6 inch Oasis $179

[sirdave]

I don't like the design of a convertible.

Well, you can put the top up.

But that defeats the purpose of having a convertible.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Atunah

The Voyage is thinner I am pretty sure than both of my Oasis. I don't like thin devices at all, its why I love the Oasis. Because its not thin where it matters, where you hold it. The first kindle actually had the best design of any, but of course it was much heavier.

But just like the K1, the Oasis is ergonomic that its thicker on the side that fits in my hand. While my Voyage keeps slipping out of my hands because its so thin and because of where the buttons are and the super think bezel, I have nothing to grab on without cramping.

That was a great deal on the oasis 6 inch and I hope those that wanted one got to grab it. It didn't seem to last very long.

The thing is, you don't want the thin part to be where the screen is. You want the screen part thicker to give it more protection. Also, you want the device to be easy to hold no matter where it's held. Personally, I don't like the design of either Oasis. It's just an odd design.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Which kind defeats the purpose of building device super thin. I've noticed this for years with iPhones and high-end Android smartphones. Super thin, big fat, protective case. Uh?

Another thing that would be good is if we had a thicker phone, then a battery with more power could be used and we'd bet more life between charges.

[Waiting4somethin]

I hope there will be flexible devices with flexible batteries.

Flexible batteries are batteries, both primary and secondary, that are designed to be conformal and flexible, unlike traditional rigid batteries. The increasing interest in portable and flexible electronics has led to the development of flexible batteries which can be implemented in products such as smart cards, wearable electronics, novelty packaging, flexible displays and transdermal drug delivery patches.[1][2] Hence efforts are underway to make different flexible power sources including primary and rechargeable batteries.

[Waiting4somethin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Also, you want the device to be easy to hold no matter where it's held.

I don’t find flat ereaders particularly easy to hold. They are the perfect shape for slipping out of your hand, and i find it to be extra effort to hold them in place.

The Oasis shape seems okay to me. It only needs to be held in portrait and landscape orientations, and you can hold the battery upright or with palm and thumb.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I agree. It's kind of silly to squeeze every millimeter you can out of the width of a device, to the point where it becomes uncomfortable to hold.

If every millimeter possible has been squeezed out of the width, it then becomes possible to be comfortably held by the sides. It would be great with rocker switch page turn buttons and might even fit in a shirt pocket.

[sirdave]

A lot of thought went into the design of both Oasis 1&2. With the prior Kindles, the bezels on the left and right were of equal width and had to be wide enough to accommodate holding the unit and any buttons. Also, the bezels had to be thick enough to allow comfortable holding. That adds weight.

The Oasis 1 solves the problem of allowing a comfortable holding area and a place for buttons without adding unnecessary weight. Only one side has a wider & thicker bezel. The main part of the unit is very thin, thus, very light. And yet, the engineering & materials of the thin part has made it very strong and resistant to bending/warping.

In addition, it can be held in either hand because of an accelerometer. The battery on the main unit is limited because of limited space, but battery life still allows several hours of reading as long as brightness is not jacked way up. However, even then one can snap on the cover that allows more battery time and adds thickness if one wants. And Amazon did an excellent job there as well. The cover snaps on quickly and easily much like the covers on iPads.

Some people may not prefer the design of the Oasis, but that doesn't mean that it is poorly designed. Personally, I love the thing.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by sirdave

Some people may not prefer the design of the Oasis, but that doesn't mean that it is poorly designed. Personally, I love the thing.

That's what's important. Do you, as the owner, like it? It really doesn't matter what someone else might think about it. I would probably try out the Oasis, except I'm just not going to pay that much for an eReader anyhow, so there's not much point. Also, purely on personal taste, I like the look of the Voyage better – but that's because I like the symmetrical shape better.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The thing is, you don't want the thin part to be where the screen is. You want the screen part thicker to give it more protection.

Protection from what? You wouldn't know this because you hate the Oasis too much to ever consider buying one, but the actual screen is not the bit that breaks if you drop it, even if you drop it out of a second story window. The plastic on the edge breaks off *long* before (and can be, ah, 'repaired' with a touch of acrylic paint). You need to drive a car over the damn thing to damage the screen. It's *tough*.

You really do want the thin part to be where the screen is. It makes it lighter, and speaking as someone who had RSI bad enough yesterday that even the Oasis 1 felt a bit too heavy, being light *matters*.

