Amazon looks like they are totally discontinuing the Amazon Kindle Oasis e-reader. They have just removed it from the Amazon comparison chart in the United States, the largest market for Oasis sales. They have also scrubbed all advertising banners and imagery. The Kindle Oasis has been out of stock for months, and it looks like Amazon is either working on a new model or the Oasis, as it stands, is officially discontinued.
The 3rd generation Kindle Oasis came out in 2019 and was the oldest model that Amazon continued to sell. It is getting long in the tooth and lacks modern E INK technology, such as Carta 1200 and better screen tech. The form factor of the Oasis hasn’t changed since it originally came out in 2016. The Oasis was initially marketed as Amazon’s premium e-reader since it had a larger screen and page-turn buttons. The device was made irrelevant when the Paperwhite e-readers increased their screen size from 6 inches to 6.8 inches, and Amazon’s new premium e-reader is the Kindle Scribe.
Interestingly, the Kindle Oasis is still available in other countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom. Specific models are sold out, such as the 8GB model in Canada, although the 32GB model can be purchased. In the UK, the rose gold colour is unavailable, but the silver one is and is also on sale. Once these models are sold out, they will be gone for good. You can expect Amazon also to remove it from the comparison system and all imagery when the stock has been depleted.
I think the Amazon Kindle Oasis line of e-readers will go the same way as the Kindle Voyage. Likely, the company won’t release any further models. Amazon looks to be simplifying their product offerings with an entry-level device, with the base Kindle, a mid-level device with the Paperwhite and a premium model, with the Scribe. A three-SKU strategy would simplify the Kindle shopping experience for new users.
The Kindle Oasis design will continue to live on. Many Chinese brands outright copy it, which isn’t necessarily bad. The Hanvon Clear, iReader Ocean 3, iReader XS, and the Xiaomi 7. All of these products run Android instead of Linux. Most of them allow you to install your apps and have a better screen and cutting-edge hardware, making them all better than the real Kindle Oasis.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
