Amazon announces its thinnest and lightest Kindle, the Kindle Oasis
The Kindle Oasis comes with a special cover and has been designed for extended reading sessions.
Amazon has announced what it's calling its thinnest and lightest Kindle it’s ever produced, called Kindle Oasis.
The Kindle Oasis features both a thin display and an ergonomic grip and weighs 4.6 ounces and is 3.4mm thin at its thinnest point, making it 30% thinner on average and over 20% lighter than any other Kindle. This was done through the inclusion of its polymer frame that’s been plated with metal via structural electroplating.
The new Kindle was specifically designed for extended reading sessions as it shifts the center of gravity in the reader’s palm. This will hopefully make one-handed reading feel more comfortable, especially now that you can turn the digital page with either the touch display or physical buttons. The Oasis also has a built-in accelerometer that is capable of detecting what hand the user is reading with, and automatically rotates pages and turn buttons to match.
The Kindle Oasis introduces a new dual-battery system to the Kindle family, so long as you connect its included charging cover. When the cover is connected, the Kindle Oasis will automatically be charged and is said to extend its battery life by several months. You won’t have to worry about charging either separately as both the Kindle and its cover will automatically recharge as long as they’re both snapped together and plugged in. Unfortunately, Amazon didn't dislose what kind of battery life the Oasis itself will deliver without its cover.
Last, but certainly not least, is the new high-res 300ppi Paperwhite display, which includes a redesigned built-in front light that features 60% more LEDs than previous iterations. The display was designed using a 200 micron display backplane that’s as thin as a single sheet of aluminum foil.
The Kindle Oasis will retail for $289.99 and is currently available for pre-order with shipments expecting to start going out in a few weeks.
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replyDaniel Perez posted a new article, Amazon announces its thinnest and lightest Kindle yet, the Kindle Oasis
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I'd speculate that a big part of it is you can't buy terrible, stupid-cheap e-paper displays like you can buy terrible, stupid-cheap LCD displays. Not enough demand for e-paper in general and purpose-built e-readers specifically. E-readers are single-purpose devices, after all. Also, no widely available generic operating system that you can just slap on an e-reader, whereas some Android variant can be readily had. That means development time and cost.
Honestly, I wouldn't buy or advise anyone to buy a $50 tablet anyway. It's going to be terrible.
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tablets and phones are their competition
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exactly. It doesn't have to be as good. It merely needs to be good enough such that the marginal utility a Kindle provides is no longer worth the added pain of managing/carrying a second device regularly. The same is true of how smartphones affect handheld gaming.
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people who fly first and business class aren't exactly representative of the norm. In any case, I never said they don't have a niche, only that they absolutely have serious competition even if no one else is making a dedicated eReader anymore.
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Kindles have been available for like $50 for years. Until a year or so ago a high end Kindle was only like $130 or something. The price isn't even an issue in whether they sell or not in aggregate. Whether they sell was how much people value the eInk and whether it's worth carrying a second device. Early in the Kindles life the numbers looked better because the marginal value was higher, as most people only had a smartphone with a small screen and poor battery life. Even if you wanted to read on your iPhone on a flight you couldn't afford to burn that much battery before you landed. Now more and more people have phones with big screens, better battery life, and tablets, and it looks like eReader sales are down. Amazon has responded by going up market to the smaller niche who will pay more. Like I said, competition from phones and tablets.
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Sure. To be honest, the whole "X is 2mm thinner than Y" thing is getting a little eye-roll inducing to me, and the larger the device the sillier it is.
My Nook Glowlight Plus was way cheaper and has essentially the same display. It's a little thicker and heavier (by a couple ounces and a couple mm), but has a Gorilla Glass screen surface and is waterproof. Those features are way more useful to me than a couple ounces/mm.-
"a couple ounces" essentially makes the Nook 50% heavier than this new Kindle
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The Kindle Paperwhite is pretty light and all, but it's difficult to hold it for extended period without dropping it. Using a leather case helps this, it thickens it a bit more, provides a better grip and more area to grip with, but of course this adds weight and bulk to the whole thing.
I wish manufacturers would provide portable devices like this with a better way to hold the device and that has more of a grip. Instead of using a shiny plastic or metal, use rubber or faux leather on the sides. Yeah, it won't look as good, but it would make it easier for long-term handling and reduce the amount of times people drop them. Same with phones. -
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That's in the next version, the Kindle Papercut version.
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Yeesh that's expensive for a Kindle but I LOVE my kindle paperwhite. I don't see why it needs dual batteries as my paperwhite seems to last a very long time on a single charge. I mean I forgot about my Kindle for a few months once and when I picked it up it still had a charge, albeit very little.
I can see it being enticing for book lovers who don't mind spending extra for a nice quality product. But they release a new Kindle every year so it's hard for me to buy in that much, I got my paperwhite refurbished for $70 and it's nice knowing that I could probably upgrade to a nicer refurb later on for just as cheap. -
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Damn just got the voyage (which rocks!!)
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