I really love looking at the colorful art on the covers of books, which is in part why my physical library is shelved by color and why I belong to book subscriptions like Illumicrate and Owlcrate–so I can get those beautiful special editions.
I read mostly on my Kindle Oasis, but I definitely love the look of physical books. When the new Kindle Colorsoft came out, I thought that maybe this would reduce my need to buy physical books as well as digital–since I’d have those color covers I crave on my device.
My verdict on the device? It’s not worth the hefty $279 price tag.
I won’t be returning mine and I am happy to have a color e-reader, but it definitely feels like it was rushed to market, possibly for the holidays?
First of all, I can’t read on a “shiny” tablet due to the glare and just general eye strain which is why I’ve always preferred an e-ink product. I love my Oasis and it’s side buttons for turning pages, but it’s not being supported by Amazon any longer.
Kobo also has Kobo Libra Colour ($220), but I felt like somehow transferring my library of Amazon-bought books and arcs would be a lot of work I didn’t want to do.
When the Colorsoft was released I pre-ordered it for my birthday. At first I was delighted with the novelty of having my library in color. This new Kindle is also 7″ which is slightly bigger than the most recent Paperwhite generation, or a full inch larger than the Paperwhite generation before it. It’s lightweight and easy to hold.
It arrived on a Friday after work and it was a windy, rainy night: perfect for some reading. The above picture shows how the colors look when in a room with artificial lighting.
My initial delight wore off as the rest of the weekend went by and I started to find more flaws in my device.
The new device has issues with yellows and oranges coming out muddy, and it’s especially bad when paired with pinks. Below are two examples.
I took both of these pictures in natural light. In general, yellow seems to have a brownish hue.
Being able to highlight in different colors was appealing, but the yellow here looks like baby poop brown to me.
The Colorsoft definitely captures blues and greens much better, but when mixed with browns, golds or yellows, it looks toned down again.
There are two color settings: Standard and Vivid. I’ve been keeping mine set to Vivid.
The Vivid setting seems to pop the orange more, which helps some of the color issues but not all.
Some readers also reported that there is a yellowish haze at the very bottom of the white reading screen. However, Amazon has said they are doing a software update to correct that.
The only comics I had to show you were Hellboy, which tends to be pretty muted in color anyway, but here you go:
Overall, I would wait to buy this product unless having color is something extremely important to you on an e-ink device. I suspect future generations of this product will come out with the yellow/orange issue improved.
Other than the color aspect and the slightly larger size, there’s no real difference between it and the Paperwhite. It’s still a great e-reader, but the color functionality isn’t quite there and therefore, IMHO, not worth another $120.
I’m willing to bet this was rushed to market for the holiday and possibly also to keep up with the surge of paper purchases for bookstagramming purposes. We’ll see if a software update helps some of the issues or if a newer, improved model comes out in a year.
Ed. note: As of November 4, 2024, Amazon has allegedly stopped or delayed shipments of the Colorsoft due to the display issues.
Tom’s Guide has a statement from Amazon, but shipping/delivery dates are still not clear.
