Amazon’s Thinner Kindle Colorsoft Brings Color E-Ink at a Steep Price
Amazon's redesigned Kindle Colorsoft is thinner, lighter and edge-to-edge, but at $289.99 and up, reviewers say it is far from a must-have upgrade.
Amazon’s second-generation Kindle Colorsoft, the company’s color-screen e-reader, is lighter and thinner than the original and now has an edge-to-edge display, but it costs significantly more than the rest of the Kindle lineup. Early reviews say it is a solid choice for readers who want color, though owners of the first model have little reason to upgrade. The device starts at $289.99, and a Signature Edition costs $319.99, according to Amazon.
What Amazon is selling
Amazon announced the redesigned Colorsoft on Oct. 1 alongside new versions of its basic Kindle and its mid-range Kindle Paperwhite. The base Colorsoft has 16GB of storage and comes in a dark gray finish Amazon calls Graphite. The Signature Edition doubles storage to 32GB and adds an aluminum housing, a front light that adjusts automatically, double-tap page turns and charging through a dock that connects with pogo pins, small spring-loaded metal contacts. It comes in Graphite or a new maroon-like color called Fig.
The 7-inch screen uses E Ink, the low-power, paper-like display technology found in most e-readers. TechCrunch reported that it shows black-and-white text at 300 pixels per inch and color content at 150 pixels per inch. Amazon said in its announcement that the display uses a light guide with nitride LEDs and an oxide backplane to produce “paper-like color” without the glare of a tablet.
Every new Kindle now has a flush front, meaning the screen sits level with the edges instead of behind a raised border. Kevin Keith, Amazon’s vice president of devices, said the team rebuilt the device family from scratch, starting with a “reverse stack” display construction that Amazon calls a first for e-readers, Thurrott reported. Keith said the change makes the devices thinner and easier to carry.
How it performs
In a hands-on review, TechCrunch’s Aisha Malik found the new Colorsoft more comfortable to hold than earlier Kindles. Amazon moved the power button from the bottom edge to the top-right edge, and the device is waterproof. Colors look muted and less vibrant than on an iPad, she wrote, but they are a clear step up from black-and-white Kindles for book covers, comics and illustrated content. She reported no noticeable ghosting, the faint leftover images that E Ink screens can show after a page turns.
Battery life is one trade-off. TechCrunch said the Colorsoft lasts up to eight weeks per charge, compared with up to 12 weeks for the new Paperwhite, a figure Amazon also lists for that model. Amazon’s announcement did not state the Colorsoft’s weight or exact thickness.
Why the price matters
The Colorsoft sits at the top of Amazon’s reading-only lineup. According to Amazon, the new 6-inch Kindle starts at $149.99 and the Paperwhite at $199.99, so the base Colorsoft costs about $90 more than a Paperwhite. TechCrunch called the price the device’s biggest drawback for a gadget built only for reading. It concluded that the Colorsoft makes sense for people who specifically want a color screen, while many readers would be better served by the cheaper models.
Amazon is also selling new accessories, according to its announcement and Thurrott:
- Kindle Click, a $34.99 Bluetooth remote for turning pages that works with Kindles from 2024 or later
- A $79.99 magnetic cover with physical page-turn buttons for the Signature Editions
- A $59.99 dock that holds the Signature models upright while they charge
What comes next
Amazon said Colorsoft preorders are opening on a rolling basis in the same regions as the Paperwhite, and a children’s version, the Amazon Kids Kindle Colorsoft, is available to preorder in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. The children’s models come with 12 months of Amazon Kids+, the company’s subscription service for children’s content.
