding it right it should stay in place from the position of your fingers alone. I flip hands about every ten minutes or so.

If you're trying to actually grip the bezel you'll be in pain in minutes. That's not what it's for. It's not a grip: it's a weight. (Or that's how I hold it anyway! Maybe others hold it in other ways.)

Originally Posted by Jason90

My second major complaint is the screen light,not only does it shadow in the corner (many people have complained about the oasis light),the main problem is that it's a sharp blue hue,whereas the PW and the voyage both use yellow hues,I find this unbearable for reading and the yellow page like hue is MILES BETTER than the oasis blue hue,a HUGE disadvantage imho.

Well, for me it has, uh, a yellow hue, unless you turn it up too high when it does appear yellowish. Typical LED lighting, never quite consistent...

[Jason90]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Well, it's all subjective. The Oasis did not suit you personally. I personally find it much more comfortable to hold than the Voyage. The screen is not blue either (possibly you got a lemon), nor are there any shadows in the corners.

The screen can be unresponsive while indexing. Once the indexing is done, at least the screen on my Oasis is very responsive, no freezes whatsoever.

That's my two cents, anyway. Everyone has a different perspective.

I guess it's my fingers or something but when i use the PW3 i like to grip about half of the back of the kindle,i found cramping my fingers on the wedge to be uncomfortable,everyone has different hands i guess.

The kindle started to freeze on initial boot-up in the language selection screen,before i had inputted my amazon account or even got to the home-screen so i'm sure it wasn't that,in the hour or so i had used it was freezing every few pages or so,perhaps it would of smoothed out over time but the first time i turned it on i must of pressed the power button about 20 times before it would even restart.

When i compared side to side of both my PW3 and oasis both at 15 level brightness, the oasis definitely had a sky blue hue instead of the nice book page looking yellow hue of the PW3 ,don't mistake me for saying actual yellow and blue but if i had to describe the hue of each that's what comes across,think f.lux on warm vs daylight.

[Jason90]

Originally Posted by NullNix

I found I had to get used to it, mostly to learn the right way to hold it, which is *not* to grip it -- that'll tire your hand out really fast -- but rather to let gravity hold it against your fingers fanned across the back of the screen, with your thumb over the top. If you're holding it right it should stay in place from the position of your fingers alone. I flip hands about every ten minutes or so.

If you're trying to actually grip the bezel you'll be in pain in minutes. That's not what it's for. It's not a grip: it's a weight. (Or that's how I hold it anyway! Maybe others hold it in other ways.)



Well, for me it has, uh, a yellow hue, unless you turn it up too high when it does appear yellowish. Typical LED lighting, never quite consistent...

I see what your saying about adjusting for the sake of the wedge but in the end i like to have a firm grip on my kindle and if i didn't grip just the wedge then i'd constantly be noticing the bump and it just wasn't worth it imo,plus the weight difference is practically unnoticeable so the trade off with battery life made it a non-keeper.

On mid-high brightness levels the blue levels were really high,even more than my laptop,seeing as i'd be spending most of the time reading at night with the light that more than anything made it impossible for me to keep.

There was not a single element of the device for me that was better than i remember with my voyage.

I did against my own judgement buy and try the device even though i had slated it when it was announced but i still gave it a chance and it is not an improvement over the voyage in anyway.

Those were my own personal findings anyway and thought i'd share them somewhere,i think the OP has already purchased one but would be interesting to hear back from him,in case he hasn't i'd recommend against it and go for the voyage,alot better for alot less money!

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Jason90

I see what your saying about adjusting for the sake of the wedge but in the end i like to have a firm grip on my kindle and if i didn't grip just the wedge then i'd constantly be noticing the bump

The bump should lie in your palm, where it really isn't noticeable. (To me, it is less noticeable than the spine of a paperback book. I find paper books really quite irritatingly non-ergonomic after using the Oasis for a while. Did nobody design these things?! well, no, not really.)

The Oasis manual really should give you a tutorial on how to hold the thing. I didn't think it would be necessary, but the number of people who've shown up here rejecting it because they can't figure out how to hold something shaped this oddly is quite considerable... but the manual is a barely-adjusted copy of the Voyage's, instead

[Sirtel]

I have always gripped the edges of all my Kindles and I find the wide edge of the Oasis particularly comfortable to grip. I'm a clumsy person and would drop the Kindle instantly if it just rested on my palm. But to each his/her own, I guess. I have small hands, so simple gripping works for me. I gripped paper books too.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Jason90

I see what your saying about adjusting for the sake of the wedge but in the end i like to have a firm grip on my kindle and if i didn't grip just the wedge then i'd constantly be noticing the bump and it just wasn't worth it imo,plus the weight difference is practically unnoticeable so the trade off with battery life made it a non-keeper.

