Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsAs usual one step forward two steps back
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2021
My previous Oasis died when Amazon pushed a software update and I was scrambling to replace it. I stick with the Oasis because it has the two features I find I can't do without; physical page turn buttons and automatic page orientation.
As with every single Kindle I've had since the 1st Gen device, Amazon giveith and Amazon takeith away. Typically what they give you is a new feature (waterproof) that is a marginal improvement and what they take away are two features that hard core readers love. So for this device I got waterproofing, but lost battery life (but we'll get to that in a minute) and the reader is significantly larger and bulkier (almost like it was designed for male readers). I don't understand the desire for a larger and heavier device, were women part of your development, testing and market research group? This thing is too bulky to hold comfortably.
I honestly don't understand why the battery life issue persists. They had a fix for it, it was the charging cover that held extra battery life that they offered for only 1 or 2 generations of the Oasis (The Voyager, I believe they branded it as). I'll never understand why they took away the charging cover option. Never. And yes, I turn the typical features that are known to drain the battery off or to the lowest setting. I could go a full week of reading 2+ hours per day tapping into the charging cover on my old device and still have about 20% juice. I'm at about 4 days in the new device to get to that level.
Every single generation with this product feels like Amazon doesn't deploy a development team that is comprised of hard core readers. Not casual readers, not pick it up every few days readers, but readers that spend 2+ hours per day reading. Find those readers, recruit them for your development team and stop messing with features hard core readers love at the expense of a feature that is at best "meh". Heck, at the Oasis price point compared to the other devices I should be able to Burger King this thing; customize it and have it my way.
So overall, the redesign leaves me cold, but I need an Kindle with the two features I can't do with out. Overall I rate this latest version of the Kindle "meh".