My review of the new Oasis version 2

[badtux]

This is the best eReader that Amazon currently sells.That said, it's far from perfect.

So let's talk about the good parts:

1) The display is nice and large for my old eyes. My Paperwhite just doesn't display a lot of text when I make it big enough for me to read. The larger display on the new Oasis makes it possible for me to enlarge the text while still having nearly a full page of text on the screen.

2) The Paperwhite's touch screen is very sluggish and its display is quite laggy. The Oasis is butter-smooth and quick.

3) You're not going to fill up 8 gigs of memory with text eBooks. Don't bother getting the 32gb version unless you also intend to put a lot of Audible ebooks onto it.

4) The backlighting is great. It's smooth and even across the screen.

5) The page flip buttons are far more reliable when reading magazines than screen swipes are -- their magazine UI flips between stories sometimes when you're trying to screen swipe to the next page, having the buttons makes it much easier to read magazines.

6) The lack of a raised bezel means I can *finally* select things near the borders of the book with my big fat fingers where the bezel of the Paperwhite kept my fingers away from there.

Now for the bad parts:

1) Battery life SUCKS. Read one eBook, and half my battery is gone! My estimate is that this thing has roughly 1/4th the battery life of the Paperwhite.

2) The general shape is awkward. The back is sort of stepped so it doesn't lay flat on the table like the Paperwhite, and its width caused by that ridiculously enlarged bezel at one side makes it awkward to put into the pocket of a rain jacket. I would have preferred that they spread out the components behind the screen and had only a slightly enlarged bezel at the side for the page flip buttons, somewhat like the Voyager. A slightly thicker but narrower e-reader would have been much more usable for me, *and* would have given enough room for a decent size battery.

In short, it's good, good enough for a four star rating -- but sorry, Amazon, you still didn't nail it. Give us more battery and a more regular shape, please?

[HLS]

If you buy a case it makes the back feel less awkward. At first I hated the shape but i like it now I hate the battery life. they should have included a charging case. I keep wifi and blue tooth off and use the lowest brightness I can tolerate and I still recharge at least once a week. I do not see how they got the 6 weeks from.

[Sonicboom]

Nice review, personally I love that shape, it is more comfortable than thin flat design (I can hold it with one hand without spreading fingers on backside).

[cvkemp]

You did a great review, but I too like the shape of the Oasis, and I love the larger size of the screen. To me it is as light as my voyage was. I do miss being about to but it in my pants pocket though.

[mkstewartesq]

Agreed on the case making a big difference - I purchased a relatively cheap case (basic MoKo black, $9.99) and, with the cover folded back (my preferred way of holding the device), the Oasis' irregularly-shaped body becomes a non-issue.

I honestly don't see how anyone could use the Oasis without a case - I had a real run of bad luck with my Oasis (took three tries to get one without noticeable screen defects, and the body of the first one was even bent straight out of the box) - and I tried reading each one to see if I could get used to the defects before "committing to it" by putting it in a case. However, without a case, the Oasis is just too slippery for me, and the indent in the back isn't deep enough to make me feel comfortable that it wouldn't slip out of my hands.

M

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by mkstewartesq

Agreed on the case making a big difference - I purchased a relatively cheap case (basic MoKo black, $9.99) and, with the cover folded back (my preferred way of holding the device), the Oasis' irregularly-shaped body becomes a non-issue.

I honestly don't see how anyone could use the Oasis without a case - I had a real run of bad luck with my Oasis (took three tries to get one without noticeable screen defects, and the body of the first one was even bent straight out of the box) - and I tried reading each one to see if I could get used to the defects before "committing to it" by putting it in a case. However, without a case, the Oasis is just too slippery for me, and the indent in the back isn't deep enough to make me feel comfortable that it wouldn't slip out of my hands.

M

I put some strips of a Talon Grip sheet on my Oasis 2. Now it's really comfortable to hold and slickness is no longer an issue. I don't even have a case for it (I put in a sleeve when not reading).

[HarryT]

I'm another user who likes the shape. The "bulge", where the weight is concentrated, makes it much more comfortable to hold than a flat device of the same size would be.

[Atunah]

I am another that loves the shape and the size of the bezel. The Voyage had such a tiny bezel, it kept slipping out of my hand while using the haptic, or I kept moving into the screen. I have small hands.

I am one that can't imagine how anyone can read with the Oasis in the cover. So there is that. . Its doable, but only with the official one. No way could I handle a clunky heavy cover on this one. My hands would hurt. But even the official cover, I take off while reading. It takes away the ergonomic feature for which I bought the device in the first place. That and the buttons and large bezel. Those 2 things were what made me get the O1 and not use the Voyage much anymore and now I have the O2 and its even better.

Thankfully for now there are devices for those of us that like the shape, buttons and large bezel and for those that want the teeny bezels on the Voyage. Small bezels are a pain for me. I had to put a thick case on my phone and still have to use it with 2 hands as I am always touching the screen with some part of my hand. Not as much of an issue as I don't use it for reading.

