Amazon Kindle Oasis preview: Supersonic rethinking of the ebook reader

The Amazon Kindle has been somewhat predictable over the past few years, making itself incrementally better, stoically doing what it does best year-on-year, staying true to that central concept of delivering the best reading experience it can.

Never in our wildest dreams did we think that something as dramatic as the Kindle Oasis was about to happen. But in a proper jaw-meet-floor moment, we got to spend some time with Amazon’s new Kindle.

If you think ebook readers are boring, then definitely, maybe, think again.

Amazon Kindle Oasis design

The Kindle is designed for one thing and one thing only: reading books. Its aim is to make reading books a distraction-free experience and that’s resulted in this radical rethinking for the Kindle.

To develop the Oasis, Amazon stripped the Kindle down to its component pieces and built it back up again, taking the chance to remove as many annoyances as possible along the way. The result is a new form factor. It escapes the predictable tablet-like slab, offering a funky, but seriously considered, design.

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At first glance, you might think it’s just a silly reshaping, but there’s something about this new design that really works. Firstly, it’s as light as it can be and that’s essential for those who read a lot. It’s also essential for those who want to comfortably read one-handed on the train, in bed or on the beach.

Rather than presenting a uniform thickness across the device, there’s a bump running down one side. That contains everything, the battery, the brains, all the hardware apart from the E Ink display itself. It even contains the display controller and LEDs.

That bump is pretty much a rock’n’roll star, because it provides all the grip you need and puts what little weight there is next to your hand, so it’s really comfortable to hold. There are two buttons for turning pages on the Kindle Oasis and these fall naturally so you can turn pages one-handed with your thumb.

It weighs only 131g. Compare that to the 188g of the Kindle Voyage, and you’ll appreciate how different it is. It’s also only 3.4mm thick through the body of the “page”. It might be an unusual design, but as we detail below, that’s not without good reason.

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Kindle Oasis teardown

To understand how the Kindle Oasis ended up in this position, it’s worth taking a look at the parts that make it up. There’s surprisingly little to it, but in previous editions – such as the best selling Paperwhite – Amazon wasn’t able to optimise the hardware so well. Through advancements in technology, components have become miniaturised so you’re only really left with a few pieces.

There’s that main board that has all the brains on it – including an accelerometer this time around – the battery and the display. One thing you can’t see in this picture is the display controller and LEDs that runs down the edge.

Then you have the display itself. As this is a Kindle, it’s an E Ink display, retaining excellent power efficiency and daylight readability. It’s an E Ink Carta 1.2 panel, but uses a new backplate that’s as thin as kitchen foil. It offers 300ppi across the 6-inch display, the same as the Kindle Voyage.

The front of that display has chemically hardened glass for protection, but it retains some flex to help protection against damage. As we mentioned, the LEDs have moved to the edge, and the front illumination system is now much more efficient as the light only has to spread across two-thirds of the distance it did in the past, so it’s much more even.

As with the other Kindle models, navigation (apart from page turns) is via touch, and as we mentioned before, the accelerometer means you can hold the Kindle Oasis in either hand and the screen will rotate to suit. There’s also a landscape mode, but you can lock it to portrait only if you want – something you might want to do if you like to read lying on your side on a sun lounger or in bed.

So let’s bring it on down to the actual frame of the Oasis. It’s polycarbonate (plastic) but then undergoes structural electroplating for strength, hence the shine. This is painted and the other components fit into it and that’s about it. It’s simple, it’s novel, but it’s still very much a Kindle.

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Kindle Oasis included battery cover

In the process of shrinking things down, the Kindle Oasis only gets a battery life of 2 weeks. That might sound a lot compared to a smartphone, but when you consider that a regular Paperwhite or Voyage can last 6 weeks, it’s no time at all.

However, included in the box is a battery cover. This has a huge battery that will extend your Kindle up to 9 weeks of use, making it the longest lasting of the bunch. It connects via magnets to the back and when attached, it makes the Kindle a more regular shape again. If you want to slip it into your pocket, you might choose to slide away the battery cover and just take your naked Kindle with you.

The battery cover has a leather finish and folds over to protect the screen, magnetically fixing in place. It’s a lovely piece of work too, with a quality leather finish that’s designed to age for character. It looks smart and suits this premium Kindle offering really well.

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Kindle Oasis software and reading experience

We didn’t have the chance to use the Kindle Oasis for an extended period of time, so we can’t report what it’s like to use on a daily basis, but from what we’ve seen, it looks every bit as lovely to use as the current models.

The user interface is the same as other Kindles, so this is familiar territory for those Kindle fans out there. The option to rotate to landscape adds something new, but otherwise this is all about putting the book first and helping you lose yourself in the authors words.

Once we’ve had the chance to spend a little more time living with the Kindle, we’ll be sure to update.

First Impressions

We’ve long been fans of the Kindle and the Paperwhite in particular. Adding illumination in a sensible way was our last big breakthrough for the ereader. Some still question whether these devices should exist, but if you’re an avid reader, then your Kindle is a must-have gadget.

But where previous updates (there have been three generations of Paperwhite) might not have carried a huge advantage, there’s something surprisingly lustworthy about the Kindle Oasis. This is an exciting rethinking of the reader and we love the results.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with pretty new things you want, it comes with a high price tag. The Kindle Oasis costs £269.99 and that price might just be high enough to kerb your enthusiasm. This is undoubtedly a premium Kindle, but essentially, you’re paying a lot of money for the same functionality as you get from the £109 Kindle Paperwhite. As much as we love it, we’re not sure it’s £160 better.

The Kindle Oasis will be available in the coming weeks, but it available for pre-order from 13 April.