Amazon has finally released a color Kindle, and it looks impressive.
For years, Kindle users have been asking Amazon for a color version of its e-reader, and now the company is finally delivering. It’s launching the new Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, which shares many features with the latest Paperwhite, but instead of a black-and-white display, it’s full color. The Colorsoft is priced at $279.99 and is available for preorder now, with shipments beginning on October 30th.
At the launch event in New York City on Tuesday, Amazon executives explained that creating the Colorsoft involved more than just replacing the display. ‘Honestly, the technology wasn’t ready until now,’ said Kevin Keith, head of Kindle products at Amazon. ‘We believe the tech is finally up to the task.’ (Competitors like Kobo and Remarkable might argue that it’s been ready for a while.)
The Colorsoft is built on E Ink’s Kaleido technology but uses a completely new display setup for Kindles, including a redesigned oxide backplane that helps the E Ink particles move faster. While the E Ink industry has been developing similar technology for some time, Amazon believes this is the breakthrough needed to make color e-readers work effectively. The Colorsoft features new LED pixels and a unique lighting system that enhances individual colors, making the display brighter and more vivid than previous models. Some of this technology also improves page-turn speed on the new Paperwhite, but it was specifically designed to optimize the Colorsoft.
According to Keith, this advanced display technology allows Amazon to add color without increasing page-turn latency, reducing resolution, or compromising contrast. ‘The things that define Kindle—high resolution, long battery life, fast page turns, smooth performance—we weren’t willing to sacrifice those,’ Keith explains. The goal was to offer a color display that looks just as good as the Paperwhite does in black and white, and he’s confident that Amazon achieved that.
During a brief demo at the launch event, I was impressed by the Colorsoft’s display. It’s not on par with an iPad screen, but it’s sharp and bright enough to make comics stand out, without being overly saturated. The main downside is that when there’s a color image on the page, the device does a full refresh every time you turn the page. Keith mentioned this only happens with larger images, but in my experience, it occurred even with smaller ones. Still, the images looked great—while not iPad-quality, they were definitely sharper and brighter than other color E Ink displays, like those on the Kobo Clara Colour.
Best of all, page turns are fast, and books open quickly — if there’s any difference in speed compared to the new Paperwhite, I didn’t really notice it. The 300ppi screen looks just as sharp as other Kindles when reading regular books. You can pinch to zoom on most images, and while the image zooms smoothly, it does pixelate until it refreshes after a moment. We’ll need more testing, though, and I do worry that all the screen flashing might get annoying when navigating through a long graphic novel.
The biggest advantage of the color screen so far is how it enhances the overall interface. Browsing your home screen and library feels better now that you can see book covers in full color. It also makes the lock screen more visually appealing, providing a vibrant standby screen when it’s sitting on your bedside table. (Keith believes that aesthetically driven BookTok users will love the color display.) The only truly color-specific feature right now is that you can highlight text in multiple colors and later filter by color in the Kindle app on your phone.
For more traditional readers, the Colorsoft is essentially a more expensive Kindle Paperwhite with one cool new feature. But don’t be surprised if this color technology eventually finds its way into other Kindle models. Amazon took its time adding color, wanting to perfect it before offering it to customers. Now that they feel they’ve nailed it, it’s likely we’ll see this tech across the entire Kindle lineup in the future.