Amazon is updating its top-of-the-line Kindle eReader with a new model sporting a bigger screen, a lower price, and support for listening to audiobook from Amazon’s Audible service (when paired with Bluetooth speakers or headphones).

The new Kindle Oasis is up for pre-order today for $250 and it ships starting October 31st.

That’s actually just the entry-level price though. For $250 you get a WiFi-only Kindle Oasis with 8GB of storage and “special offers,” which is Amazon’s euphemism for ads in the user interface.

While 8GB should be plenty of storage for eBooks, it’s not enough for a huge library of audiobooks. So Amazon also offers a 32GB model. You can also pay more for a model with cellular connectivity or to remove special offers. Here’s a run-down of the prices:

  • 8GB WiFi-only with special offers: $250
  • 8GB WiFi-only without special offers: $270
  • 32GB WiFi-only with special offers: $280
  • 32GB WiFi-only without special offers: $300
  • 32GB WiFi + cellular without special offers: $350

The 2017 Kindle Oasis is Amazon’s first waterproof Kindle… even though it’s the second-gen Oasis and a lot of folks had assumed, based on the name, that last year’s model would be waterproof. Amazon says it should be able to withstand up to 60 minutes in water at a depth of up to two meters (about 6.6 feet).

The eReader has a display with 300 pixels per inch, 12 LED lights for evenly illuminating the screen, and it has a touchscreen display plus physical page turn buttons on the side.

While the original Kindle Oasis had two batteries: one built into the eReader and a second in a detachable cover/case, the new model just has a battery in the device itself, which should lead to longer battery life for folks who prefer not to use a cover.

Amazon’s latest Kindle Oasis measures 6.3″ x 5.6″ x 0.33″ and weighs 6.8 ounces. That makes it thinner and lighter (but wider) than a $120 Kindle Paperwhite.

This is very much an eReader aimed at hardcore fans of eBook readers with E Ink displays. More casual readers can already get a pretty good experience using a Kindle device that’s less than half the price… or just opt for a tablet: Amazon sells models for as little as $50.

But the Kindle Oasis has the biggest screen of any current Kindle, the best illumination, and it’s the only model from the company that’s waterproof.

Of course, if that’s your primary concern, there are other options. Kobo sells waterproof eReaders for as little as $160. But if you have a collection of Kindle eBooks you may need to convert them to ePub or another format supported by the Kobo platform if you want to go that route.

Along with the new Kindle Oasis, Amazon is introducing new Kindle software with additional font sizes and boldness levels and new accessibility options (including the ability to show light text on a dark screen). Those features should start rolling out soon to other devices including most Kindle eReaders released in the past 4 years.

press release

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8 replies on “Amazon launches 7 inch, waterproof Kindle Oasis for $250”

  1. These devices are too expensive for what they do even with the advantages such as long battery life and less reflective screens. Most people are better off buying a good tablet with a nice IPS screen. I find ereaders only slightly easier on the eyes at night compared to my tablet. Plus most reading apps have night reading mode and dimming.

    1. I used to share this opinion, until I brought an Ipad Mini, a Samsung Note 4, and a Kindle Voyage to the beach. The Note 4 (OLED?) looked like it shutdown because the screen is completely black. The Ipad Mini is barely legible. The Kindle looked like white paper, perfect in every way.

    2. Yeah, unless you are trying to read outside then just buying a fire tablet is a much much much better value. They sell a fully functioning tablet for only $50 that can do not only e reading but anything else a Android tablet can do, video, web browsing, music, games ect.

  2. $280 for 32G with ads isn’t bad considering the price tag of the original Oasis, but 32G isn’t nearly enough for audiobooks, I’m still more than happy with my Paperwhite, wouldn’t trade it for this ugly piece of crap

    1. At least this one comes in a 32gb option. I was extremely excited for the Kobo Aura One as a graphic novel/letter-size PDF device, but it lacked the expandable storage of my H2O. If you make a device with such a large screen, I’d think you’d realize customers would use it for something more than plain-text novels.

      I wonder if there is just no way to achieve the IPX8 rating on a device with removable storage?

      1. Kindle DX, 9.7″ display, PDF reading software, 4GB storage.

        It’s kinda silly but then large format e-ink devices aren’t as common as I’d like either. 13.3″ ones should be common and cheap, instead they’re what, £600? That buys me… 140,000 sheets of A4.

      2. There are waterproof smartphones with expandable storage – the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8, for example. And as you pointed out, the H2O is waterproof. I think it doesn’t matter much to the average consumer if the rating is IPx7 or IPx8.

        I’m not really sold on the idea of needing more than 32gb of storage on an eink device. When I’ve had even 500-600 books on a kindle or nook, it really slows down. And I find I’m happier when I only have a reasonable amount of books – what I can get though in any given month, for example.

        I use Fire or iPad to read comics tho, not a kindle. And I really want to buy the Aura One and support Kobo. This new Oasis is underwhelming. No battery case? No way to output audio except Bluetooth?

        This feels like a step backwards.

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