Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

No update to the Oasis; I guess when I refresh I'll get a Boox or other Android-based device with page turn buttons and run the kindle app on it.

I have a first generation Kindle Oasis, which is a great device, in no small part because of its asymmetric design and page turn buttons. The newer Oasis (still last refreshed in 2022) have better lighting (temperature adjustable) and inverse text mode, which are both nice but have not been enough to get me to upgrade. It lacks the battery cover of the original oasis, which while kind of a pain was nice because it gave a very natural way to hold the device.

I'm sad to see that the Oasis line is not mentioned here. I have little to no interest in using my kindle as a writing device, and honestly would prefer that the touchscreen was as little used as possible -- an unresponsive or slow screen is the worst case for a touchscreen, since the feedback loop is terrible.

I don't know if they'll have an OS update to go along with this. I have found successive updates to be worse and worse -- my pages are all crammed with ads (not actual ads since I paid to have them removed, but "recommended books") and large page covers. I can barely fit five titles from my library on a screen; I would much prefer to have just the title/author/progress and fit twenty on a page.

The integration with the Amazon ecosystem is probably the best selling point, but until somebody shuts down Libby I've switched my habits to be almost entirely rent-based rather than buying books.

You should check out the PocketBook Era. It's what I moved to from the Kindle Oasis and I've really enjoyed it. The device isn't as svelte as the Oasis since it isn't subsidized by Amazon, but has an assymetric design and even more physical buttons which you can fully customize the control scheme. Also like the Oasis it gets amazing battery life with it's light weight OS compared to the Android based e-readers.

The PocketBook cloud is just as seamless as the syncing with Amazon if that is something you use. Only time I notice problems is during the weekly maintenance window which just looks like an outage. It has bidirectional sync for your progress as well as syncing new books and has a web interface and a phone app. Also offers the same email endpoint service as Kindle and you can set up Adobe DRM to use with library borrowing as well as other places that distribute ascm. The builtin store probably doesn't have the same availability of titles as Amazon but I haven't used it since I manage my library with Calibre and buy my books from various stores.

Best of all is the customizability. Don't want to use their store or cloud? You can turn off (really just not setup and hide) all the features and integrations individualy to make it an "offline" reader but still bring it online for things like Wikipedia lookup and web searches. You don't even need an account to set it up. You can also load additional dictionaries, fonts, and even applications on it. It has a healthy if small development scene.

There is a new color version but if you don't read things that require color I would get the original; Based on reviews it has the the same downside as Kobo and others that use the Kalaido screen where it's relatively dimmer in ambient light compared to the B/W one and so needs a higher average backlight level to compensate.

Overall I've been really happy with my switch and can't see myself going back to Kindle.

Two things that are stopping me from buying a PocketBook:

1. Android (privacy...)

2. No light sensor to automatically adjust screen brightness to surroundings

(i currently have the Kindle Oasis 3, jailbroken, running KOreader.)

If I understand your first point correctly, then I have great news. I guess my wording could have been more clear, but PocketBook devices do NOT run Android.

As for the second, if that is a requirement then at least the Era doesn't have an ambient light sensor. I don't have any issue without it because I just have the front light off entirely by default since it is e-ink. Obviously if I need to use it in the dark I turn it on, but that is easy without having to navigate a screen I can't see since you can configure a hardware shortcut to toggle the front light (it is set to long press on the home button by default). While it does support automatic screen brightness and temperature (individually toggled), these are driven by a schedule based on the set timezones.

Thanks @IPTN;

> PocketBook devices do NOT run Android

Well actually some _do_ run Android, but good to see also some of them (like the Era) do not...

> these are driven by a schedule based on the set timezones Yea, i don't really like that unfortunately, as it doesn't properly work inside when lighting changes.

I'll patiently wait on a next release, hoping for a non-Android and light sensor included device :-)