Kindle Oasis – With 7” display and page turn buttons

The media could not be loaded.  I decided to finally upgrade my Kindle from the first Paperwhite when I found out I could get a 25% discount and a $5 Amazon gift card for trading in my very old and unused Kindle Keyboard 1st gen, as well as other bonuses of 6 months free Kindle Unlimited (approx $60) plus a 30 day Audible trial.I’m very happy with it and it has some great features.I do like the adjustable amber tint, but I also really like the ability to invert the colors to white print on a black background. This is even easier on the eyes, but it does have a noticeable (and irritating) white flash every few page turns when using the buttons, and almost with every page turn when advancing with the touch screen. I believe this is the e-ink refreshing. I will probably use the black inverted color only when I’m reading outside in bright sunlight.I also am really happy to have buttons to turn the page again. It’s the ultimate laziness to be able to just keep your thumb in the button and depress it to turn the page instead of having to actually move your thumb a half inch to touch the screen, but hey, why move a half inch when your can push down 1/16th of an inch? All that extra movement add up over the years.The real reason I like the buttons is this: I live in Alaska and we have very long, cold nights. But even in the winter, we turn down the heat at night. I read in bed every single night, tucked all cozy and warm under my down comforter... except for having to have my hand out in order to touch the screen on my Paperwhite to turn the page. My hand starts to get very cold. It’s uncomfortable. My half frozen hand takes away from my happy bedtime reading experience. With the Oasis, I can keep my hand under the blankets and just push the button. You don’t know what a big deal this is until you spend night after night with a frozen hand.I also like that you can select which button to the the page advance button and which is the page back button. The Oasis comes set up with the top button as the page advance and the bottom as the page back, but I switched them: the bottom is the advance, the top is the back. I hold my ereaders at the bottom sides, and had to stretch my thumb to advance the page when it was set for the top button. It’s just easier and more comfortable to use the bottom button. And this is cool: the bottom button stays as my page advance button even when I rotate the Oasis 180 to use left handed!! Smart!!Others have covered the size and weight so I won’t go it I all that except to say it’s comfortable to hold. I do use the official Amazon Premium leather cover and it fits perfectly, and the magnetic closure/sleep/wake functions work perfectly also.Dislike: Nothing with the ereader itself, but with however Amazon picks the “special offers”. From what I read, these offers are supposed to be tailored off of a person’s reading history/preferences. I may be wrong.The books they are featuring for me are “romance” genre. I am sooo not a romance genre girl. I don’t believe I’ve ever purchased this genre in my life. I’m a hardcore sci-fi/dystopian. I have an adverse reaction when I see romance special offer.Other than that, some of the complaints by others leaves me wondering.I just don’t think it’s THAT big of deal that it has a micro usb. Really, it’s just not that hard to figure out the big end of the cable from the small end. As for charging speed, charge mine while I’m sleeping at night so it doesn’t matter if it takes 1 hour or 4. I suppose having to carry a micro usb cord and charger when other devices use a usb-c cord/charger may be annoying but I think I can find 2 square inches in my purse/pocket/bag/backpack for it.Also remember that this is an e-reader. It’s not a tablet, computer or smartphone, nor does it make any claims to be. Expecting an ereader to function basically like a computer/tablet/smartphone is expecting too much. It does an outstanding job at doing it’s job as an ereader.I have sent many different type of files to my Paperwhite using my kindle email address and it’s worked excellent with that old ereader, so I expect this new Oasis will do excellent with those as well.My suggestion is to read the description fully and know what you are getting and what you aren’t. If your reading experience will be destroyed because this doesn’t have (nor claim to have) a usb-c, then this isn’t the ereader for you.If you want it to be like a tablet or smartphone or computer, this isn’t the ereader for you.But if you love reading and buy this for what it’s made for, I can recommend it. Definitely look into getting a discount by trading in any unused kindles, and take advantage of the free Kindle Unlimited and Audible while they are available to offset the cost even more.

