8gb or 32gb kindle oasis? wait for black friday or order now?

[wakkaday]

what do you guys think?

never really tried audible on an e reader so not sure if i will need 32gb
i have listened to audio books in the car via mp3 but prefer reading myself...

will they reduce for black friday and also that kind of falls under the 30 amazon return policy so i could re-order if the price drops or ask for the difference?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by wakkaday

what do you guys think?

never really tried audible on an e reader so not sure if i will need 32gb
i have listened to audio books in the car via mp3 but prefer reading myself...

will they reduce for black friday and also that kind of falls under the 30 amazon return policy so i could re-order if the price drops or ask for the difference?

I will be honest in saying that I haven't keep very close track of Amazon marketing patterns, but ....
IIRC, they exclude any "newly released" items from the Black Friday sales.
or at least only advertise a token savings.

= = = =

I suppose it depends on your usage habits.

If you are a person to keep the majority of your collection "on the cloud" with only your interest-of-today on the device . . . .
Then you should not need the extra cost storage space.

On the other hand, if you are a person that ignores your "on the cloud" storage and always want the majority of your collection on the device . . . .
Then you should get the extra cost storage space.

But there is a technical aspect that could well over-ride either of the above two considerations . . . .
(I will try to keep this short and simple for our non-technical readers.)

The type of device that provides storage on the Kindle is subject to wearing out.
It takes a lot of time and use, but it is possible to wear it out.
Picture the storage internals as if they where a loop of film.
Whenever you save something to the device, the film is advanced by one frame and that frame used for the storage.
The frame that was just replaced (the one holding the whatever prior this save) continues around the loop in its fixed position, not to be re-used until all other frames have been used once more.

A loop with 32anything is 8 times longer that a loop with 4anything.
I.E: A used frame gets re-used 1/8 as often - all other things being held constant.
(It is this erase and re-program part of the usage cycle that puts the "wear" on the internals.)

So if your usage would normally wear out a 4anything loop in two to three years (possible, but not likely) than that same pattern of usage will wear out a 32anything loop in 16 to 24 years.

If you intend to buy once and use forever, that is the deciding factor.
And for (what?) a $30 option - one heck of a deal.
You can't get a 24 year warranty on the 4anything storage size part for $30.

I hope I made that understandable without insulting anyone.

[JSWolf]

Given that the KO2 just came out, I doubt it will be on sale for Black Friday.

[vrf]

Some quick napkin math...
Even if you could finish one book per day, it would take you about 13 years to read the books that can fit in 7GB. (Estimate based on reasonable mix of file sizes.)

So yeah, it's really all about whether you'll be storing a bunch of audiobooks on the device.

[soondai]

Originally Posted by knc1

But there is a technical aspect that could well over-ride either of the above two considerations . . . .
(I will try to keep this short and simple for our non-technical readers.)

The type of device that provides storage on the Kindle is subject to wearing out.
It takes a lot of time and use, but it is possible to wear it out.

Realistically though, all these devices are limited by their batteries which will wear out far sooner than anything else.

My ideal kindle would take rechargeable batteries, a la the old jetbook lite. If my PW1 worked on commonly available rechargeable batteries I'd probably never buy another reader.

[Barbara1955]

soondai ... here you go.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEVwTBspZ58

[tomsem]

If and when I get an Oasis 2, I’m inclined to go for 32GB, I don’t think I’ll regret spending $30 more. I don’t plan to use it for audiobooks (unless they add immersion reading) but maybe I’ll go crazy for manga some day, or want to use it as an ad hoc backup device should I find myself short of a thumb drive.

Image-laden content (technical books, PDFs, magazines) can chew up a lot of space as well.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by soondai

Realistically though, all these devices are limited by their batteries which will wear out far sooner than anything else.

My ideal kindle would take rechargeable batteries, a la the old jetbook lite. If my PW1 worked on commonly available rechargeable batteries I'd probably never buy another reader.

You must have missed some of the related posts over the past couple of years in the dev sub-forum.
People have been reporting eMMC failures on devices as new as the PW2 from time to time.
Now those would be the ones that fall into the part of the MTBF curve for earliest likely failure (and the rest out there are still years away).
Also some are most likely battery failure related rather than erase - reprogram wear.

But I don't think hard and fast rules can be set.
A battery that falls at the longest lifetime end of the MTBF bell curve will out last the eMMC.
An eMMC that falls at the longest lifetime end of the MTBF bell curve will out last the battery.
And there is a lot of overlap in the curves of both parts.

Plus, both part design and device design has not been fixed and stable over the time period now available.

Nope, just too many variables now to set hard and fast rules.

[Barbara1955]

I don't believe the New Oasis is worth the asking price. Not when for $50 you can get Everything but the Water proofing. Unless you live on a boat or beach or read in a bath tub....even them Zip lock bags work just as well from my understanding.

