Kindle fans?

[braumeister]

About four years ago I upgraded my Kindle experience with the Oasis model. It was Amazon's top of the line unit at the time, and I've been happily using it on pretty much a daily basis. I almost always have at least half a dozen books going at once on it.

The other day I told it to download a couple of new books and it couldn't do it. Suddenly it was unable to connect to my home wifi. The weird thing is that it can see the wifi but just couldn't connect. Everything else at home has no problem with the wifi.

I tried ALL the recommended troubleshooting steps and eventually realized that it was a hardware problem that couldn't be fixed. Amazon only has a one year warranty, so I just ordered a new Paperwhite to replace it. Very frustrating but I won't be without it.

Actually, reading in the Kindle app on my iPad is a better experience, but the light weight of the Kindle is what keeps me using it.

 

[Route246]

I've had multiple Kindles but always revert back to iPad Mini. Kindles just seemed excruciatingly slow with pagination compared to iPad Mini.

 

[bloom2708]

Sometimes things break.

Did you restart the Router and WiFi network? Assume you restarted the Kindle.

Did you try resetting the Oasis to default to see if some software driver was corrupt? If you still have it, reset it.

Since you already bought a Paperwhite, enjoy it. I have a 6th and 7th gen Paperwhite that both keep ticking. Not fast.

 

[braumeister]

As I said, I did every troubleshooting trick from both Amazon support and online forums. Apparently it's not all that unusual for this to happen.

 

[zaqxsw]

I've owned Kindle Paperwhites for 14 years. Three of them so that I could keep up with the software updates. Not one hiccup and love them. I donate the older ones.

 

[MichaelB]

About four years ago I upgraded my Kindle experience with the Oasis model. It was Amazon's top of the line unit at the time, and I've been happily using it on pretty much a daily basis. I almost always have at least half a dozen books going at once on it.

The other day I told it to download a couple of new books and it couldn't do it. Suddenly it was unable to connect to my home wifi. The weird thing is that it can see the wifi but just couldn't connect. Everything else at home has no problem with the wifi.

I tried ALL the recommended troubleshooting steps and eventually realized that it was a hardware problem that couldn't be fixed. Amazon only has a one year warranty, so I just ordered a new Paperwhite to replace it. Very frustrating but I won't be without it.

Actually, reading in the Kindle app on my iPad is a better experience, but the light weight of the Kindle is what keeps me using it.

So, how does the Paperewhite compare with the Oasis? Any features or differences that you really appreciate or miss?

 

[Masquernom]

I have almost ordered Kindle readers a few times. Mostly for their extended battery life over my iPad. Every time I've concluded it wasn't worth the cost since my iPad works fine. Just need to charge it more frequently. Last time my wife mentioned her iPad, she said she had over 1,200 books downloaded onto it.

 

[Qs Laptop]

About four years ago I upgraded my Kindle experience with the Oasis model. It was Amazon's top of the line unit at the time, and I've been happily using it on pretty much a daily basis. I almost always have at least half a dozen books going at once on it.

The other day I told it to download a couple of new books and it couldn't do it. Suddenly it was unable to connect to my home wifi. The weird thing is that it can see the wifi but just couldn't connect. Everything else at home has no problem with the wifi.

Not sure if this is one of the troubleshooting steps--Have you taken your Kindle Oasis outside of your home to another location with wifi and tried to connect there?

I'd give that a shot just to be sure the wifi section of the Oasis was broken and not some problem with login credentials.

I've had my Paperwhite since 2017 and I still love it. The battery life has gone down from about 5 weeks to "only" 3 weeks, but otherwise it's still great. If something went wrong with it, I would be ordering a new one that same day!

 

[cathy63]

As I said, I did every troubleshooting trick from both Amazon support and online forums. Apparently it's not all that unusual for this to happen.

Just on the off chance that nobody mentioned this ... older Kindles only connect to 2.4GHz wifi networks on lower channel numbers. If your router's channel is set to Auto, it may have switched to a higher channel that your Kindle can't see. Try configuring the router to broadcast on channel 6 or 8 and it may reappear on your Kindle.

I like my Paperwhite very much. If you are used to the page turn buttons on the Oasis, it may take a while to get used to swiping or tapping to turn the page.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I honestly think the Paperwhite model is the best model and has been since it came out. All the other features provided by more “enhanced” models are unnecessary for what I want to do…read a book.

 

[statsman]

My wife's old Kindle Fire HDX 7 did the same thing. Just wouldn't connect to WiFi. After getting a Fire HD 8 as a replacement, I performed a complete wipe and reinstall of the latest OS on the HDX 7. WiFi worked again, for about two hours, then it went away for good. Seems to happen often with Kindles (readers and non-readers), but then again there are a lot of Kindles in use.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

I read on my IPad-using a tablet pillow stand. It's made to hold a kindle/ ipad etc.
Has other small pockets where I can stash my phone while I'm reading and a pen/sticky notes for when I'm looking things up.

