EReader for Academic Use: Kindle Oasis Good or Bad? + Concerns

[TheHustler5950X]

Hi everyone! Hope everyone's doing fantastic

This is my very first thread on Mobileread.com! yay!
I am Student in India and as school is starting soon, I need a good e-reader for my PDFs and notes. My school only allows basic devices to school, so no iPads or Tablets, which is why i am looking for a eReader, which our school is fine with !!

In India, there aren't too many choices for e-readers. I've looked at Kobo (Libra 2, Nia, Clara 2E), Kindle (Oasis, Paperwhite), and ReMarkable 2, they are the only eReaders at the time which are retailing in India. After checking them out, I decided to go with the Kindle Oasis (10th Gen).

I have got a deal for the 32GB(Refurbished) for INR 12,000 (USD 143)
seeing the Amazon reviews and feedback from a friend working at Amazon, Certified refurbished items are apprently reliable.

Now, I need your help with a few things about the Kindle Oasis:

1. Battery Life: I have read about the Notorious Battery performance of the Kindle, Ill be using it for least 4 to 6 hours a day, Even longer during exam season. I dont mind charging it like once in a day or twice as long it can go 12 - 15 hours (while out at school).

What have your experiences with battery usage been like ?

What actually worries me is that people have shared about their Oasis going "Dead" after only a year of use, either cuz the battery has gone beyond okay, or cuz it got stuck in a Boot Loop of death.

Is that a common thing? or smth wrong with thier Oasis? If that is the case, i should be better off buying a new one right? -- Brand new Oasis costs INR 28,000 (USD 335) and Libra 2 at INR 19,999 (USD 239)

2.Screen Issues: I've heard some people talk about with the ghosting seen on the device. Is that a big issue? I'm worried it might be hard to read long PDFs and notes if the screen isn't good.

I am okay with using a high refresh rate but that would drain the battery quicker, wouldn't it?

3.PDFs: Since a lot of my school stuff is in PDFs and like handwritten notes (written by a stylus), I want to know if the Kindle Oasis works well with them. Does it show them nicely, or are there any problems?

I am a power user and have PCs available most of the time it's alright if i'll have to use something like Calibre.

> Subquestion to 3: While looking around, i came across KOReader and the whole "Jailbreaking" process you need to do in Kindles(which is easier in the Kobos), I didnt entirely get that part? could you guys maybe give an explanation to that and is it worth it and How does KOReader actually work?

Anything Else? If there's anything else I should know about the Kindle Oasis before I decide, please tell me! Whether it's easy to hold, if I can take notes, or anything else, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks a lot for helping me out! 📚✨

[Quoth]

The reMarkable is really a PDF viewer and very limited storage and awkward communication. Any other 10" approx eink is better.

The Oasis 1 is 6". The Oasis 2 and 3 are 7", which is too small for PDFs. I had an Oasis 2 and it's worse than the Libra 2 (which I have) for PDFs. It's too small for PDFs. The 8" Sage is usable for some PDFs and has more pixels than all 10" approx eink except the Kindle Scribe.

The Kobos do now have per PDF crop and page turn.

You can't really change the refresh rate on eink. All are reasonably ghost free when normal reading. Annotation or page flipping may ghost on eink.

No jailbreak needed on Kobo. KOReader simply installs. You may be unable to jailbreak a Kindle.

[Sirtel]

The Oasis is too small for PDFs. You'd need something with a 9-10" screen, IMO. You can't take notes on it.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You can't really change the refresh rate on eink. All are reasonably ghost free when normal reading. Annotation or page flipping may ghost on eink.

Eh? You can choose to do a full refresh every page, every few pages, every chapter and so on. Not that it helps much with the main issue here, 7" being too small for an average PDF.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Eh? You can choose to do a full refresh every page, every few pages, every chapter and so on. Not that it helps much with the main issue here, 7" being too small for an average PDF.

I know that. I meant you can't change the speed of refresh on most ereaders. Maybe some of the Boox have a more hungry mode.

On the regular readers with "regal" (All since first Carta after Pearl), there is the full refresh with a black flash and a less obtrusive refresh. I doubt that makes much difference to battery compared with waking and turning the page at all.

[Aleron Ives]

Boox devices have several refresh modes that progressively increase the screen performance at the cost of greatly reduced image fidelity and increased ghosting. Devices with BSR perform better, but the BSR GPU eats away at your battery almost as fast as an LCD tablet would.

[TheHustler5950X]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The reMarkable is really a PDF viewer and very limited storage and awkward communication. Any other 10" approx eink is better.

The Oasis 1 is 6". The Oasis 2 and 3 are 7", which is too small for PDFs. I had an Oasis 2 and it's worse than the Libra 2 (which I have) for PDFs. It's too small for PDFs. The 8" Sage is usable for some PDFs and has more pixels than all 10" approx eink except the Kindle Scribe.

The Kobos do now have per PDF crop and page turn.

You can't really change the refresh rate on eink. All are reasonably ghost free when normal reading. Annotation or page flipping may ghost on eink.

No jailbreak needed on Kobo. KOReader simply installs. You may be unable to jailbreak a Kindle.

Alright thank you for your answer!, i do have my eyes on the Oasis 3, the Kobo Sage and Kindle Scribe arent available in my contry

[TheHustler5950X]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The Oasis is too small for PDFs. You'd need something with a 9-10" screen, IMO. You can't take notes on it.

Yeah..., got your point. At this moment the Oasis 3 (7inch) is the ereader with the largest screen, i think ill probably have to stick with it, only 10 inch reader is the ReMarkable 2 which is insanely priced.

I have changed my mind and go ahead with physical note taking, and probably use my kindle to read all my study material.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by TheHustler5950X

Yeah..., got your point. At this moment the Oasis 3 (7inch) is the ereader with the largest screen, i think ill probably have to stick with it, only 10 inch reader is the ReMarkable 2 which is insanely priced.

I have changed my mind and go ahead with physical note taking, and probably use my kindle to read all my study material.

There are various 7.8″ and 8″ eink ereaders, but not by Amazon.
Also many 10.3″ ereaders, and reMarkable is one of the worst, but I agree it's over priced.
Only the 10″+ Amazon Scribe is 300 dpi. The others are all about 227 dpi, using the same panel as the reMarkable. The Kobo Sage 8″ is 300 dpi and takes notes, also with PDF crop built in. The Sage has more pixels than all the 10″ models except the Scribe, but they are smaller (300 dpi vs 227 dpi).

[JSWolf]

eBooks.com airlines also works perfectly well.