Owned one of these since new - itâs looking a bit worn & tired on the cover, but itâs worked flawlessly under some pretty awful conditions.
Yeah, the screen is small compared to my tablet, but the 0asisâ light weight, sane ergonomics, and additional case battery makes reading for hours and exercise in bliss - not frustration.
Remember that the Oasis is optimized for text, it will play music - but youâre better served by stuffing a 64Gb SD card in your phone and putting your 1950âs Jaguar shop manuals on your tablet where their muddy B&W illustrations are more useful.
A copy of Calibre on your PC will expand your book horizon beyond the Amazon ecosystem, although the Kindle .azw format is well integrated and produces beautifully creamy text.
I bought this model for the waterproofing. I like to read in the hot tub. Iâve killed a kindle before because I left it on the half-open lid of the HT which automatically slid in unnoticed when I closed the lid when getting out. I realized 10 minutes later, opened the HT to see the kindle screen (a paperwhite at the time) still showing my last point in the book which gave me a false sense of security - it was of course, dead as a dodo.
I did the same with this recently and only realized my mistake 4. days. later. I opened the lid, saw the kindle there sitting at the bottom of 3 feet of 100 degree (F) water once again showing the last point I had read to. I pulled it out expecting to have created another tech paperweight. The thing still worked (and continues to work) perfectly!
If you are on the fence, at this price, donât be.
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Pro: These things have a bigger screen than most of the regular kindles (not that noticeable)
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Pro: The device is waterproof - did I mention that? WATERPROOF!
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Pro: Oh, I noticed that when the display gets wet, just like on the normal kindle (think misty droplets), the water can start acting like phantom presses. This happened on my paperwhite all the time. I remember day one with the Oasis thinking shit, this thing needs a âdisable touchscreenâ option. Low and behold, there it was! Making it the perfect kindle for me. Simply set it to the page you want, disable touchscreen and use the physical buttons for page navigation. Oasis indeed!
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Con: Not quite as nice a screen as the paperwhite IMHO, but still excellent
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Con: I donât quite think the battery is as good as the PW either but then again, Iâve stepped up my reading since getting it so it could just be that.
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Con: Last and least, it isnât as comfortable to hold as the other kindles. The body shape can make it a little harder to get used to.
Iâm a big fan of the older Paperwhite that I use almost every day. Iâve always been slow to consider an upgrade for it but this version of the Oasis has both eight times the memory of my current unit and is waterproof, which means I can finally enjoy my Kindle while soaking in the hot tub! Plus this is a screaming deal considering the refurbished units on the mothership are currently $199 (32gb, wi-fi with ads - here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075M3R17Z/ref=s9_acsd_al_bw_c2_x_6_t?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_r=Q17GA451Y09JHEDGEQW9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=92834ab9-40e3-497c-92e8-43d2407c92f6&pf_rd_i=8497978011) so I am VERY happy that I came across this when I did. I already sub to Kindle Unlimited but have never listened to any audio books so this will give me a chance to try it out.
Absolutely cannot wait!
I own the Kindle Fire 8 which I hacked to run Google apps; specifically, the Play Books app so I could use the Google ecosystem with ePubs. I mention this only as a preface to my question: Is the OS in this Oasis device an Android sorta-clone that might be hacked in a similar manner?
Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks. 
Sorry, but the Kindleâs OS isnât even remotely compatible, and even if it were the eInk display makes working with anything other than the Kindle app a real pain. I understand what you want to do but there is an easier way. Two, actuallyâŚ
First: You could download and enjoy the Calibre ebook software onto your computer and manage your ebooks thru that. You can easily add them to your Kindle (or any ebook reader for that matter), convert an ebook to an alternate format (such as EPUB or many others), even remove the DRM with the right plug-in - all with just a few clicks. You can manage multiple devices through Calibre if you have several, and even share books with others easily without restrictions. Highly recommended. Or,
Second: When you establish an Amazon account and register your Kindle, Amazon provides you with an email address to every individual Kindle and Kindle app that you use. You can email ebook and document files to these addresses and they will be delivered to your Kindle, the Kindle app on your phone, or whichever device you send it to. You can even have them convert PDF files to the Kindle format for easier reading (for making font and text size changes on your Kindle, etc.). Amazon provides instructions how to do all this on their website, although frankly it may take a bit of looking to find them.
Hope this helps.
Received mine two days before the estimated scheduled delivery and in the end couldnât be happier - although it took some time and was a near thing that I didnât have to send it back. It looked brand-new with absolutely no wear and the battery charged fully with no problems, but I very nearly had several issues with the device I received and almost called customer service for a return. However, everything worked out. Hereâs what I dealt with:
- The device was still registered to another user. Fortunately for me there was no passcode on it so I was able to deregister it and reset it back to factory specs. If this device was supposedly ârefurbishedâ or ârefreshedâ by an Amazon technician then it should have been reset to factory settings prior to it being sent out. I guess I lucked out here but it shouldnât have been sent to me like this.
- When trying to register it in my name the keyboard became wonky and useless. Fortunately for me it went through an automatic software update (which I think it was trying to do in the background as I was trying to register it, which may have been the cause of this problem). Afterwards, button presses were sporadic at best and very laggy but I was able to eventually complete my registration and download my books.
- It went through ANOTHER automatic software update and now everything works as advertised. I adjusted the settings to match what I prefer and am currently enjoying it immensely.
It was a close call as to whether it would work out or I would have had to return it, but in the end it appears to have come through like a champ and I got a screaming deal so I can forgive a bit of initial stress.
Whew. Glad it all worked out!
Thanks for paying attention, TT! I was glad it worked out as well because a deal like this is exactly the reason why Iâve been with Woot all these years, even with the occasional minor issue like I experienced this time around.