[montalex]

It is pretty funny that JSWolf always turns up here to criticize Kindles and Amazon in general. I don't think he has ever even owned a Kindle. I visit this forum because I have owned and enjoyed Kindles and I'm happy to hear about improvements or hacks I can add to mine to make them better. I have never visited forums for Sony or Kobo readers. I certainly wouldn't visit to comment on how terrible they are. I'm sure they work just fine, and that their users like them. Would I try to convince them to convert to Kiindles? JSWolf is comic relief for the Kindle forum!

[JSWolf]

delete post

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That's what's important. Do you, as the owner, like it? It really doesn't matter what someone else might think about it. I would probably try out the Oasis, except I'm just not going to pay that much for an eReader anyhow, so there's not much point. Also, purely on personal taste, I like the look of the Voyage better – but that's because I like the symmetrical shape better.

According to some other owners, the battery is not all that good. That's because of thinner/lighter.

[bagpiper1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The thing is, you don't want the thin part to be where the screen is. You want the screen part thicker to give it more protection. Also, you want the device to be easy to hold no matter where it's held. Personally, I don't like the design of either Oasis. It's just an odd design.

I agree, I never used the Kindle Oasis but gripping it from one side would seem to make it harder or awkward to annotate. For instance, what if you are gripping it from the right side with your right hand and you want to a highlight from the top left corner the top of the first paragraph on the page ? In this orientation It is side heavy on the right and much lighter on the left. Imagining it seems awful but maybe it is better in practice.

It seems to me Amazon has some sophisticated firmware UI extras like X-ray and a more extensive ecosystem but all that is kind of pointless and extraneous when they cannot even get the core reading experience right like Kobo does. For instance, besides the former possible issue you can also customize fonts more and sideload fonts on Kobo so on and so forth etc....

Not to rag on or knock Kindle owners but I think everyone on this forum should realize that without Kobo innovating and the existence of the Kobo Aura ONE --the Kindle Oasis 2 would not exist as Amazon would not be forced to try to keep up with Kobo on technical hardware details.

Therefore, it is my opinion an unwritten rule of the forum should be overall , in general, should be a preference for supporting Kobo over Amazon when applicable.

That being said even I recommended someone get a refurbished kindle voyage over a refurbished Kobo Aura HD, once, on this forum, because it was a better deal objectively/ practically.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by bagpiper1

It seems to me Amazon has some sophisticated firmware UI extras like X-ray and a more extensive ecosystem but all that is kind of pointless and extraneous when they cannot even get the core reading experience right like Kobo does. For instance, besides the former possible issue you can also customize fonts more and sideload fonts on Kobo so on and so forth etc....

The Kindle UI is much, much slicker than the Kobo one. (Fewer font features, but slicker UI and a better dictionary.) As for fonts, with my Kindle Touch there's a simple hack that allows you to add at will. Unfortunately it doesn't work with newer, non-jailbroken Kindles, but there's still font embedding in Calibre, which I've just tested and it works fine.

Originally Posted by bagpiper1

Not to rag on or knock Kindle owners but I think everyone on this forum should realize that without Kobo innovating and the existence of the Kobo Aura ONE --the Kindle Oasis 2 would not exist as Amazon would not be forced to try to keep up with Kobo on technical hardware details.

I thinking you're making an assumption here. But you're right about competition. It helps when there's more than one company. I'm happy that Walmart is going to sell Kobos.

Originally Posted by bagpiper1

Therefore, it is my opinion an unwritten rule of the forum should be overall , in general, should be a preference for supporting Kobo over Amazon when applicable.

I think each person's preference should be his/her own preference. Without the ease of use Amazon has built into their Kindles (their delivery infrastructure) eBooks would be much less popular than they are. So, in some ways, at least in the U.S., Amazon is keeping outfits like Kobo alive.

Originally Posted by bagpiper1

That being said even I recommended someone get a refurbished kindle voyage over a refurbished Kobo Aura HD, once, on this forum, because it was a better deal objectively/ practically.

I try to find out what they want and suggest their best options. I've often suggested Kobos (I've also suggested Kindles or Nooks).

[JSWolf]

One thing most don't get or tend to ignore is that eInk screens used in Readers have a glass substrate. So having the thinner part of the Oasis be where the glass substraite is makes the Oasis more fragile. To me, that's not a good thing. That's why I would prefer a 7" Voyage.