Kindle Oasis 10th gen review: Best premium e-book reader in the market

Another new Kindle is here to entice book lovers, and going by its design and features, it is the most premium piece from Amazon's stable. The 10th-generation Oasis boasts an elegant aluminium body, a tapered back for one-hand gripping and physical buttons for navigating up and down and flicking through the pages (touching the screen also does it). The physical buttons are most convenient as your thumb automatically rests on those, making navigation easy and quick. Better still, this can be comfortably used by both right-handers and left-handers as the orientation changes depending on how you are holding it.

The 300 ppi display is smarter now as Amazon has added an adaptive front light to the 7-inch e-ink screen that automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen based on ambience lighting. This 'screen warmth' will 'gradually change with sunset and sunrise' or you can manually adjust the shade and schedule the timing as per your preference. It can vary from white light to warm amber, and you can go all sepia to recreate the ageing, yellowed look of old books. The latest Oasis has 25 built-in LEDs in place for front lighting, which makes the screen brighter. The IPX8 waterproofing also ensures that the Kindle is safe near a pool or on the beach, making it an all-time reading companion even when you are chilling out.

Getting started is easy - sign in using your Amazon account or register if you are a first-time user. The user interface is clutter-free - My Library (already downloaded books) appears at the top, followed by Recommendations. The overall experience is as delightful as ever. It takes you to the last page read, can play audiobooks if you have Bluetooth headphone, gives instant access to a built-in dictionary, highlights text and allows you to share quotation over e-mail, Twitter and more. I also found the Word Wise option quite convenient. When turned on, it loads simple definitions of difficult words so that you need not look them up and continue your reading uninterrupted.

Its long battery life is another plus. This edition of the Oasis lasted me close to two weeks on a single charge as I read a couple of hours every day and kept the auto-brightness turned on. However, this one still comes with a microUSB port instead of the ubiquitous USB-C, which means an additional cable to carry and store.

My review unit was the top-end model with 32 GB of storage, Wi-Fi and free 4G connectivity. When Wi-Fi is not available, it automatically switches to the mobile network, but there will be no monthly charges involved (Amazon pays). At Rs 28,999, this variant is on the higher side, but you can opt for a Wi-Fi-only, 8 GB variant for Rs 21,999 or a 32 GB, Wi-Fi-only version for Rs 24,999.

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