Kindle Colorsoft Review: Color is a Treat, Price is Tricky

The Kindle ColorsoftAmazon’s first-ever color E-Ink e-reader costs $280 (£270 or about AU$530), making it an expensive proposition. The big question now that Amazon is releasing two other capable new e-readers, the Entry level Kindle ($110, £95, AU$199) and new kindle paperwhite ($160, £160), How much does color change the Kindle reading experience, and is it really worth making the leap to color? The answer ultimately depends on how you use your Kindle.

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I say that because I consider the Colorsoft to be the new Kindle Oasis. By that I mean that the Colorsoft is the new luxury Kindle. Certainly, there is some appeal to people who read a lot of e-comics or consume content with color images and graphics. But in reality, the Colorsoft is aimed at the same audience that bought the now-discontinued Oasis, which had a similarly high price tag when it first came out.

Kindle Colorsoft design

The Colorsoft and the new Paperwhite share the same chassis and weigh almost the same: the Paperwhite is 215 grams, while the Colorsoft is 219 grams. And they are both completely waterproof with an IPX8 rating, meaning they can stay completely submerged and survive.

They also both have a 7-inch screen. While the Paperwhite has a 300 ppi monochrome display, the Colorsoft features an E Ink Kaledio color filter, which Amazon says is built into a custom display stack. The new Paperwhite also has a custom display stack.

Amazon talks about how the Colorsoft and the new Paperweight have a smaller bezel around the screen than the previous Paperwhite. It also says that the Paperwhite (2024) and Colorsoft are slightly slimmer devices. That’s true, but it’s not like Amazon took the previous Kindle chassis and slimmed it down and reduced the bezels around the entire screen to accommodate a 7-inch screen (compared to the 6.8- inch screen on the 2021 Paperwhite). The edge of the new Paperwhite and new Colorsoft has only been shortened at the bottom. The sides and top have the same size frame around the screen and the dimensions of the new devices are actually slightly larger, so neither of them fit in my old case for the Paperwhite 2021.

Half the resolution for color

The resolution is halved for color elements on the Colorsoft. The color resolution is only 150 ppi for color, while for black and white it is 300 ppi. Although 150 ppi lacks some sharpness, it’s still nice to see e-book covers in color, and color makes comic books, graphic novels, and images come more to life. Some people will appreciate that you can also highlight text in different colors, as you would with real highlighters.

If you read standard black and white text, I didn’t notice a difference between the Colorsoft and the new Paperwhite, which has slightly better contrast than its predecessor and turns pages faster – 25% faster, according to Amazon, although it’s hard to measure because we talking about fractions of a second. You get the same performance benefits with the Colorsoft, but the battery life is eight weeks. You get 12 weeks of battery life for the Paperwhite.

Like the Oasis, the Colorsoft is aimed at Kindle power users who consider their Kindles as essential devices alongside their smartphones. It doesn’t have the physical page-turn buttons that the Oasis had (those buttons were a major selling point for some people). It also doesn’t have a fancy aluminum chassis. But it does have a color screen, which gives it a more premium look than the Paperwhite.

Unlike the Paperwhite, which comes in a standard version and a Signature Edition, the Colorsoft only comes in a Signature Edition. As with the step-up version of the Paperwhite, the Colorsoft Signature Edition has 32 GB of storage space instead of 16 GB. There’s also wireless charging and an auto-adjusting light sensor on the front, which sets the built-in lamp to a brightness setting based on your environment.

As I mentioned in an earlier article, I’m not entirely sure why Amazon chose the name Colorsoft. The color may appear a bit soft and muted compared to a tablet with an LCD or AMOLED screen. Those screens offer much richer colors and much faster performance.

Kindle Colorsoft compared to Kobo’s Libra Color e-reader

When I first tried Colorsoft at Amazon’s launch event for all new 2024 Kindles, including the second-generation Kindle Scribe, which ships in December, I thought Colorsoft’s color display looked slightly better than the displays on Kobo’s e-readers in color E-inkthat cost less and use E Ink Kaleido 3 displays. I also thought the Colorsoft performed slightly better. But I wasn’t sure because I didn’t have the Kobos on hand to do a real A/B comparison.

Well, it turns out my first impression was correct. The Colorsoft has slightly better contrast and the color looks slightly more saturated, making it more noticeable.

Amazon says the Colorsoft uses the same oxide backplane with custom waveforms as the new Paperwhite. And that custom display contains a new light guide with nitride LEDs. Combined with custom algorithms, this improves color and increases brightness.

Although these E Ink displays are inherently slower than LCD technology, you can pinch and zoom to get a closer look at images and text. I downloaded some e-comics and compared the pinch-and-zoom functionality between the Colorsoft and Kobo Libra colorwhich also has a 7-inch screen. I thought the Colorsoft performed smoother overall.

To be clear, the differences in display and performance between the Colorsoft and the Kobo Libra Color are small, but they are noticeable if you look closely.

The Libra Color is cheaper – it costs $220 – and is slightly larger. But it has those physical page-turn buttons that some people love, and it’s compatible Kobo’s Stylus 2which allows you to take and save notes. However, the Stylus 2 is a $70 accessory.

Amazon hasn’t said anything about whether its new Premium Pen for the Scribe will work with the Colorsoft. As far as I know the Colorsoft will never have stylus support. But it would be nice if it did happen.

Like some people, I’m annoyed that Amazon continues to put its power button on the bottom of the device, rather than the top. Kobo e-readers have the power buttons embedded on the back of the device, which is preferable to the button on the bottom of the device.

Kindle Colorsoft final thoughts

When it comes down to it, you either bought Amazon’s e-book ecosystem – it’s the largest ecosystem out there and includes some free content for Amazon Prime members – or you didn’t.

In addition to the Kobo, there are several other color e-readers that are based on E Ink’s Kaleido or Gallery color displays. Some of them run on Android. I know people who like that The color models from Boox and I have seen some positive comments about the PocketBook ink pad color 3 ($300). Then there are the larger and much more expensive high-end E Ink tablets, such as the remarkable Paper Pro ($750), which is more note-taking devices than e-readers.

Check this out: Kindle Colorsoft Review: Amazon’s New Luxury E-Reader

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And yes, a larger color tablet, whatever display technology it uses, seems better suited to reading comic books and graphic novels. That said, I think Amazon has done a good job creating an attractive first-generation E Ink color e-reader that seems to make the most of existing E Ink color technology.

While the Colorsoft is a bit overpriced at $280, I felt the same way about the Oasis when it first came out. That model eventually went on sale, as all Kindles eventually do, and you can trade in your old Kindle to get 20% off most new Kindle models.

It’s safe to say that the new and improved Kindle Paperwhite or the entry-level Kindle are better options for most people. But if you’re a Kindle enthusiast and want something completely different from the previous 7-inch Kindles, the Colorsoft is the way to go. I definitely preferred it to the Paperwhite.