Touch screens and I are not friends as it is, I don't need to have constant highlighting or page changes while I am reading. that is what happens with the Voyage. I constantly highlight stuff I don't mean because of that thin bezel. Maybe if my hands weren't small, but I always assume it would be worse for those with larger hands. Or maybe their fingers are long enough so they can grab it from all sides with one hand and still change pages. I can't. Not enough finger real estate.

[bwaldron]

I'm another who likes the shape of the Oasis 3 (then again, I also liked the wedge-shaped Kindle 1, so ...)

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

I'm another who likes the shape of the Oasis 3 (then again, I also liked the wedge-shaped Kindle 1, so ...)

You are not alone. It was so perfect for my hands and I loved the large buttons. It now feels a bit heavy and of course its sloooooooooooow and the contrast is pretty bad at this point, but oh did it feel great in my hands. It was so natural. No strain on my bad hands and wrists. Just lays in the natural space.
Then of course it all had to go to flat uncomfortable slates. Until the Oasis'is.

[johnnyb]

After having used the Oasis 2 for a couple of months now I 100% agree with this assessment! The larger screen is great in general, the device is super fast (compared to all the other readers out there) but the package it comes in is no good. I thought I liked the shape at first but it's simply no good for many positions. And yeah, the battery life leaves something to be desired.
If there was a Voyage with a larger screen I'd jump onto that model in a heartbeat.
I would also like to see Amazon change the aspect ratio to a longer, more narrow screen (just look at the layout of any regular book out there) and *maybe* add yellow light for more comfortable reading at night.

[Wearever]

The shape of the Oasis 2 doesn't bother me with a case on. Like others have said the battery is where Amazon missed the mark again. I read mostly at night, I need the light on obviously, if I didn't want to use the light I would have bought the basic kindle. Also with a larger screen and more storage and audible, the Oasis 2 has a battery that's smaller than the Paperwhite. I think if you read with a low light setting and smaller fonts and leave wifi and 3g off while reading, your going to see better battery results. That's good for those who can, but I read at mid level brightness 12-15 and always have on my other Kindles and have not seen them go down that fast in a week. Like others I read anywhere from one to two hrs. each day. So I'm charging every few days. Wifi off while reading. Other than that I like the Oasis 2, just hope they get the battery right on the next one, otherwise it's only going to appeal to those who read with lower light settings and can get better results.

Also I wonder how long the battery will last over time, with my charging so often. I can see maybe 3yrs, or less, others with less charging will be longer.

[rashkae]

The problem with comparing Oasis 2 to Paperwhite in your review is you didn't specify *which* paperwhite. Based on the description of sluggish and laggy, I have to assume you mean the first generation Paperwhite. Paperwhite 2 greatly improved on the speed/responsiveness. And PW3 introduced the High Def E-ink Screen. To be honest, even though it's an older processor, if anything, the PW3 is even more responsive than the Oasis 2, and as of the last update that introduced font weight control, has a slightly better, more consistent display. (The light however, which can vary greatly from unit to unit, is comparatively very harsh on the PW3. The Oasis 2 is a large improvement in that regards.)

[badtux]

1) I am comparing to the PW3 with the 300DPI screen. The PW3 to me is quite laggy, the PW2 was faster probably because it had fewer pixels to play with. The Oasis 2 is buttery smooth and quick despite the larger screen.

2) I use a simple Moku case on my Oasis 2 just as on my PW3.

3) The PW3 is good for reading as I eat lunch because I can just set it on the table beside my plate and occasionally move a finger to flip the page. It sits flat. The Oasis 2 does not sit flat.

4) I have very large hands. I hold the PW3 in one hand between thumb and index finger. That's how large my hands are. Obviously I cannot hold the Oasis like that because it's way too wide.

That said, I love the actual operation of the thing, and the flush bezels, and the physical page flip buttons, and the fact that I can now make the fonts big enough to read while still having enough text on the screen to read. But the general shape just doesn't work for me, it doesn't lie flat and it doesn't slip into a large jacket pocket easily. (In case you are wondering, the big pocket on my wind / rain jacket will hold a liter bottle of water just fine, it is *big*).

[LoganW]

I agree with all the good points. After having used it for several months, I can say I don't mind the shape and the full covers would bother me since I like reading it without a cover (the cover is just for protection when not reading). I wish the fold-out stand worked better but...

That said, battery life does bother me.

Has anyone else noticed that sometimes a button press won't register? My eyes flick up to the top of the page after pressing the button, and I end up confused for a moment because I've read this before. This has happened dozens of times on two units, albeit during probably 100 hours of reading.

It's probably an effort to save battery life but I really dislike the wakeup time. None of the other Kindles I've had needed to do this and sitting there waiting for five seconds for it to "wake up" bothers me.

Every once in a while I will come back to a book and it will be on the previous page, as though it didn't store my last location but the previous location. Usually this happens when I open a book again, not when turning the Kindle on.

The UI still hasn't been adjusted for the larger screen. I'd like to fit more items on the screen (I am NOT visually impaired), and I'd like the dots showing the relative size of the book to actually make use of the longer real-estate, not just 3/5ths of it.

And yes, again, battery life is terrible.