On mid-high brightness levels the blue levels were really high,even more than my laptop,seeing as i'd be spending most of the time reading at night with the light that more than anything made it impossible for me to keep.

There was not a single element of the device for me that was better than i remember with my voyage.

I did against my own judgement buy and try the device even though i had slated it when it was announced but i still gave it a chance and it is not an improvement over the voyage in anyway.

Those were my own personal findings anyway and thought i'd share them somewhere,i think the OP has already purchased one but would be interesting to hear back from him,in case he hasn't i'd recommend against it and go for the voyage,alot better for alot less money!

It appears you have discovered the Oasis is not for you. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

[Jason90]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

It appears you have discovered the Oasis is not for you. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I'm just surprised this hasn't been brought up before,at least no where on this forum that i can see but i guess there aren't many oasis owners to start with.

I mulled over it for a few days and seeing as my ereader is the most important device to me i thought i'd at least give the oasis a go before i'd consider going back to the voyage.

For a device that had been design from the offset for enhanced ergonomics and selling at a premium for being more comfortable,the fact that i actually found it to be the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE ereader i have ever used was a complete surprise.

To NullNix above i did try moving my hand abit,also switching hands but just didn't like it,what i meant before was i like my fingers spread across the back of my kindles,with bottom right/left in the palm of my hand,so over the wedge and i'd feel the bump towards the middle of my fingers.

If there was one feature i praise the oasis for though it would be those physical page buttons,they are infinitely better than stretching my thumb over to tap the screen.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Jason90

I'm just surprised this hasn't been brought up before,at least no where on this forum that i can see but i guess there aren't many oasis owners to start with.

I mulled over it for a few days and seeing as my ereader is the most important device to me i thought i'd at least give the oasis a go before i'd consider going back to the voyage.

For a device that had been design from the offset for enhanced ergonomics and selling at a premium for being more comfortable,the fact that i actually found it to be the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE ereader i have ever used was a complete surprise.

To NullNix above i did try moving my hand abit of switching hands but just didn't like it,what i meant before was i like my fingers spread across the back of my kindles,with bottom right/left in the palm of my hand,so over the wedge and i'd feel the bump towards the middle of my fingers.

If there was one feature i praise the oasis for though it would be those physical page buttons,they are infinitely better than stretching my thumb over to tap the screen.

The thing is there are probably at least 100 happy Oasis owners for every 1 complaint.
My guess would be closer to either 1000 or 10,000.
There were at least 50,000 sold in the first run.
The thing is most happy customers don't post but most unhappy will.

Though you are right, I haven't seen very many complaints about the design but many about the lighting.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Jason90

I'm just surprised this hasn't been brought up before,at least no where on this forum that i can see but i guess there aren't many oasis owners to start with.
I mulled over it for a few days and seeing as my ereader is the most important device to me i thought i'd at least give the oasis a go before i'd consider going back to the voyage.
For a device that had been design from the offset for enhanced ergonomics and selling at a premium for being more comfortable,the fact that i actually found it to be the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE ereader i have ever used was a complete surprise.
To NullNix above i did try moving my hand abit,also switching hands but just didn't like it,what i meant before was i like my fingers spread across the back of my kindles,with bottom right/left in the palm of my hand,so over the wedge and i'd feel the bump towards the middle of my fingers.
If there was one feature i praise the oasis for though it would be those physical page buttons,they are infinitely better than stretching my thumb over to tap the screen.

This was a topic of discussion when the Oasis was first released, and there were several posts with recommendations on how to hold it. I hated the ergonomics originally and my hands felt cramped. Eventually I got used to it, and I really like it now. What made a big difference to me was that I put a DecalGirl skin on the back. That made the grip much better and not feel so slippery so I was less worried about dropping it and then not focused so much on how I was holding it.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

This was a topic of discussion when the Oasis was first released, and there were several posts with recommendations on how to hold it. I hated the ergonomics originally and my hands felt cramped. Eventually I got used to it, and I really like it now. What made a big difference to me was that I put a DecalGirl skin on the back. That made the grip much better and not feel so slippery so I was less worried about dropping it and then not focused so much on how I was holding it.

I've never dropped it, and I have muscle tremors, very poor muscle tone, and bad coordination, so probably if anyone could drop it, I would.

However, the damn thing *has* come spontaneously out of its case and fallen 1.5m to a concrete floor ... and survived undamaged. Modern glass fronts are tough!

[Bookworm_Girl]

Also I found that longer fingernails made it difficult to hold the Oasis, and I had to trim them a little.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Also I found that longer fingernails made it difficult to hold the Oasis, and I had to trim them a little.

Longer fingernails -- or, indeed, fingernails at all -- scratch the hell out of the leather case too. Amazon should have shipped fingerless humans or perhaps fingernail covers with the Oasis