4242 NOVEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 381
THEREWASONLYone thing missing from
the last Kindle Oasis (Shopper361): ablue light
filter.While every smartphone manufacturer
on the planet was accepting the medically
recognised fact that beaming blue light into
your eyes just before you go to sleep isn’t
ideal, Amazon ploughed on with regular
LEDs in its premium e-reader.
Finally,however,the retail giant has seen
the warm, orange light, and added this filter
to the new 2019 model. Youcan now read at
bedtime safeinthe knowledge that it won’t be
your reading habit that’s disturbing your sleep.
SWITCHINGSIDES
The new Kindle Oasis is physically identical to
the previous model, which is to sayit’s pretty
from the rear and not so pretty from the
front. The anodised aluminium finish feels
lovely and smooth under your fingers, and
there’s alittle step about two-thirds of the
wayacross, giving you agrip to hold on to.
We’re less keen on the ugly black border
surrounding the screen at the front, as well
as the fact that the border is much wider on
one side than the other.This does have a
practical side effect, however.The side with
the wider border houses the Kindle Oasis’s
two physical page-turn buttons –afeature
lacking in lesser Kindles –and it gives you a
little more to hold on to as well.
On that note, you can hold the Oasis with
the wide border to the leftorthe right of the
screen; the displaywill flip the orientation so
it’s the right wayuphowever you hold it.
Again, this is afeature neither the Paperwhite
nor the regular Kindle share.
Elsewhere,the Kindle Oasis remains very
light, weighing amere 188g, and is extremely
comfortable to hold forlong periods. It’s still
waterprooftothe IPX8 standard, which
means it can be submerged in fresh water to
adepth of two metres foruptoanhour.
The new model retains most of the rest of
the previous Kindle Oasis’s keyfeatures, too.
There’s Bluetooth, which lets you connect a
pair of wireless headphones forlistening to
your Audible audiobooks. And, if you own
both ebook and Audible audiobook editions,
the Oasis can synchronise your reading
position between the two.
Surprisingly,given the Audible integration,
you still can’t add extra storage via microSD,
which is just baffling, and neither can you
AMAZON Kindle
Oasis(2019)
★★★★★
£230•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
It’snotmuchofanupgradefromthe
previousmodel,buttheKindleOasisis
still thebeste-readeryoucanbuy
E-READER
connect old-school analogue headphones,
as there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.
One final noteofmild disappointment is
that the new Kindle Oasis no longer seems to
have magnets embedded at the rear,soit
won’t work with the attractive,magnetic
slimline cases of the previous version.
WARM EMBRACE
As before,the Kindle Oasis has a7in E-Ink
touchscreen, with apixel density of 300ppi.
This delivers asuperlative reading experience.
E-Ink displays are easier on the eyethan
the LCD and OLED screens on phones and
tablets and, as aresult, are more comfortable
to read forlong periods of time.
It’s monochrome,but you don’t need
colour forreading books, and at that task the
Oasis’s displayexcels. Characters onscreen are
sharp and clear,and the contrast between text
and page background is excellent. Youcan
also tweak the line spacing, character size,
font, margins and justification to your liking.
Forreading at night or in dim conditions,
the Kindle Oasis has aseries of built-in
whiteand amber LEDs arranged around
the edges of the display. In daylight mode,
these cast aperfectly flat, even glow
across the screen, and theycan be adjusted
manually or automatically,according to the
ambient light conditions.
The adjustable warm light works equally
well. Asecondary arrayof13amber LEDs
illuminates the screen in varying degrees of
orange light. The aim is to reduce the reader’s
exposure to blue light just before going to
bed, and thus improve the quality of their
sleep.Aswith the whiteLED lighting, the
SCREENSIZE7inE-Inktouchscreen•SCREENRESOLUTION
300ppi•STORAGE8GB•DIMENSIONS159x141x8.4mm•
WEIGHT188g•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
http://www.amazon.co.uk•PARTCODEKindleOasis
SPECIFICATIONS
‘warmth’ofthe displaycan be adjusted by
wayofasimple,onscreen slider control. Slide
it to the right and the screen takes on a
pronounced orange appearance; slide it to the
left, and the effect is more subtle.
The effect can be adjusted manually like
this, or you can set it to switch on and off to a
predefined schedule.It’s also possible to have
it fade in and out in synchronisation with the
sunset and sunrise.However you choose to
control it, the LEDs produce aperfectly even
illumination across the display, with no bright
or dim spots at any brightness level.
SOME MINORADJUSTMENTS
This is agreat new feature,and one we’ve
been wanting foravery long time.However,
the new Kindle Oasis isn’t quiteanessential
upgrade,atleast not to anyone who already
owns the 2017 model. Aside from the new
warm front light and the rather strange
withdrawal of the cover magnets from the
rear,it’s exactly the same Kindle as the
previous model at exactly the same price.If
you already own aKindle Oasis, it’s not really
worth £230 just forthe new lighting system.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to
move up from astandard Kindle or Kindle
Paperwhite–orany other lower-tier e-reader
–there’s nothing better.
JonathanBray
