Amazon Kindle Colorsoft is a $280 eReader with a 7 inch E Ink color display

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Amazon's first Kindle eReader with a color display is up for pre-order for $280 and set to ship on October 30, 2024.

The new Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition features a 7 inch color display that combines an E Ink Kaleido screen with Amazon's custom oxide backplane, custom coating between the display layers, and LED lights  with "micro-deflectors to minimize stray light" that Amazon says leads to sharper contrast and better image quality.

The $280 price tag makes the Kindle Colorsoft rather expensive, even by the standards of eReaders with E Ink color displays. But Amazon is clearly positioning the Kindle Colorsoft as a premium device.

In addition to its color display, the eReader has 32GB of storage, support for wireless charging, and an ambient light sensor that allows the Kindle Colorsoft to automatically adjust the front light brightness based on ambient conditions.

So while the $280 price tag makes this model $120 more expensive than a Kindle Paperwhite, it makes more sense to compare the Kindle Colorsoft with the Paperwhite Signature Edition model which is nearly identical in most respects. Since that model sells for $200, the markup for the color screen is $80.

In addition to viewing book covers, pictures, and other content in color, the new screen allows readers to mark up their eBooks by using yellow, orange, blue, or pink highlighters.

While Amazon doesn't spell out which generation of E Ink Kaleido technology it's using, The Verge attended a briefing recently and confirmed that the eReader is using Kaleido technology. The Verge also confirmed that colors do look a little better on Amazon's eReader than on some other E Ink color devices like the cheaper Kobo Clara Colour.

What Amazon does tell us is that the Kindle Colorsoft's display has a pixel density of 300 pixels per inch for black and white content, but this drops to 150 pixels per inch for color content. That means comics, magazines, picture books, or other content with color won't look quite as sharp. And The Verge notes that while Amazon touts faster page refresh rates for all of its new Kindle Paperwhite devices, you will see the screen flash to fully refresh the page when you're looking at large images (or maybe even some smaller images).

If you'd like to see what that looks like in action, YouTuber Maneetpaul Singh has a hands-on video that demonstrates that the device does a nice job of displaying color, but there are a lot of screen flashes when refreshing pages. And the Kindle Colorsoft screen does look a little less bright than the black and white screen on the cheaper black and white edition.

One down side though is that the color screen appears to be a little more power-hungry than black and white: Amazon says you can expect up to 12 weeks of battery life from the latest Kindle Paperwhite and Paperwhite Signature Edition models, but just up to 8 weeks for the Kindle Colorsoft.

Another thing to keep in mind is that E Ink Kaleido displays use a color filter applied over a black and white E Ink display. Colors generally don't appear to be as bright or vivid as those you'd see on an LCD or OLED screen. And there's a much more limited number of colors available: typically 4096 colors, rather than millions.

All told, if you primarily read black and white content like eBooks (and maybe some manga) on a Kindle, you might be better off with the cheaper Paperwhite or Paperwhite Signature Edition models. But if you'd prefer a bit of color while still maintaining the long battery life, high visibility in outdoor settings, and glare-free reading experience, Amazon's finally got something to compete with the latest color eReaders from Kobo, Onyx BOOX, PocketBook, and BigMe, just to name a few of the companies that have already launched E Ink color products.

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