Before I start this review, I just want to say that I adore this e-reader regardless of any negative feedback. In fact, I took it over to show my mother and she loved it so much she got one for herself. For both of us, trying to read on a tablet for longer periods of time just isn't enjoyable. This is the first e-reader purchase for both of us after many years though I have had occasion to play with the newer generation of paperwhite/kindle in person before making this purchase.First things first - this device uses E-Ink. It works by having a multitude of microcapsules that when charged display either black or white. Just from that description alone, it's pretty obvious why this has no color, though color is in the works by the E-Ink developer, it's just years away from being workable on these types of devices. Obviously, this works differently than a tablet and its main purpose, as with all e-readers, is to give a good reading experience and mimic a page of a book as best as possible while also being easier on the eyes.Display: Very, very sharp on the Oasis. It's lovely to look at and I have found zero ghosting while reading. It's clear and crisp. While only an inch, the benefits of the 7 inch are noticeable but hard to explain outside of it just feels better reading-wise. The screen is matte and while not glare-proof it helps a good deal and the pages are lovely to look at.Touch: Very responsive. Again, due to the tech of this product, it's kind of a wonder we have touchscreens with them. It's very responsive for an e-reader, more than any other that I've looked at. I can't say I was all that impressed with the Paperwhite's touch screen as it seemed to get finicky at times and could turn multiple pages on you, a problem I've not had with any other device. While sometimes it doesn't always register the touch, for the most part, it does, and highlighting, accessing the menu, shopping in the store, etc. have all been easy. Sometimes it doesn't register when scrolling but that's been the biggest issue encountered so far.Page Turning - I am partial to the buttons and am a believer that these devices should come with them baseline. However, buttons or touch, the pages turn fast, fluid, and cleanly with close to no delay whatsoever.Screen Brightness - The warm light is great and is the other reason I got this model over a Paperwhite (buttons were the other). I have issues with my eyes where blue light really bothers me. Not only does the Oasis seem to have less blue light in general compared to Paperwhite/Kindle/Older Oasis models, but the warm light works well. It doesn't take a lot to solve the issue and being able to adjust brightness and warmth separately is good. You are able to set the warmth to auto-activate from sunset to sunrise based on time zone, set your own time, or do it anytime easily.Options: There are many ways to change the layout from font style, boldness, and size. I haven't seen it really mentioned, but you can set it horizontal also. Yes, you do need to go through settings to do this but given how this device works, that's not a surprise. There is a feature to save all your layouts so it's simple enough to hit the saved format for horizontal to switch to that or back again to vertical. The buttons come default as up = forward down = back, but these can be reversed. There is no scrolling option but I'm not someone who likes that when reading books, but keep that in mind, especially for certain media like comics/manga. You are able to have it display page numbers, the clock, percentage left/read, or none of the above.Personal Library Access - Amazon, for the love of all creation fix this mess. I knew going in that it would be a pita but still. Even after going through each book and adding them separately back into their collections I still can't sort by them. I don't know what I did wrong but it's been a frustrating endeavor, and the inability to really have decent sort options can make it a pain for those who want to keep the library on this device instead of just a book or two at a time. Fortunately, the search works well but I shouldn't have to look one of my Fires to sort through my library and then bring it up on the Oasis. That's terrible and to my understanding has been a longstanding problem.Wifi - I had no problems with accessing the Kindle store to browse or purchase books. This is probably the biggest area that had a delay, lack of sensitivity to input, and a large amount of screen refreshing, but again, given what it is, it wasn't an issue really. Wifi does drain the battery (even more so if downloading a lot of books, like at the start and it does give a warning for this) but that is a problem on most modern devices. I wish there was a battery saver option for this like there is for the Fire's as I would like to use the Translation feature at times while reading some books and that is only available via wifi. Fortunately, the dictionary is not so dependent.Battery Life - The Kindle base model has 4 LEDs, the Paperwhite has 6. The Oasis - 25. That's a lot of LEDs (12 for white, 13 for the warm lighting system) and it is understandable that while in use this isn't going to have as long of a life as other models, especially older ones that don't have a backlight at all. When indoors, I tend to have everything set to as close to zero as possible as personal preference and would say that depending on reading habits you're looking at charging every few days to a little over a week. I would also say that one should never believe any company's rhetoric on battery life - it's usually under the most minimal of conditions. That being said, if you're coming from an older model of Kindle, especially the really early ones, you aren't going to get the same battery life due to the LEDs but it isn't as terrible as a tablet, for example. It does hibernate after a period of inactivity and takes a few seconds to wake back up when starting again. This isn't a bad thing to me but has been off-putting to others with the slight delay.The Micro USB - I know this a point of contention with a lot of people but I didn't find it that big of a deal. I still have several devices include Kindles/Fires that use this. I would assume that when Amazon does make the switch to USB C that they want to ensure all their tablets/Kindles can make the switch over.Shape - I love it. The only thing I can think of is that it would be nice if the metal was grooved a little in a couple of places on the back to help with a firmer grip and to reduce sliding potential. Otherwise, it's lovely to both me and my mother - easy to hold, easy to operate the buttons, etc.Waterproofing - I can't speak to how this works and hope to never have to.The Ads - Amazon, we are buying your top-of-the-line product. We should not have to pay you more to not have you advertise at us, especially since you have a recommended for you on the homepage that does the job somewhat better. When Kindles/Fires were launching way back when it did make some sense as the price difference was $40 and made the lower-end models especially more accessible to a wider range of people. But now, it's just gross. Yes, I have the one with the ads because I cannot justify giving you an extra $20 for something that is top of the line and already highly priced.The Price - So, this is really expensive. There is an option to do payment plans on it, which is nice, but it's still pricy. If you have an e-reader that at least is functional, it might do for you to wait until Prime Day or Cyber Monday to get a deal and shave off $50-75. Is it worth it? That depends. If you're like me and need the warm light then this is the only Kindle that has it, along with the buttons. I look at it as an investment. The products I have gotten from Amazon have lasted years. On top of that, I am a reader and have been looking for something that would allow me to access my Kindle library easily while having the features I needed/wanted. If you're not reading a whole lot and/or do not need the buttons/warm light then this probably isn't the Kindle for you. Personally, I knew I would not be happy with the Paperwhite, and while there are things I dislike about the Oasis, as a whole I am happy that I own this.Probably the biggest question to ask yourself before spending this kind of money is how much do you read and/or were you someone who used to read a lot? The biggest question is whether one will use it enough to justify having a device that is only for reading and if the features for them personally justify the purchase. For me, yes, for others, it may be a different answer.I listened to and read many reviews on the Oasis and other Kindles and one of the comments was that with the Oasis that one might spend more money due to just buying more books to read. I can see that. It's a joy to read on this.