Amazon just announced a new waterproof Kindle called Kindle Oasis. The $250 high-end 9th generation e-reader features a 7-inch, 300 ppi Paperwhite display with battery life measured in weeks, not hours. It improves upon last year’s Kindle Oasis with a larger screen (6″ vs. 7″), double the storage (4GB vs. 8GB), faster page turns and sheds 10 grams of weight along with the aforementioned waterproofing (IPX8). Although it’s still on the expensive side, the 2017 Kindle Oasis is priced $40 less than before.
The all-new Kindle Oasis fits over 30 percent more words per page with crisp, laser-quality text. Amazon claims it reads like paper with uniform display lighting and no glare, even in bright sunlight. The ergonomic design shifts the center of gravity to your palm so the device rests in your hand like the spine of a book, no matter which hand you chose to read with. You can easily turn pages with dedicated page turn buttons and the display will automatically rotate the page orientation, even when you switch hands.
The ereader’s unique shape tapers to an ultrathin 3.4 mm display featuring a strong cover glass and a new aluminum back. It’s thin and light weighing only 194 grams. As the first waterproof and fastest (page turning) Kindle ebook reader ever, you can now speed read in the bath tub, hot tub, or pool. It claims protection in up to two meters of fresh water for up to 60 minutes. I’m not sure why that is important unless you are e-reading while actually snorkeling in the Amazon.
Audible will be available on the all-new Kindle Oasis via a free over-the-air update when the device ships — and it will be available via a free over-the-air update to Kindle (Gen 8) and the first Kindle Oasis in the coming months. Audible provides access to over 375,000 professionally performed audio programs, including audiobooks, original audio productions, and exclusive content. With Audible built in, you never have to put your story down and can switch easily between reading and listening without changing devices.
New Features
- New Font Size and Bold Settings: Now choose from more font sizes than ever before—and five levels of boldness—for whichever font you choose to read with. Combined with the new, 7-inch Paperwhite display, you can personalize your books so it’s perfectly comfortable for your eyes.
- New Accessibility Options: In addition to the OpenDyslexic font, we’ve added a feature to invert black and white on the display if you have light sensitivity. The new enlarged display option also lets you increase the size of items like the text on the home screen and library as well as the book icons to make the all-new Kindle Oasis easier to read.
- Light Settings: Built-in ambient light sensors automatically adjust the display to your surroundings whether you’re in a dimly-lit room or outside in the sun—and can be fine-tuned even further based on personal preferences.
- Ragged Right Alignment: You can now read using left-aligned (ragged right) text.
The new size and bold settings as well as ragged right alignment will be delivered as a free, over-the-air update to Kindle Paperwhite (Gen 6 released in 2013), plus all newer Kindle devices.
Price and Availability
The all-new Kindle Oasis will available October 31, 2017 in three variations that can be pre-ordered at www.amazon.com/kindleoasis:
- $249.99 for the 8 GB model
- $279.99 for the 32 GB model
- $349.99 for the 32 GB model with free cellular connectivity
All models are +$20 if you want Special Offers removed.
