Kindle Oasis E-Reader with Adjustable Warm Light - 32GB Storage, Waterproof, 3 Months Free Kindle Unlimited (Auto-Renewal) - Perfect for Reading at Night, Beach, and Travel

Before I start this review, I just want to say that I adore this e-reader regardless of any negative feedback. In fact, I took it over to show my mother and she loved it so much she got one for herself. For both of us, trying to read on a tablet for longer periods of time just isn't enjoyable. This is the first e-reader purchase for both of us after many years though I have had occasion to play with the newer generation of paperwhite/kindle in person before making this purchase.First things first - this device uses E-Ink. It works by having a multitude of microcapsules that when charged display either black or white. Just from that description alone, it's pretty obvious why this has no color, though color is in the works by the E-Ink developer, it's just years away from being workable on these types of devices. Obviously, this works differently than a tablet and its main purpose, as with all e-readers, is to give a good reading experience and mimic a page of a book as best as possible while also being easier on the eyes.Display: Very, very sharp on the Oasis. It's lovely to look at and I have found zero ghosting while reading. It's clear and crisp. While only an inch, the benefits of the 7 inch are noticeable but hard to explain outside of it just feels better reading-wise. The screen is matte and while not glare-proof it helps a good deal and the pages are lovely to look at.Touch: Very responsive. Again, due to the tech of this product, it's kind of a wonder we have touchscreens with them. It's very responsive for an e-reader, more than any other that I've looked at. I can't say I was all that impressed with the Paperwhite's touch screen as it seemed to get finicky at times and could turn multiple pages on you, a problem I've not had with any other device. While sometimes it doesn't always register the touch, for the most part, it does, and highlighting, accessing the menu, shopping in the store, etc. have all been easy. Sometimes it doesn't register when scrolling but that's been the biggest issue encountered so far.Page Turning - I am partial to the buttons and am a believer that these devices should come with them baseline. However, buttons or touch, the pages turn fast, fluid, and cleanly with close to no delay whatsoever.Screen Brightness - The warm light is great and is the other reason I got this model over a Paperwhite (buttons were the other). I have issues with my eyes where blue light really bothers me. Not only does the Oasis seem to have less blue light in general compared to Paperwhite/Kindle/Older Oasis models, but the warm light works well. It doesn't take a lot to solve the issue and being able to adjust brightness and warmth separately is good. You are able to set the warmth to auto-activate from sunset to sunrise based on time zone, set your own time, or do it anytime easily.Options: There are many ways to change the layout from font style, boldness, and size. I haven't seen it really mentioned, but you can set it horizontal also. Yes, you do need to go through settings to do this but given how this device works, that's not a surprise. There is a feature to save all your layouts so it's simple enough to hit the saved format for horizontal to switch to that or back again to vertical. The buttons come default as up = forward down = back, but these can be reversed. There is no scrolling option but I'm not someone who likes that when reading books, but keep that in mind, especially for certain media like comics/manga. You are able to have it display page numbers, the clock, percentage left/read, or none of the above.Personal Library Access - Amazon, for the love of all creation fix this mess. I knew going in that it would be a pita but still. Even after going through each book and adding them separately back into their collections I still can't sort by them. I don't know what I did wrong but it's been a frustrating endeavor, and the inability to really have decent sort options can make it a pain for those who want to keep the library on this device instead of just a book or two at a time. Fortunately, the search works well but I shouldn't have to look one of my Fires to sort through my library and then bring it up on the Oasis. That's terrible and to my understanding has been a longstanding problem.Wifi - I had no problems with accessing the Kindle store to browse or purchase books. This is probably the biggest area that had a delay, lack of sensitivity to input, and a large amount of screen refreshing, but again, given what it is, it wasn't an issue really. Wifi does drain the battery (even more so if downloading a lot of books, like at the start and it does give a warning for this) but that is a problem on most modern devices. I wish there was a battery saver option for this like there is for the Fire's as I would like to use the Translation feature at times while reading some books and that is only available via wifi. Fortunately, the dictionary is not so dependent.Battery Life - The Kindle base model has 4 LEDs, the Paperwhite has 6. The Oasis - 25. That's a lot of LEDs (12 for white, 13 for the warm lighting system) and it is understandable that while in use this isn't going to have as long of a life as other models, especially older ones that don't have a backlight at all. When indoors, I tend to have everything set to as close to zero as possible as personal preference and would say that depending on reading habits you're looking at charging every few days to a little over a week. I would also say that one should never believe any company's rhetoric on battery life - it's usually under the most minimal of conditions. That being said, if you're coming from an older model of Kindle, especially the really early ones, you aren't going to get the same battery life due to the LEDs but it isn't as terrible as a tablet, for example. It does hibernate after a period of inactivity and takes a few seconds to wake back up when starting again. This isn't a bad thing to me but has been off-putting to others with the slight delay.The Micro USB - I know this a point of contention with a lot of people but I didn't find it that big of a deal. I still have several devices include Kindles/Fires that use this. I would assume that when Amazon does make the switch to USB C that they want to ensure all their tablets/Kindles can make the switch over.Shape - I love it. The only thing I can think of is that it would be nice if the metal was grooved a little in a couple of places on the back to help with a firmer grip and to reduce sliding potential. Otherwise, it's lovely to both me and my mother - easy to hold, easy to operate the buttons, etc.Waterproofing - I can't speak to how this works and hope to never have to.The Ads - Amazon, we are buying your top-of-the-line product. We should not have to pay you more to not have you advertise at us, especially since you have a recommended for you on the homepage that does the job somewhat better. When Kindles/Fires were launching way back when it did make some sense as