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Amazon’s New Kindle Debuts Sleek New Design That Is Small, Light, And Maybe A Little Pricey

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 10:06 PST, Apr 13, 2016

Amazon’s new Kindle, the Oasis, is the latest release from Amazon for those who are looking for an e-reader designed specifically to read books. The latest release contains a 300 ppi high-resolution display, comes with a leather charging case, and is WiFi ready.

Wired reported that the Kindle Oasis is Amazon’s fanciest e-reader yet. According to one report, Amazon already won the e-reader awards since three out of every four ebook sales in the U.S. are Kindle. Amazon has kept their ebook numbers to themselves, but Kindles are dominating the market with readers priced as low as $80 on the low end up to Kindle Voyager, which is priced at $199.

Although the latest Kindle has a new design and is priced at $289, it’s not waterproof. It is also the smallest Kindle to date, weighing five ounces and is only 3.4 mm thick, making it about the thickness of two quarters stacked on top of one another. It has a six-inch screen.

As Kindles have continued to get smaller, and Amazon’s new Kindle is no different, the new systems also have a lot of new features too. Amazon added audible audio books, the Alexa voice assistant, and Dash buttons. One feature that the Oasis has that may justify its price is the leather case. It includes a battery that extends the battery life from weeks to months. The cover also comes in different colors: black, merlot, or walnut. The Oasis has a glare-free screen, which makes it the closest Amazon has come to making it more like reading on paper instead of a computer screen.

As previously reported in The Inquisitr, one of Amazon’s biggest updates has been to its operating system. Users were cautioned to update their systems if they purchased their Kindles prior to 2014. The update was needed to adapt to changing technologies so that the WiFi continued to work. Otherwise, users would have to plug their Kindles into their computers and download the updates manually and then install the updates.

Liliputing reported that the Kindle Oasis has a radically new design. This is a top-of-the-line device, the 8th generation of Kindle e-readers. Part of the new features of the design is that it has built-in page turn buttons on one side of the screen, and it allows the screen to automatically rotate 180 degrees so that the buttons are on either the left or right side of the screen.

The design is wedge-shaped, making it fatter on one side than another because the battery is on the same side as the page turning buttons. At its thickest point, it’s 8.5 mm thick. Twelve magnets are used to keep the case connected to the Kindle itself, making it easy to remove the case.

One feature that users will appreciate is that when the device is unplugged it can still be charged with the case because of the additional battery. It also has 10 LED lights compared to six LED lights on the Kindle Voyager and four on the Kindle Paperwhite. What this does is it makes the lighting more consistent.

Amazon’s newest Kindle is definitely made for those who like to read a lot. It holds thousands of books, and users can compare the features of the Oasis to the other e-readers on the Amazon site.

[Photo via Amazon]

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