For five years, the Kindle eBook reader from Amazon has been available to buy. Currently available are the basic Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite as well as the previous flagship Kindle Voyage. With the new Kindle Oasis, the online company adds a new top model to the already rich offerings. Whether the Oasis is twice as good as the Paperwhite, we will soon see.
Design: Light and chic
For the first time, anyone who takes up the Kindle Oasis is surprised by its ease. The eBook reader can be held in your hand comfortably. This is due to the new design: Intuitively, the Oasis is held by a slim grip bar, which is equipped with two buttons for forwarding and backward scrolling. Prima: A location sensor always aligns the font image - regardless of whether the Kindle Oasis is held in the left or right hand. Apart from the two buttons, the Oasis can also be operated via the touchscreen, like the Paperwhite.
Display: Good, but not top
The display diagonal is 5.96 inches, the resolution is 1080x1440 pixels. With a pixel density of 302 ppi, the display (eInk-Carta technology) is sharp. On the other hand, the Kindle Oasis weakened the brightness distribution and received a sufficient partial score (3.60). This may be due to the new position of the LEDs: they are no longer on the top and bottom side of the Oasis, but on the edge. Both the Kindle Voyage and the Kindle Paperwhite still provide a better brightness distribution. All three eBook readers have a brightness adjustment of 16 levels. The display of the Oasis was hardly reflected in sunlight, but the contrast is still satisfactory.
Battery: More stamina thanks to case
Up to eight weeks of reading pleasure with only one battery charge, Amazon promises for its Kindle Oasis. We tested this by reading for just half an hour a day. This results in a running time of around 28 hours. However, the test device lasted only 20 hours - which corresponds to about 1,200 pages. But this is only half the result: With the enclosed leather cover and the integrated battery, the running time increases to 145 hours or 8,700 pages. For comparison: the Kindle Paperwhite creates a running time of around 82 hours. The leather cover, which is protected from dirt and scratches, is docked to the Kindle Oasis by means of a magnet. The recharge time of the battery lasts about three hours, so it matched with the manufacturer's spec- but this is not particularly fast.
Operation: (Fast) as always
The touchscreen and buttons react quickly on the Oasis. A new font, however, is a new look: According to Amazon's data, the desire of many readers was to offer next a "Book" feel with a sans serif font. The control is also intuitive for beginners: If you want to load the 4 gigabytes of memory (enough for 3,000 books) with eBooks, this is done comfortably via the file explorer. Compared to the Kindle Voyage, the search functions are less extensive (author, marked words, titles).
Typically: compulsory registration at the Kindle
As always with Amazon's eBook readers: Without the compulsory registration and linking with your own Amazon customer account, you merely own a paperweight. Even the prevalent eBook standard "ePUB" (an open format) is still left outside; Amazon uses its own AZW format but also supports PDF, MOBI and TXT files. If you want to read ePUB books on the Oasis, you must first convert them. This is legal only if there is no copyright protection.
Conclusion: eBook Reader Kindle Oasis
Very light, very bright, very sharp: the Kindle Oasis scores in text reproduction and with the docking battery. Its high price makes it, however, a very expensive pleasure: At the ambitious prices one should expect a perfect device, which is a very good test score - but that is not so.