Granted that e-book readers haven’t caught fire in our place as the rest of the world. But if you are one of those few digital bookworms, you have reasons to get excited. Amazon has announced its most high-end Kindle ever, the Oasis, and it is anything but ordinary.
Features of Amazon Oasis
If the previous Kindles focused on minimal design and as bookish an experience as possible, the new Oasis places spotlight on the e-book reader itself. At just 3.4mm thin, it is the thinnest Kindle ever and comes with a mandatory leather cover with a built-in battery.
The design of the Kindle was made such that it emulates holding a book spine, thanks to an extended grip which features two page turning buttons. The display on the front is the same 6” panel of the Kindle Voyage with a 300 ppi density, but this time comes with 10 LEDs for more consistent, brighter lighting.
The dual battery system of the Kindle will provide months and months of backup, while the internal battery will get charged whenever the cover is connected. Battery life is expected to be around nine weeks with the included cover.
We want Kindle to disappear, and Kindle Oasis is the next big step in that mission. It’s the most advanced Kindle we’ve ever built — thin and ultra-lightweight, it gets out of the way so you can lose yourself in the author’s world. – Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon
How much will the Amazon Oasis Retail for?
And being a premium product doesn’t mean cheap. Costing $290 (approx. Rs. 30,300) , the Oasis is the most-expensive e-book reader from Amazon. At this point, it is also easy to make comparisons, most notably with the iPad mini 2, which costs just $269 (approx. Rs. 28,000) at this point, and has a larger 7.9” colored Retina display.
For the sake of comparing apples to apples, the biggest competitor is likely Amazon’s own Voyage, which costs $200 (approx. Rs. 21,000) and has pretty much a similar display. Of course, the main difference here are the design and the leather cover, which can provide a justification for the price bump if you are an avid enough reader.
Granted, Amazon has largely neglected Pakistan when it comes to support, but its big, diverse library can be irresistible and there are certainly workarounds to access it. If you can take the hassle required and can afford it without as much as blinking an eye, then it is easy enough to recommend the Oasis to you. For others, we recommend at least reading the user comments first.
Image Credits: Official Amazon Press Shots / CNET
