Kindle Oasis: Top quality from Amazon…

With the Kindle Oasis, Amazon got rid of the 6-inch format of its iconic e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite. However, this e-reader has a much higher price: is this price justified when compared to its competition? We’re going to try to find out…

The hardware: powerful!

We can say that with this beautiful 7-inch Carta screen, Amazon’s ereader is entering a new era: This format allows you to comfortably read PDFs, which is a strong point for all the Kindle e-readers, as we pointed out in our article on the best e-readers for PDF viewing.

Hardware wise, the Kindle Oasis is top of the line, the aluminum finish gives this device a solid feel that is yet unmatched, the screen is thin. As far as autonomy goes, this e-reader can stand up to many weeks of intense use. You can’t customize the backlight’s tones, like you can with Kobo’s and Pocketbook’s newest e-readers. Is this a problem? Not necessarily, as Amazon’s backlighting is already very pleasant. However, it is something to take into consideration.

As for the storage, there are two versions of this e-reader: 8 and 32 GB. While the 8GB of storage is enough for most people, the option of more storage is good for those who also want to use audio books. Furthermore, the 7-inch screen is perfect for those who want to read comics or manga.

Software: Kindle delivers.

There are no surprises when it comes to the software. In our tests, it seemed as though Kindle had the most complete system on the market as of right now: it’s stable, fluid, easy to use. The only critique we can make about Kindle’s operating system – the Oasis included – is the fact that it can’t naturally read ePub documents, and they have to be converted to azw2 files. But it’s not a hard thing to do, and it’s a process that anyone who wants to read books coming from other places besides Amazon, will have to go through…

Compared to its competition, what is the Kindle Oasis worth?

At about 250 euros, we noticed that this e-reader is somewhat poorly priced: it’s more expensive than the Kobo Aura H2O 2nd edition, which has an only slightly smaller screen size, and a price similar to that of the Kobo Forma… What are we to make of this?

In our opinion, the Kindle Oasis is still competitive, even if the Aura H2O 2nd edition is cheaper with a similar screen size, and the PocketBook Inkpad 3 is much more versatile with its 8 inch screen.

The strong points of the Oasis is the system that Kindle uses, as well as it’s worldwide availability. Amazon’s operating system, unlike the one of the Inkpads and Kobos, clearly has the advantage on certain points, notably when it comes to fluidity and footnotes. While it may be annoying to have to convert some ebooks into a different format to be able to read them on a Kindle, you must remember that, outside of Kepub formats, Kobo readers mess with the foot notes: this could be an issue for you if you’re a student or a researcher. Therefore, the theoretical advantage of not having to worry about converting files on a Kobo is gone unfortunately… Meanwhile, the PDF reader, which is quite nice here and works well with the default software and the 7-inch screen, make for a great e-reader for students and academics. Clearly, the Pocketbook Inkpad 3 can do one better here: it’s easier to install Koreader on the device, and the larger 8-inch screen makes reading PDF documents much more enjoyable. But thanks to its smaller format and solid build, the Kindle Oasis is easy to take with you and can certainly read most PDFs without trouble; and compared to Kindle’s interface, the PocketBook Inkpad 3 seems less polished, more “primitive”, that being said, both are excellent e-readers! If your goal is to find the best ereader to read PDF documents, the Oasis is probably not the best ereader available, but if you want to read books downloaded from Amazon’s huge library, while still being able to open files in other formats from time to time, the Kindle Oasis probably the best ereader the tech giant has to offer.