“Amazon trying to build a better Kindle is kind of like Superman joining a gym: Nice idea, knock yourself out, but it’s not like you need it,” David Pierce writes for Wired. “By any measure, Amazon won the ebook war. According to one report, it makes three of every four ebook sales in the US. Not everyone who buys ebooks buys a Kindle, of course. And since Amazon is famously stingy with its numbers, you can’t say for sure, but it’s not like Jeff Bezos wakes up sweating in the middle of the night worrying about the Kobo Aura H2O.”
“From the $69 Kindle on up to the $199 Kindle Voyage, its e-readers are attractive and easy to use, their batteries effectively last forever, and they’re the closest thing you’ll find to a paperback this side of the center aisle in your local Safeway,” Pierce writes. “But Amazon seems to think people want more. Or, rather, less. And so everyone there works toward a singular goal: Make Kindles that feel like paper. Which is to say, Kindles that feel like nothing. Kindles you never think about, you just read.”
“Which brings me to the new Kindle launching today, the Kindle Oasis,” Pierce writes. “At $289, the Oasis is the most expensive Kindle in years, four times the price of the entry-level Kindle, which does all the same things. But damn is it tiny. The smallest Kindle yet at less than five ounces and just 3.4mm thick at its smallest point. Got two quarters? Stack them. That’s how thick the Oasis is. It makes an iPhone 6 look porcine.”
“Kindle is for reading. Nothing more. Everything about its performance, its design, its software, reflects that. You want to do other stuff? Buy other stuff,” Pierce writes. “The astronomical price includes one cool new accessory: a flip-cover case that includes a battery that extends the battery life from weeks to months. Months, plural. (Apparently as many as 20) …This is the closest Kindle to paper yet, no question.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Kindle Oasis is definitely the new “King of the Kindles” (but we still love our Kindle Paperwhites just the same).
This thing is expensive and UGLY. I will also keep my Paperwhite
Nah. I like my iPad it’s 10x better.
I own and use 2 iPads (iPad Air and iPad Pro 12.9) and love their extreme flexibility.
BUT, if you are serious book reader, the iPad is horrible to use. Reading a novel on the iPad is fatiguing, hurts the eyes, and can’t be used outside if even marginally sunny.
There is NO comparison between the iPad and Paperwhite for a serious reader. The Kindle Paperwhite does one thing and does it fantastically. I’ll be keeping my Kindle.
IPad Pro 9.7″ with true tone is absolutely readable outside. And not fatiguing in the least. True on the tablets you pointed out though.
Agreed. Just checked my 12.9 Pro against my wife’s 9.7 Pro and her’s is definitely useable, while mine is borderline.
I’ve got an old, crappy Kindle and still use it all the time for reading. It’s so much easier to handle than my iPad Air2.
It would be nice if Apple had an eink solution. I would buy through iBooks and go that rout.
This is coming from the thought that Amazon might have been behind the DOJ law suit.
Guess none of you people read iBooks. I’m not going to download all my iBooks from iCloud and convert Them for Kindle. If you can’t read a. IBook on an iPad, get new eyes. The problem is not the iPad. It’s you.
Amazon is a crappy company. I hate having to use anything of theirs.
Nice to see MDN has softened it’s position on the Kindle. I do not consider the Android Fire a real Kindle.
I like to read outside and nothing beats an e-Ink Kindle. They also have great battery life. Mine is the last generation with a keyboard and it will stay charged of a whole camping trip and can get cell data in many backcountry places. An iPad will not last a day without a Solar Charger and the screen washes out in the sun.
Finally, if I buy Amazon eBooks I can read them on just about anything from an iPad to any Laptop or Desktop PLUS the Kindles. Apple Books are locked to Apple devices.
I use Apple iBooks on an iPad Air 2 and when out, sometimes on my iPhone 5S, as the books keep in synch. I love the experience. True, in bright sunlight it is not great but I like having a multi-use device, and I’d rather support Apple over Amazon in ebooks.
At $289? No, Amazon is selling it for $359. This is obscenely expensive for a device that does one thing: simulate a book. Nothing else. And then you have to buy your books. MDN, whatever you’re smoking or ingesting, go to rehab. Why you’re suddenly enamored with Jeff Bezos’s Amazon means you’re either in his back pocket or delusional. You have no credibility anymore.