July 25 2016: Amazon has veered in just 3 months from its costliest e-book reader to its cheapest. While the  Kindle Oasis, we reviewed here in April, set you back some Rs 24,000,  the  new Kindle, in the same 6-inch screen size,  costs  Rs 5999, weighs  slightly more at 161 grams, offers the same   modest  storage -- 4 GB -- accesses the same online book store of some  3 million titles,  with half a lakh of them priced  from Rs 100 to Rs 300.
So what are you missing for the asking price  that is one fourth of the Oasis?  Only  one feature as far as I can see -- the  built-in light of the Oasis that leads you read in the dark.   Canny Indians with a keen sense of paisa vasool will buy the new cheaper Kindle and add a clip on LED light for a couple of hundred rupees.
Don't be misled by Kindle   calling itself a 6 -inch reader  into comparing it with a 6 inch phone: The actual size if you go by the diagonal,  which is how phones and TVs rate themselves , is more than 7 inches.  I like the size that Kindle has standardised on -- it feels like a paperback book  and I can easily hold it in one hand, reading in bed
This is a WiFi  model but I notice Kindle still buries its browser deep among its settings and  tends to nudge you towards its own bookshop. In fact you can't even begin to use the device till you signed up for an Amazon account -- your online shopping ID will do.
Kindle's other reader-friendly,  font-adjusting, page-turning features are all here  and as a product, I would rate this new model as the most compellingly priced Kindle   in  its first decade.
 Anand Parthasarathy