Here’s a quick comparison video between the new Kindle Scribe and the Kindle Oasis.
Mostly I wanted to show the size difference between the 7-inch Kindle Oasis and the 10.2-inch Scribe because it can be hard to get a sense for just how large 10-inch ereaders are compared to regular ereaders.
Both devices have 300 ppi E Ink screens, but the Scribe has some added texture on the front of the screen to help make writing with the stylus feel more natural than writing on slick glass, so the screen on the Oasis is a bit clearer. However, the E Ink screen on the Oasis has a lot of ghosting issues whereas the Scribe’s screen does not.
Software-wise there’s really not much difference between them other than the Scribe-specific features like writing in notebooks and being able to write on PDFs and add sticky notes to ebooks.
The Kindle Oasis is a previous generation model, dating back to 2019 (actually the design goes all the way back to 2017 with the Oasis 2) so it still has an older microUSB port and the base model has half the storage space as the new entry-level Kindle. But it is waterproof, unlike the Scribe.
The big question remains: Is Amazon ever going to release a new Kindle Oasis, or is it going to be discontinued? The Oasis has been outdated for over a year now compared to the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which has several upgrades over it, so at this point it’s not looking good for the Oasis line moving forward. Personally, I think it will be discontinued if they don’t release a newer version within the next 6 months.
Starting at $339, the Kindle Scribe is a better value for the price than the Kindle Oasis, which I always thought was overpriced by at least $50 for what it is compared to other Kindles. The Kindle Oasis starts at $249 for the ad-supported model with 8GB. That’s just ridiculous compared to the Signature Edition Paperwhite that has 32GB of storage, no ads, and wireless charging for $189. If you have an older Kindle to trade, you can basically get the Scribe for the same price as the 8GB Oasis without ads. How does that make sense? That’s another nice thing about the Scribe—there aren’t any ad-supported versions so the price is basically $20 less than other Kindles, comparatively speaking.
At any rate, both Kindles are nice devices with a similar premium look and feel. The Oasis is a lot lighter and more comfortable to hold, and it’s the only Kindle with dedicated page-turn buttons. The Scribe comes with a stylus and adds some notebook functionality, and the larger screen is great for larger-form content like PDFs and comics, and the larger font sizes are more useful than with smaller Kindles, but the added weight and larger size can make it more difficult to hold.
Another difference: the 2019 Oasis has a 4.6 rating to the Scribe’s 3.6. Has any Kindle release ever had less than a 4 out of 5 rating?
The new entry-level Kindle was under 4 stars for a while too, but then it leveled out once more reviews came in. There seems to be more complainers in early reviews, and if you read some of them it quickly becomes apparent that a lot of people don’t know what they’re talking about or even understand that Kindles use a different type of screen technology than other products.
Hi Nathan. Thank you for the video. I am wondering if you are planning to possibly do a video comparing the Kindle Scribe to the Kobo Elipsa? If you’re able to, I would love to see a video comparing the two since they are both e-readers with notebook/note-taking ability and are both roughly the same size. I’m considering the Elipsa, but holding out until they bring the Comfort Light feature to that device.
I plan on doing the comparison this week.
Any idea what happened to the official Amazon covers for the Kindle scribe? I can’t seem to find the leather or fabric covers..
I can see why you’re having trouble finding them. Amazon’s search is terrible. The easiest way to find them is from the accessory sidebar on the product page for the Kindle Scribe on the right side below the buy button and warranty add-on.
Thank you for that information. Hard to believe the rating in these cases.
Yeah, the reviews are pretty harsh. I got the premium leather cover bundle because I’ve never gotten one of those before and at first I didn’t like it at all, but I think what I really didn’t like was the high price. The price of Amazon’s covers has gotten pretty ridiculous. But now that I’ve had the case for a while it’s growing on me. I like how it can be used as a stand to prop the Scribe upright on a desk, and I like how it holds the Kindle in by magnets so it’s easy to remove and put on, and it’s pretty light for such a large cover—it’s definitely a lot better than the 10-pound Elipsa cover. I’m still not a fan of the stylus loop but I’m getting used to it. I’ll post a review of it soon.