[kaibob]

Originally Posted by tomsem

If and when I get an Oasis 2, I’m inclined to go for 32GB, I don’t think I’ll regret spending $30 more. I don’t plan to use it for audiobooks (unless they add immersion reading) but maybe I’ll go crazy for manga some day, or want to use it as an ad hoc backup device should I find myself short of a thumb drive.

Image-laden content (technical books, PDFs, magazines) can chew up a lot of space as well.

I purchased a 32GB for this reason. If it was like $100 more then I'd say no, but for $30 the 32GB seems like worthwhile insurance.

[DrD123]

Interesting turn for them - the bigger screen is nice, and now it has the adaptive backlight. Not sure how much benefit the 12 LEDs is compared to 6 in the Voyage (I've read some posts where folks have had non-uniform illumination, but mine seems pretty much perfect in that respect - or if there are hot spots, I don't see them). Don't think the external battery was a huge selling point for most folks, so not a bad idea to ditch it. As for 8 vs. 32GB - 8GB is pretty huge for an e-reader... but for only $30, the extra space isn't bad. I would have though 4GB with a microSD slot for increased storage would be a better approach, though. Maybe they can't implement that in their current architecture?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by DrD123

= = = =
Maybe they can't implement that in their current architecture?

Storage cards of all types are supported by the current SoC.
But it is very hard to make them waterproof.

[tomsem]

Proper comparison would probably be Oasis 1, which like this one has LEDs aligned on the ‘grip’ side rather than the bottom, and it has 10. The LEDs need to be close enough to each other so as to minimize gaps, so the longer the side they are located on, the more you need to use. The ratio 10/12 is very close to 6”/7” so the spacing is similar to Oasis 1. Both Oasis models have LED spacing narrower than Voyage so that probably means they can cover a broader range of brightness levels (I think that was part of the ‘message’ when Oasis came out).

My Voyage is perfect to my eyes, significantly better than Paperwhite 3. Paperwhite seemed to have more issues with ‘color blotches’ (prism effect) and ‘light cones’ and ‘pinholes’ than the Voyage or Oasis. I don’t expect to see new issues with Oasis 2, as this is the third iteration on the same basic lighting scheme, or at least second try at lighting from the side instead of the bottom. I recall some people complaining about Oasis they see a gradient emitting from the grip side, and when you switch hands it goes the other direction, and they find it too distracting compared to Voyage which is L-R symmetric. So we’ll see if there’s been improvement there (ideally there would be no detectable gradient but some eyes are more sensitive than others).

SD slot would be another thing to waterproof, and they aren’t necessarily trouble free, may need to be re-seated every so often, etc. 32GB isn’t really enough for a smartphone or tablet these days but it is unimaginably vast for an ereader, which traffics mostly in text, and most people will not read 32GB of text in their entire lifetime. So if they had to pick only 2 configurations, 8 and 32 is better and more forward-leaning than 4 and 16 or 8 and 16. There will always be people who want more than even 32 but this has to be pretty far down the tail of demand.

They added SD storage to Fire, because that whole business is based on low price and low margins. Plus once you start downloading video and fancy games there is no amount of memory they could pre-configure that would be enough for everyone, while keeping the price down.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by soondai

Realistically though, all these devices are limited by their batteries which will wear out far sooner than anything else.

My ideal kindle would take rechargeable batteries, a la the old jetbook lite. If my PW1 worked on commonly available rechargeable batteries I'd probably never buy another reader.

I agree about the battery. Fortunately, you can replace the batteries on all the ereaders - there are several companies that provide replacements, special tool and video to do so. If my Mom can replace the battery in her Nano (which required a soldering iron), I'm sure the ereaders, which just have a snap in connection, are easier.

As to the OP, I LOVE Whispersync titles, but now that the prices have increased, I'm probably not going to be buying more (and well, I have enough for about 6 years anyway). I like having the ebook and the audiobook on the same ereader (which I do on the Kindle Keyboard). It makes it very easy to switch between reading and listening (which happens to me a lot). I can be reading a book, and then get up to make dinner and continue listening to the book while cooking.

[soondai]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I agree about the battery. Fortunately, you can replace the batteries on all the ereaders - there are several companies that provide replacements, special tool and video to do so. If my Mom can replace the battery in her Nano (which required a soldering iron), I'm sure the ereaders, which just have a snap in connection, are easier.

I know about newpower99 and their ilk, but those batteries are off brand and very likely as old as the ones they are purchased to replace. The one video I saw of someone using one of theirs showed the same brand you see on ebay for 10 bucks. In their own videos they paper over this brand with a plain wrapper with their name on it. Else people would check ebay and find the same for quarter price.

It would be great if I really thought in a year or two I could buy a quality battery for a PW1 that had been manufactured after 2013, but there is little to no demand for such.