Amazon Announces Kindle Oasis
Amazon has announced a premium entry to its Kindle e-reader lineup: the $289.99 Kindle Oasis. It’s designed to be held one-handed like a folded paperback, with a wedge-shaped hand grip that recalls the original Kindle, although Amazon brags that the screen is 30 percent thinner than any previous model. Since it’s intended for one-handed reading, the screen automatically flips depending on which hand you’re holding it with. Amazon says that the battery in the device’s leather case will stay charged for 8 weeks, based on a half hour of use per day with Wi-Fi off and the light setting at 10. While it’s unclear how much better it is than the $119.99 Kindle Paperwhite or $199.99 Kindle Voyage, some Kindle Oasis configurations are already delayed to ship after the 27 April 2016 launch date due to high demand.
The Paperwhite, Voyage, and Oasis are all listed as having the same E Ink Carta display so I think readability differences are solely based on the evenness of the LED backlights. I think that also means they're all the same in terms of how snappy the interface is when turning pages or using touchscreen features like work look-up.
A lighter weight and buttons for page turning sound nice but the price is way too high.
Yep, the number of backlighting LEDs is the only significant difference there—that's partly why we were a little dubious that the price difference was worthwhile. Battery life measured in months rather than weeks is perhaps important for a few people too, but most?