The Kindle Oasis (2019) is a good looking e-paper reader. Its price tag (US$299) as compared to the presence of other more affordable e-paper readers have placed this Kindle firmly in the luxury category.
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Purchasing From Amazon (US)
At that point in time (Aug 2019) when I bought my Kindle, it seemed that you were not able to buy and ship Kindles from Amazon (US) directly to Singapore. You will need to employ the services of a forwarder. Some of the more popular forwarder companies are ComGateway, VPost and Ezbuy.
For my purchase, I have used ComGateway and opted for them to drop off the package at Popstation. ComGateway offers home delivery but this option was not feasible for me as I’m at work during office hours and might OT once in a while (and hence, missing the delivery).
The delivery costs SGD$42.20. (Note the GST! Ouch.)
Look & Feel of Kindle Oasis 2019
Kindle Oasis 2019 maintains the same look and feel of its predecessor, with the one-handed design and easy-to-reach page turn buttons (which are super handy!).
Warm Back Lights
The only noticeable difference will be the addition of warm back lights. Personally, I found the warm back light underwhelming and have just set it to a constant value (you are able to schedule the warm lighting to have it switched on after sunset).
Kindle Ecosystem
The Kindle ecosystem is one of the main selling points of a Kindle – you get access to tons of great selections which are properly formatted to fit your Kindle screen and enhance your kindle reading experience. It is one of the reasons why I opted to buy a Kindle instead of other e-paper readers (note: there are a lot!). You can buy Kindle books with the tap of a button within the store “app” in Kindle!
I have subscribed to a few magazines (listed below) and new issues are sent to my Kindle auto-magically like clockwork (weekly for weekly magazine, monthly for monthly magazine).
- New Scientist, Weekly
- Maximum PC, Monthly
- 2600 Magazine, Quarterly
However, you do not get access to the subscribers-only articles at the New Scientist’s website with your Kindle subscription. This is in spite that the Kindle subscription is the same price (?) as the “normal” web-based subscription. What a shame.
More Pictures of Kindle Store
Reading your own books on Kindle
Of course, you can read your own books on the Kindle Oasis. However, they will need to be in the correct format. You can get your reading materials onto your Kindle via the following methods:
Through Amazon
Amazon currently offers a free service whereby you are able to email any epub file to a unique email address (that is tied to your Kindle). Amazon will convert and transfer the file to your Kindle.
Through Calibre
If you are not that interested in books and magazines, you can receive ebooks filled with the RSS feeds of your favourite website on your Kindle. In order to do this, you will need to install Calibre. Calibre has a “send to device” function which will convert and send the file to Kindle.
Loading Singapore News Into Kindle
As the mainstream media are currently not available for purchase via Kindle, you will need to get the news into Kindle via Calibre. You can add the weblink (e.g. ChannelNewsAsia’s Latest News Feed: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/rssfeeds/8395986) and instruct Calibre to pull articles from the link every day and send to your Kindle. In this way, you can get up-to-date news to read every single day!
Through Instapaper
I used Instapaper to bookmark interesting article and use their send to Kindle option to read the article on my Kindle. The “Send to Kindle” feature is currently free on Instapaper.
Conclusion
As of now, I have used my Kindle for about 5 months already. I am satisfied with my purchase because it is lightweight (131g as opposed to Samsung Note 10’s 168g) and keeps me occupied during my daily commute to and fro work. As mentioned above, once I subscribe to my favourite magazines, newspapers and research journals, new articles would be sent to my Kindle automatically and regularly. I am now trying to convince my wife to try the Kindle as well to “inculcate” in her a habit for reading so that Baby C would hopefully be influenced and learn to love to read from young as well. =p
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