If the thing you look forward to most on your holidays is reading by the pool, Amazon’s got the eBook reader for you.
The Kindle Oasis is a completely new addition to the range, with a new look and a better screen than ever.
Why Oasis, though? We’re guessing it’s because if Amazon made it any thinner, it would disappear like a mirage. Seriously, this thing is 30% thinner and 20% lighter than any other Kindle. It only weighs 131g and is just 3.4mm thick at its thinnest point.
Amazon has shifted the page turning buttons to the side, so the whole thing is balanced for holding comfortably in one hand.
There’s still room inside for a 300ppi Paperwhite display, which has a front-light with more LEDs than any other Kindle. Basically, it’ll be bright enough for just about any daylight or nighttime reading.
MAX POWER
That diet plan hasn’t come at the expense of battery life, though. Amazon reckons the Oasis can last for weeks on a single charge, but it’ll keep going for months (yes, months) when you use the bundled leather charging cover.
The Merlot colour choice might not be an exact match for your favourite bottle of red, but once you hook it up to the kindle, it’ll start recharging the Oasis battery automatically.
Have the cover connected when you plug in the Oasis and both will recharge at the same time. It’ll wake up the Oasis when you flip it open, and put it to sleep when you snap it shut.
The new hibernation mode should drop power consumption when you aren’t reading, too – helping reach that colossal battery life figure.
The Oasis has the all the Kindle software tweaks we’ve come to expect, including Whispersync, in case you’re reading across multiple Kindles, apps and web browsers.
X-Ray contextual search and Word Wise definitions make a return, for when you don’t feel like holding a book in one hand and a dictionary in the other, and the Family Library reappears for sharing eBooks with the rest of your house.
The Oasis won’t be replacing the Voyage, but will sit above it in the Kindle range. It’s got one hell of a high price to justify that position: $290 (R4,300).