the price difference was $40 and made the lower-end models especially more accessible to a wider range of people. But now, it's just gross. Yes, I have the one with the ads because I cannot justify giving you an extra $20 for something that is top of the line and already highly priced.The Price - So, this is really expensive. There is an option to do payment plans on it, which is nice, but it's still pricy. If you have an e-reader that at least is functional, it might do for you to wait until Prime Day or Cyber Monday to get a deal and shave off $50-75. Is it worth it? That depends. If you're like me and need the warm light then this is the only Kindle that has it, along with the buttons. I look at it as an investment. The products I have gotten from Amazon have lasted years. On top of that, I am a reader and have been looking for something that would allow me to access my Kindle library easily while having the features I needed/wanted. If you're not reading a whole lot and/or do not need the buttons/warm light then this probably isn't the Kindle for you. Personally, I knew I would not be happy with the Paperwhite, and while there are things I dislike about the Oasis, as a whole I am happy that I own this.Probably the biggest question to ask yourself before spending this kind of money is how much do you read and/or were you someone who used to read a lot? The biggest question is whether one will use it enough to justify having a device that is only for reading and if the features for them personally justify the purchase. For me, yes, for others, it may be a different answer.I listened to and read many reviews on the Oasis and other Kindles and one of the comments was that with the Oasis that one might spend more money due to just buying more books to read. I can see that. It's a joy to read on this.UPDATE......As I've used my new Oasis I've found a few things that could be different.........As many reviewers have found, battery life is not up to the older Kindles, but.....since I'm dumping books in manually every few days this is not important to me since it's being recharged often.I've found an oddity with how books are displayed......Some are shown with author first, title second, some are title first, author second. I've found no reason for this, and it's just "different".Since I get books from Amazon and my public library and other sources I'm not sure what's going on with this.Again, I'd like to see the actual book cover, not an icon.I've found that when reading with one hand I occasionally hit SOMETHING on the touch screen and things can change....... Font can change, size of the page can be expanded, and the location in the book can disappear from the bottom of the display.Fortunately, the Oasis offers a screen lock function.My KOBO Libra offered the option of displaying the actual page number. This would be nice to have in the Oasis. The Oasis showing the percentage read is not very useful to me, and page numbers make it much easier to find something.As others have stated, the advertising of Amazon on the ad supported Kindle's is getting totally out of hand.MOST of the home screen is nothing but ads, with the library only showing a few books on the top of the home page. True, you see only your books on the library and list view, but give us a break on the excessive ads.Removing books from the Oasis is "snakey".I accidentally erased all my Amazon books off my Amazon account when I removed old books I wanted to keep, but didn't want cluttering up my new Oasis library.I'm going to have to figure this one out, since I don't want to store much on my Oasis but would like to have them secure on my account if I need them again.I know there's a way to securely store my books on the Amazon cloud, but I don't want to use that.When finishing a book a screen is displayed asking for a review. There's no way to opt out other then to go to the home page.Again, this is just aggravating, but not a major issue.Still like.........The quality of the Oasis is obvious and top of the line. It feels like and is a piece of quality equipment.Display of text is excellent.Non-smudging screen is great.Lighting is excellent, but will deplete the battery faster if set too high. To save the battery I turned mine down to the middle, but decided that I'd rather have an easy to read screen then a little less charge life.The bundled "fabric" Amazon cover works perfectly and so far seems to be standing up to a lot of handling.Speed of getting back to a book as absolutely great. Open the cover and swipe and I'm back.This is where Amazon has it all over the other readers like the KOBO, that seem to take forever to power up and get back to the book.So, I still give the Oasis 5 stars.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I still have a Kindle keyboard reader that's going strong after 11 years.Last year I decided it would eventually fail and I'd certainly gotten my money's worth from it, so I bought a new KOBO Libra. KOBO is the most popular e-reader in the rest of the world, Amazon is most sold in America and I thought I'd give it a try.That was a disappointment...... it takes forever to get back to the book I'm reading, since it shuts completely down after a set time, even if it's in sleep mode.This requires a lengthy start up, then you have to re-select the book you were reading and re-start that.It has has no way to magnify or expand pictures or maps., and most of those are so tiny they're unusable.The screen shows finger prints badly.I put that down to a bad buy so I just bought a new Kindle Oasis......It's just great and the high cost is worth it for a heavy reader like me.....I read books like most people eat peanuts, at least 3 to 4 hours a night.I bought the bundle of the Oasis, a wall plug, and a waterproof fabric cover.The plug I probably won't use, but the cover is excellent and you get it far cheaper then if you buy the cover separate. The plug is basically free with the bundle.The new Oasis is everything I'd want in an e-reader and offers everything I want in function.I just got it so I haven't fully road tested it yet but what I see so far, I really like.Battery life seems to be good, but since I dump books into e-readers every few days it's recharging often.The screen shows no finger prints and unlike the KOBO I'm not constantly having to use a cloth to clean it off.The page turn buttons work very well with just the right feel.Screen brightness can be set easily and the e-ink display is very readable.The only complaints are that the owner's manual is slightly different from my new Oasis.Directions don't match up with what I see on the new model and I wish Amazon had updated the manual to avoid confusion and having to hunt for features.Some features in the manual are not available on my new Oasis.Another issue is how the books are displayed on the library view. For some odd reason my library shows only icons of the book but NOT a picture of the book cover...... except for reasons I can't figure out, ONE book does show as a cover.I'm a visual person and I'd like to see book covers. I'll try to trouble shoot this issue.So, until I fully wring the new Oasis out, I'm giving it top ratings.