Kindle Oasis is slick, but not worth the cost
Amazon’s latest e-reader has a fancy faux-leather cover and an even fancier price tag
What is the most that you would pay for an e-reader?
That’s the big question when trying to evaluate the Kindle Oasis, which is a slick, modern device that feels good in either hand, has a neat cover and has an e-ink screen that feels a bit faster than the competition.
Of course, it also comes with a $399 price tag in Canada, and at that price, it should read the books for you, and churn out New York Times-level book reviews that you should be allowed to publish under your own name while making you a cup of coffee and fetching it for you.
Five years ago, e-readers were a set of devices that I never fully understood.
They were relegated to the “gifts I might buy for my parents,” but would never be good enough to fit into my crazy, device-happy gadget world.
Then I got old. And I went on a beach vacation. Glare still kills most large-screened devices in the sun, and I actually kind of fell in love with this single-use device that won’t buzz with notifications from other apps. I am that nerd who loves nothing more than having an umbrella drink in one hand and a good book to read while baking in the sun between dips in the ocean.
And it carried on when I got home (the e-reading, as opposed to umbrella drinks). In short, I understood the device’s draw.
Now looking at the Kindle Oasis, it is easily one of the best e-readers I’ve ever seen. It is light and designed to work great in either hand. It’s got a sweet-feeling faux leather cover that comes in the package and folds nicely behind. The light/brightness display has a slider.
But all this fancy stuff surrounds an e-ink screen, which remains the real reason to get one. Easier on the eyes than any tablet screen, it is great to read on.
But unlike some competitors, it’s not waterproof, and at that price it probably should be.
The Kindle experience is quite good, and while you get access to things like their vast array of singles, their devices don’t natively support the epub format, and don’t work with the Toronto Public Library’s system (other than the Fire tablet), which is a bit of a deal breaker for me, as that’s where I have been getting a lot of books.
All things considered, this is a really good device, but it all comes back to the price. E-readers have been creeping up — the Kobo Aura HD is $200 — and the one knock is that they often feel cheap and tend to break after a little wear and tear. The Kindle Oasis is sturdily built but other than the way the cover charges and attaches, and feeling slightly slicker than the competition, it’s hard to see how to justify the price. I mean, considering how much ebooks still cost, you would be better off to buy a more reasonably priced e-reader and then spend the rest of the money on books. It is all about the reading, and judging totally on that experience, the Oasis is just far too similar to its much-more affordable competitors.