The Amazon Kindle Oasis looks shockingly different

With so many technology companies taking the safe route of incremental change, something utterly new can knock you back on your heels.

The Amazon Kindle Oasis e-reader, which goes on pre-order on Wednesday, is that fresh and different.

Essentially discarding the previous design in favor of a paper-thin display attached to a somewhat thicker side grip, the Oasis is as different from its e-book reader predecessor as the second generation Kindle was from Amazon's first e-reader, which was introduced in 2007.