I just lay that on my lap and put my ipad on it a read. It eliminates the weight issue and so far has been a great set up for me.

 

[Route246]

I have almost ordered Kindle readers a few times. Mostly for their extended battery life over my iPad. Every time I've concluded it wasn't worth the cost since my iPad works fine. Just need to charge it more frequently. Last time my wife mentioned her iPad, she said she had over 1,200 books downloaded onto it.

Same here but the deal killer is the performance of the Kindle vs iPad. What is your experience with the low performance of the Kindle?

 

[USGrant1962]

Same here but the deal killer is the performance of the Kindle vs iPad. What is your experience with the low performance of the Kindle?

I'm not sure what you are asking. The only "performance" on an Ereader is how fast the page turns. If you are concerned about 1/10 second versus 1/2 second, well OK.

For this use case, things like battery life and readability in all lighting conditions are more important than "performance", whatever that is.

Sure, if you already have at tablet you can save 100 bucks by sticking with your tablet that is not optimized for reading. I have multiple tablets in the house (Fire and iPad) but use my Kindle Paperwhite for reading books.

 

[ivinsfan]

I love my 2 paperwhites,they are now 10 and 5 years old...I thought my original was getting bulky and ordered a new one. Both still work..

 

[Gremlin]

Love my paper white Kindle. So much llighter than my iPad.

 

[tulak]

I used to read on my iPad - and iPhone - but after many, many years I started to find it tiring. I looked into e-readers and ended up getting a Kobo Clara 2E, which is similar to a Paperwhite. I've enjoyed reading on the device more than the iPad and I appreciate that it's a separate device, since that keeps me from doing other things besides reading.

 

[ivinsfan]

Same here but the deal killer is the performance of the Kindle vs iPad. What is your experience with the low performance of the Kindle?

What do you mean by low performance..?it's just an ereader... I read mine before going to sleep and paperwhite is not muchof a blue light source which I appreciate.

 

[Trailwalker]

I'm a fan of my paperwhite. I use it mainly for ebooks checked out from my library system/Libby.

 

[Qs Laptop]

What do you mean by low performance..?it's just an ereader... I read mine before going to sleep and paperwhite is not muchof a blue light source which I appreciate.

Must be that 4-5 week battery life. Or the ease of reading in direct sunlight. Or the lightweight, easy to handle feature. Or the seamless downloading of books from Amazon to your Kindle.

Oh, wait...

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Has anyone tried the scribe version that lets you take written notes on it? I’m thinking of getting one.

 

[USGrant1962]

Must be that 4-5 week battery life. Or the ease of reading in direct sunlight. Or the lightweight, easy to handle feature. Or the seamless downloading of books from Amazon to your Kindle.

Oh, wait...

It just struck me that Route246 is probably confusing the Kindles with the Fire Tablets. Fire tablets do have worse performance than iPads, but at a fraction of the price.

 

[braumeister]

So, how does the Paperwhite compare with the Oasis? Any features or differences that you really appreciate or miss?

It's interesting. The Paperwhite's screen is slightly smaller than the Oasis, but not enough to be a problem. They're both 300 ppi resolution. It's also slightly heavier (19 grams, or ⅔ of an ounce) which is also not a problem.

On the positive side, it has a USB-C charging inlet, instead of the old mini-USB which I hated. One less cord to carry when traveling.

Functionally, it seems about the same, except that it lacks the page-turning buttons of the Oasis, but that just makes the interface the same as on an iPad.

Kindles have gotten much better over the years, but they could still be improved, I think.

 

[oldphd]

Kindle Oasis owner here, both DW and I are on our 2nd ones (wifi only, no cellular), the first kind we had we wore out the batteries and that version wasn't designed to be replaceable. Not sure of the version, but it was the detachable cover with some battery in the unit and some in the cover. There was an after market battery option, but I felt it was easier, though not cheaper, to just upgrade to a newer model.

I always had trouble with the Wifi on the kindle when on the road and trying to connect through a hotel system with a two stage type login. My solution was to turn on my iPhone hotspot and connect through that. That way I'm using a consistent Wifi and the password is already there.

It would be a relatively easy way to try an alternate wifi to see if that might help.

 

[braumeister]

It would be a relatively easy way to try an alternate wifi to see if that might help.

Thanks, but one of the reasons I think the wifi radio in my Oasis was bad is that after several more tries (complete resets, everything else, with entering the wifi password over again each time), it finally connected and then lost the connection in about five seconds. So no more trying; it's a dead duck.

I'm happy with the new Paperwhite I got so no more problem.