Amazon Kindle Oasis 2017 review: ‘the best Kindle, at a questionable price’

The premium e-reader is impressive – but is it worth the huge price tag?
Luxury: Amazon's latest e-reader packs in all kinds of bells and whistles
Amazon
Ben Travis1 November 2017

Amazon’s latest Kindle isn’t for everyone. The pricing makes that clear – coming in at nearly four times the cost of the online retailer’s vanilla e-reader, the updated second-generation Kindle Oasis is firmly aimed at the luxury end of the market.

That’s worth putting up-front, because every positive thing about the second-generation Kindle Oasis (and there are many of them) is weighed up by that consideration: is it really worth £229? The relaxing experience of getting lost in a good digital book might be less enjoyable if you’ve sold a kidney to get it.

Like every other Kindle, the Oasis uses e-ink technology in its screen. It’s still a marvel – more soothing on the eye than a tablet’s pixel display, and expressive enough to conjure book covers and the Kindle e-store in clear detail. Reading for hours at a time is comfortable – you won’t even think about it.

Impressive too is the backlit display, this time built with an adaptive light sensor. It’s more subtle than dazzling, adding a little boost of visibility when needed, and always retaining that feel of a clean, crisp cream book page rather than a stark white sheet. The glare-free coating is effective too, meaning you’ll get a comfortable read even under harsh fluorescent light.

Ben Travis

The new Kindle Oasis is slightly larger than the first gen, with a 7” display instead of the previous 6”, and it’s still a markedly different shape to the rest of the Kindle range: shorter and squatter. The extra screen width is very welcome – it feels more book-like, rather than just another rectangular device.

On the underside, the new Oasis is shaped like the previous model – it has a prominent 8.3mm lip, which thins to 3.4mm for about two thirds of the bottom of the device. This time the lip contains the full battery – Amazon’s own detachable case still snugs into the dip, but doesn’t extend the battery life. It’s sturdy, the metal feels premium, and the lip is nicely weighted if you hold it on that side.

Ben Travis

If all of that’s familiar, there’s one major update to the Kindle Oasis: it’s waterproof. You can hold it under the tap. You can drop it in the bath. You can clean it with water when it gets dirty. Doing all of the above feels impulsively wrong, but against all your instincts, it won’t wreck your e-reader. Even the new covers are water-resistant. It’s hugely impressive – and may be a key selling point for bath readers.

There’s Audible integration too – you can play audiobooks with Whispersync, meaning you can pick up wherever you left off whether reading on Kindle or listening no Audible. But with no in-built speaker or headphone jack, Bluetooth headphones are your only option. Where Kindle does reading better than your phone, your phone does Audible better than Kindle.

Ben Travis

If there’s one outright negative on the new Kindle Oasis, it’s the magnets on the fabric case. They don’t hold strong enough, and during my testing the cover even came unattached, leaving the Kindle to fall (thankfully) onto the bed. Considering the Oasis’ cost, you don’t want to drop it – and you don’t want it to be the case’s fault, especially when that comes in at an extra £40.

Amazon can do premium, and evidently still has new bells and whistles for its e-reader range. But when it comes down to it, a Kindle is a Kindle – even the basic one is a proper(and easily affordable) must-have. Kindle Oasis is absolutely the best Kindle out there. It does everything you’d want a Kindle to do, better than any other Kindle, with extra perks. But when the £110 Paperwhite does essentially the same thing, it’s questionable whether the benefits are worth over double the price.

Kindle Oasis Gen 2 is out now, from £229.99

Follow Ben Travis on Twitter: @BenSTravis

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