Kindle Oasis has a new water resistant design, bigger e-ink screen – and cheaper price tag

Amazon has unveiled an update to its flagship eReader, the Kindle Oasis.

The new handheld keeps the wedge-shaped, ergonomic grip that debuted with the first generation Kindle Oasis back in April 2016.

However, Amazon has tweaked the design so that it’s now water resistant – a first for the Kindle range.

The new Oasis is rated IPX8, which means it’s able to withstand immersion in up to two meters of fresh water for up to 60 minutes.

Amazon also says it’s designed to withstand being splashed at the beach, or accidentally plunged into the bath tub, hot tub, or pool.

Aside from a water resistant design, the second-generation Oasis is also the first Kindle to increase the size of the e-ink display – from six to seven-inches.

On the surface, this might seem like a minor bump – but Amazon says the additional real estate lets them squeeze 30 per cent more words per page for fewer page turns.

Kindle Oasis has a 300 pixel-per-inch display, and the fastest page turns of any eReader shipped by the US retail firm.

Page turns are handled by the dedicated hardware buttons and the display will automatically rotates the orientation whether you hold it with your left or right hand.

Built-in ambient light sensors automatically adjust the display to your surroundings whether you’re in a dimly-lit room or outside in the sun.

The light can also be fine-tuned further based on personal preferences.

Battery life is still measured in weeks, like we’ve come to expect from the Kindle range.

But this year, Amazon has added fast-charging to its all-new Oasis, which means readers can go from no battery to fully charged in less than two hours.

Alongside the hardware improvements to the display, Amazon has also included a number of new preferences within its Kindle software.

Amazon offers more font sizes than before, as well as five levels of boldness – for whichever font you choose to read with.

The company has also added new accessibility options. In addition to its OpenDyslexic font, Amazon has added a feature to invert black and white on the display for customers with light sensitivity. 

And the new enlarged display option lets users increase the size of items like the text on the home screen and library as well as the book icons to make the all-new Kindle Oasis easier to read.

These features are not exclusive to the new Kindle Oasis (although they do benefit from the seven-inch e-ink display) and will be rolling-out as a free software update to Kindle Paperwhite (Gen 6, released in 2013) and newer devices.

Aside from its eBook features, Kindle Oasis also now ships with Audible support built-in, so customers can listen to the world’s largest library of audiobooks and easily switch between reading and listening to a professionally narrated performance on Bluetooth headphones or speakers.

“Ten years ago, we introduced our first Kindle with the mission of delivering any book ever written in 60 seconds or less,” said Dave Limp, Amazon Devices and Services Senior Vice President.

“With a larger 7-inch, 300 ppi display, waterproof design, and Audible built right in, the all-new Kindle Oasis is our most advanced Kindle ever.

“Its thin, light, and waterproof design allows readers to stay engaged in the author’s world in even more places than ever before.”

The second-generation Kindle Oasis ships in two storage configurations – 8 GB, which is twice the storage of the first Kindle Oasis, and will be more than enough space for thousands of titles, as well as 32 GB, which lets users store more rich content with large file sizes, like Audible audiobooks, comics, newspapers, magazines, and more.

Like all Kindle eReaders, the Oasis automatically backs-up books in the cloud so customers never need to worry about losing their books – and can re-download novels wirelessly anytime for free.

Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle Oasis, when compared to the previous generation, which debuted with a £269.99 price tag last year.

The all-new Kindle Oasis will set you back £229.99 for the 8 GB model and £259.99 for the 32 GB model.

Amazon charges £319.99 for the top-of-the-line 32GB model with free mobile connectivity. All Kindle Oasis models are available for pre-order today.

Customers can also purchase a cover with a thin design that snaps perfectly onto the all-new Kindle Oasis and transforms into a stand for hands-free reading. 

The cover opens like a book, automatically waking the device when opened and putting it to sleep when closed – however, it does not offer additional battery life, like the previous generation model.

Amazon has a number of materials and colours on offer, including water-safe fabric covers (£39.99) in Indigo, Sandstone, or Charcoal, as well as leather covers (£54.99) in a choice of Midnight, Saddle Tan, or Merlot.

Aside from Amazon’s own website, the Kindle Oasis will be available from high street stores including Argos, Currys PC World, Dixons Travel, John Lewis, Shop Direct and Tesco.

Kindle Oasis will start to ship to customers on October 31st.