By Wilson Rothman 

The new Kindle Oasis is Amazon's thinnest e-reader ever -- and its most expensive model in years.

It still has the 6-inch screen that's been a hallmark of Kindles from the start, but surrounding that is the slightest body yet, an angular asymmetrical design meant to nestle into your hand. There are just three buttons: power and page turning forward and back. You handle everything else through the gently glowing touch screen.

The Oasis comes with an elegant leather case, and that's doubly important because it not only protects the screen, but stores the bulk of the e-reader's battery juice. Without the case, it'll run for weeks. With the case, it goes for months.

The grand total for this system starts at $290, and climbs to $380 to include 3G wireless and strip out the tacky ads that Kindles have on their lock-screens. (You can pay Amazon to remove ads on any Kindle.)

While this is the best e-reader you can buy right now, its advantages may not be of interest to price-conscious shoppers. In day-to-day usage, it's very similar to the $200 Kindle Voyage and the $120 Kindle Paperwhite, currently marked down to $100. Its mission is exactly the same: to keep you focused on books, and not distracted by emails, tweets, snaps, grams or whatever else keeps you from enjoying the printed page.

For more details and impressions, watch the video above, or check out our first look.

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2016 09:11 ET (13:11 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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