Oasis Is No Longer So
My wonderful wife approached me in a tizzy yesterday. She had that look in her eye that told me she had a technology rant built up and me — the tech guy — was going to hear about it.
Sure enough, she needed to inform me that she was not happy with the lineup of Kindles that Amazon sells today. She’s been a longtime user of the original Kindle Oasis. In fact, when she smashed the screen of her first one, she bought a used version of the same model to replace it instead of purchasing a new (bigger, aluminum, 2nd-gen) one. She would have been well-reasoned to do so; her Kindle is her most-used device and it’s not even close.
What does she love about that original Oasis? All the same things I did. Namely, its ultra-portable size and weight, its flip cover with extra battery built in, its physical page-turn buttons, and its waterproofing.
All those features are missing from today’s Kindle lineup. The Oasis is no more. The plain Kindle and the Paperwhite don’t have physical page-turn buttons, and are therefore non-starters. There are two Colorsoft versions — an adult and kid model — which also don’t have the buttons, and are feature inferior screens. The Scribe is too big and bulky for her read everywhere lifestyle.
She looked alternatives like the Kobo and Boox devices. The Kobo would be a pain to manage with her massive Kindle library and Kindle Unlimited subscription. The Boox Page almost ticks all the boxes for physical buttons and Kindle app…but it doesn’t have waterproofing and she’s a beachside and in-pool reader.
“When did Amazon stop caring about power readers when it came to making Kindles?” she demanded of me.
I didn’t have an answer.
In the meantime, she’s bought another used Kindle Oasis on eBay in hopes that it’ll last long enough for either Amazon to get their Kindle house back in order, or for Boox to add waterproofing to their eReaders.
My money’s on the latter happening first.
This is post #5/31 for Blaugust 2025.