Amazon Kindle Oasis (2019) review: A nonessential e-reader update

Amazon’s 2019 Amazon Kindle Oasis e-reader can be described in a one word: yawn.

With only one new feature — an adjustable warm light that shifts the color temperature from white to amber — Amazon’s top-of-the-line e-reader is one of the most boring device updates I’ve experienced in years.

Amazon’s barely trying with its Kindle e-readers at this point. And who can blame them? With about 53 percent of the e-reader marketshare, Amazon can afford to rest on its laurels for a while.

But that means I can’t recommend the 2019 Kindle Oasis if you already own the previous model released in 2017. The adjustable warm light is nice for reading in the dark, but a very minor update for another $250. If you’re upgrading from an older Kindle with fewer features, the Oasis is worth a look, but the price is still a big turnoff.

The Kindle Oasis I tested came with 32GB of storage and built-in WiFi, and sells for $279.99. It’s also available with 8GB of storage and built-in WiFi for $249.99. 

Both come with “special offers,” which is jargon for ads. Like all Kindles, you can pay an extra $20 to get it without the special offers from the start or disable them later.

The Kindle Oasis is also available in LTE models, which comes without special offers: $269.99 for the 8GB model and $349.99 for the 32GB model.

If it ain’t broke…

The new Kindle Oasis looks and feels exactly like the previous one (we’re on the third generation of the Oasis if you’re keeping track, and 10th generation of the Kindle).

The e-reader has the same aluminum body (available in graphite or champagne gold) that tapers from 0.33 inches at its thicker grip section to 0.13 inches at its thinnest point. And at 6.6 ounces, the Kindle Oasis is also relatively light. I couldn’t feel a difference holding it in one hand compared to the 6.1-ounce Kindle.

Also same: IPX8 waterproofing, built-in Bluetooth for Audible audiobooks, and 6-week battery life.

The identical design is a big plus for one thing: accessories. All second-gen Kindle Oasis covers and cases will fit the new e-reader perfectly.

The screen’s the same 7-inch E Ink display as before with 300 pixels per inch (PPI), which looks as crisp as the previous version.  

Text, book covers, and comics all look better on the Kindle Oasis compared to the grainier and lower resolution 6-inch screen on the Kindle. The Kindle Oasis’s screen resolution isn’t sharper than the 6-inch Kindle Paperwhite screen, though — both screens have 300 PPI.

There’s zero learning curve if you’ve used a Kindle before. You can advance pages by tapping on the touchscreen, bring up the main menu with a tap at the top of the screen, and quickly scrub through pages and chapters with a swipe from the bottom of the display. The home screen, Kindle store, library, etc. are all identical, too. 

The key difference between the Kindle Oasis, regular Kindle, and Kindle Paperwhite are the physical page turn buttons. While I like the narrower design of the cheaper Kindles, I prefer to use buttons for turning the digital pages, and on the Kindle Oasis they have just the right amount of clickiness to them.

I also like there’s an auto-rotate display feature so you can hold the Kindle Oasis with the buttons on the left or right side.

The Kindle Oasis isn’t perfect and there are two things I would change. The first is the bottom button, which is used for returning to the previous page. It’s lower than my thumb can easily reach and as a result I always have to shimmy the e-reader down my hand to press it. Positioning the two buttons closer together would solve this problem. Fortunately, I don’t have to use the back page button often.

The second is the Micro USB port. I complained about Amazon continuing to use Micro USB instead of USB-C in my Kindle review and I’m annoyed to see the old port on the Kindle Oasis. I understand if it’s a matter of saving costs, but this is the most expensive Kindle we’re talking about here. If Amazon can’t be bothered to give its most-advanced Kindle e-reader the better-in-every-way-reversible USB-C port, then what are people paying for? Not new design or faster E Ink display or longer battery life, that’s for sure.

The screen’s warmth is adjustable

So, here we arrive at the one new feature the 2019 Kindle Oasis has: its adjustable warm light. 

In all other Kindles, there’s a lighting system to illuminate the screen and you can adjust the brightness to your liking. 

In addition to the 12 white LEDs the previous Kindle Oasis had for display illumination, the new Kindle Oasis has 13 amber LEDs. These are used to adjust the warmth of the display. There are 24 levels of warmth: level one is white and level 24 is amber.

The Kindle Oasis screen’s warmth can be manually adjusted. You can also schedule it to gradually adjust with sunset and sunrise, or start and end at preset times.

If you know nothing (or little) about screen warmth, you’re probably wondering why you should care about it. Think of it like the Night Shift feature on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, or the f.lux app for Mac, or the Night Light mode on Google Pixel phones, which all adjust the display’s color temperature from cool (blue) to warm (yellow).

Studies have shown that warmer color temperature displays can help reduce eye strain and aren’t as disruptive to sleep. Whether or not the modes actually filter out the allegedly harmful blue lights from the screen will depend on the device and feature implementation.

For the Kindle Oasis, Amazon curiously makes zero mention of health benefits when describing the feature. The product page only states: “Now you can adjust the shade of the screen from white light to a warm amber with the ability to schedule when the light changes for a personalized reading experience.”

In my brief time testing the Kindle Oasis, I didn’t feel the amber lighting made the e-reading experience any better or worse. Certainly, a warmer color temperature does better mimic the off-white color of paper books. Turning up the display’s warmth also made it less jarringly blue in my living room and bedroom, which have lamps with warm light bulbs.

But honestly, I could live without the adjustable warm lighting. I usually have the brightness on my Kindle set very low or completely off, which I feel does an effective job at making my eyes less tired. Text is still perfectly readable at low brightness in low-light places and off in direct sunlight.

Such a missed opportunity

The 2019 Kindle Oasis is a good e-reader…if you’re in the market for the very best, most feature-packed device, and paying $250 doesn’t scare you away. The screen is sharp and the battery lasts weeks. 

But if you already own a Kindle or Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Oasis’s larger and crisper screen, physical buttons, metal body, and adjustable warm lighting aren’t worth an extra $120-160,  it won’t be a worthwhile upgrade.

If Amazon had lowered the price of the Kindle Oasis to start at, say, $200, it’d be a way better value. But as it stands, the Kindle Paperwhite, which starts at $130, remains the best Kindle in terms of features and price. It has the high-quality 300 PPI screen the Kindle Oasis has, long battery life, Bluetooth, and waterproofing. 

Most people simply don’t need Kindle Oasis’s bells and whistles and it’s hard to justify paying extra for features like the amber lighting unless it has real health benefits.

It’s disappointing to see Amazon put so little effort into the new Kindle Oasis. Two years since the last version and the best Amazon could do was add amber LEDs? Yawn, indeed. 

Next time, how about maybe a color E Ink screen? Faster E Ink refresh rate? Double the storage for all variants? USB-C instead of Micro USB? Increase the battery life? Make the Kindle Oasis worth the money!