It’s an exciting time for bookworms, especially those who prefer Kindles to physical books. Since they were first introduced by Amazon in 2007, e-books have forever transformed the reading landscape. Can’t squeeze a 400-page book into your purse? A Kindle can help with that. Trying to cram a week’s worth of reading material into a carry-on suitcase? You can bring as many books as you want with a Kindle. Want to read in the pool or bathtub? Waterproof Kindles exist for a reason. Kindles have evolved over the last 14 years, but there’s never been a color version…until now.
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Book lovers, meet Kindle Colorsoft. It’s the frontrunner of Amazon’s all-new Kindle family, which drops on Oct. 30, 2024, just in time for the holidays.
Amazon debuted Kindle Colorsoft at a launch event on Tuesday night in New York City, during which tech innovators, published authors, and book influencers had the chance to experience the color e-reader firsthand.
According to a press release, Kindle Colorsoft “uses an oxide backplane with custom waveforms for fast performance and a higher contrast on both color and black-and-white content. Its custom Colorsoft display includes a new light-guide with nitride LEDs that, when combined with our custom algorithms, enhances color and increases brightness, all without washing out details.”
Users can choose between “standard” or “vibrant” color styles for a personalized reading experience. Additionally, Amazon says bookworms will be able to zoom in on book covers and comic story images without pixelation being a problem.
Loyal Kindle customers will tell you that Colosoft has been a long time coming. In fact, some would even argue that Amazon is behind the times, as they’re one of the last companies to produce an e-reader with a color screen.
To that, Amazon’s vice president of product management and marketing said it’s been a slow-burn journey.
“Frankly, the technology just wasn’t ready and now we think the tech is ready,” explained Kevin Keith, who oversees Amazon’s Kindle department, at the launch party, per The Verge.
The Kindle Colorsoft is being reported as the more colorful version of the Kindle Paperwhite, offering all the same benefits as its black-and-white predecessor.
“All the things you think about with Kindle — high resolution, long battery life, fast page turns, good fluidity — we weren’t willing to sacrifice those,” Keith told attendees.
But what do real-life tech experts have to say about the new Kindle Colorsoft?
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At the demo event was The Verge’s editor-at-large, David Pierce, who, in his review, called Colorsoft “a more expensive Kindle Paperwhite with one neat new trick.”
“The most obvious drawback is that when there’s a color image on the page, the device does a full flashing refresh every time you turn the page,” he noted. “You can pinch to zoom on most images, and in my demos the image will zoom smoothly but pixelate until it refreshes a moment later.”
Pierce’s main concern is that “all the screen flashing might get annoying as you navigate through a long graphic novel.”
In a TikTok video, TechRadar highlighted the Kindle Colorsoft's additional benefits, including its 32G of storage and the capacity to display 4,000 colors. According to them, the new e-reader is a “hot ticket.”
The Kindle Colorsoft retails for $279.99 and is currently available for preorder, with shipments going out on Oct. 30.
Amazon
Amazon also announced three additional new Kindles: the $450 Kindle Scribe, which features in-book writing and an AI-powered notebook; the all-new $160 Kindle Paperwhite, which claims to be faster; and a new $110 entry-level Kindle, which the company says is "small enough to fit in your hand or carry in your back pocket."
