Amazon Kindle Oasis features refreshed design, $289.99 price tag

Amazon’s Kindle line of e-readers has been around for eight years now, and today the latest model was announced with a refreshed design and a new charging system.

The Kindle Oasis is the thinnest and lightest Kindle yet, Amazon says, coming in at 30 percent thinner on average and 20 percent lighter than any other Kindle model. That’s not the only tweak that Amazon has made to help the Kindle Oasis be easy to hold, though, as the device also has a kind of lopsided design that shifts the center of gravity to your palm so that the Oasis will rest in your hand like the spine of a book. The Oasis also as an accelerometer so that it can rotate the page to accommodate the hand that you’re holding it with.

The other major new feature of the Oasis is its dual-battery system. Amazon has created a leather battery cover to go with the Oasis that can charge your e-reader. When the Oasis in its cover and charging, you can charge both devices simultaneously. And when you’re using them, Amazon says that you can get around eight weeks of battery life with regular use.

Rounding out the Kindle Oasis feature set is an updated 300ppi Paperwhite display, redesigned front light with more LEDs for a brighter display, and new “cylindrical diffractive patterns” to make that screen brightness more consistent. The Oasis also offers physical page turn buttons on the side of its screen as well as the option of turning the page with its touch screen.

The Kindle Oasis is available for pre-order today and will begin shipping on April 27. Pricing is set at $289.99, making it the priciest Kindle available today. Amazon is offering an option to break the cost of the Oasis into five monthly payments of $58 each. The Oasis looks like a solid upgrade to the Kindle family, offering an updated screen, physical page turn buttons an refreshed design, and long battery life, but at nearly $300, it seems like only the most voracious readers should buy one. Amazon still offers the $119.99 Kindle Paperwhite, which has fewer built-in LEDs but still offers a 300ppi screen and weeks of battery life, and it seems like a better fit for most folks.

What do you think of the Kindle Oasis? Would you drop nearly $300 on an e-reader?