Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos teased a Kindle last week and if you thought the Kindle Voyage was preposterous in terms of price, the Kindle Oasis takes the crown with its price of $290 ($310 without Special Offers, $360 with optional free 3G service) and is now available for preorder with buyers getting them on April 27th.
For the price of $290 you get a completely redesigned Kindle that weighs 4.6 ounces; at its thinnest point, the reader is 0.13 inches (3.4mm), the bump is 0.33 inches (8.5mm) thick making it 20% lighter and 30% thinner on average than the Kindle Voyage. To make it lighter Amazon gave it a “featherweight” polymer frame plated with metal structural electroplating. The ergonomic hump on the backside of the device houses the battery and the majority of the electronics letting you to hold the e-reader comfortably in one hand. The hump shifts the weight of the device so it’s better balanced though it may not look aesthetically pleasing at first.
Unfortunately making it lighter and thinner does have some drawbacks, mainly battery charge; it will only last two weeks as opposed to one month. Luckily the Oasis comes with a cover that can charge the Kindle, giving it another six weeks of charge, bringing the total up to about two months.
The Oasis keeps the 6-inch 1448×1072 300 PPI E-Ink touchscreen from the Voyage and keep its front light at a comfortable level regardless of your environment due to an ambient light sensor.. The frontlight uses 10 LEDs for illumination compared to six in the Voyage and four in the Paperwhite, which Amazon says will light up pages more evenly and consistently.
Finally, the Kindle Oasis also features physical buttons to turn the pages, something absent from recent Kindles.
