Finally, Amazon brings some colour to its eReaders in the form of the Kindle Colorsoft, letting you see more than just black and white text. The colour panel certainly adds a different element to the Kindle experience, though Amazon does it here without making any major shifts.
The Colorsoft comes in three variants: a regular version, Signature Edition, and Kids model. They all look alike, making the differences more specific to add-on features that don’t really alter the overall functionality. This particular review focuses on the Signature Edition.
Watch the Kindle Colorsoft in action
Design
At first glance, the Kindle Colorsoft largely sticks to the classic Kindle aesthetic. If you were to look at it with the screen turned off, you might mistake it for a black and white Paperwhite model. The touch points also feel a lot like one, thanks to a lightweight, ergonomic body that’s easy to hold and read over longer periods. That figures since the dimensions are exactly the same as the 12th-gen Paperwhite, save for a slightly heavier body. The Colorsoft might even benefit from covers and accessories made for the Paperwhite.
The 7-inch display is flush with the bezels, making the front a smooth end-to-end surface—another homage to the Paperwhite. There are no physical page-turn buttons, leaving only the power button at the bottom as the one physical input. Then there’s the USB-C port for charging and connecting to a computer.
The back has a matte finish that’s maybe less rubberized on the Colorsoft. I didn’t find it slippery or difficult to hold, and with IPX8 protection, it’s perfectly fine to use in the pool or tub. Just remember to rinse it under the faucet and wipe dry afterward to ensure no debris sneaks in.
Adding colour for the first time
To bring colour into the Kindle Colorsoft, Amazon uses an E Ink Kaleido display, offering subtle color visuals for book covers, comics, and magazines. These aren’t the kind of vivid colours you see on phones and tablets, but rather muted hues that look a little more like watercolour. All told, this eReader supports 4,096 colours—far from the millions you’re accustomed to on a tablet. It’s not unlike how colours look on Kobo eReaders, like the Libra Colour and Clara Colour, for example.
It doesn’t transform the Kindle experience, though enhances it just enough to feel fresh. For regular books, it’s the covers that show the most colour, along with any photos, maps, charts, or other visual elements that show up inside. The bigger impact is with comic books, graphic novels, and children’s books. If you’re using this device to read to children, the colour may feel more engaging.
Under Settings, there are two colour styles: Standard and Vivid. The latter tries adding some extra pop to all shades but it doesn’t expand the colour range, so it’s more about raising saturation than anything else.
The Paperwhite holds an advantage in that text is a little sharper than it is here. While the resolution is still 300dpi, it drops down to 150dpi in colour. That goes for any content associated with colour, whereas an ebook with just text reverts to 300dpi. It’s hard to gauge at times but put it next to a Paperwhite and you will notice text is just a tad softer on the Colorsoft.
Only the Colorsoft Signature Edition offers 32GB of storage, whereas the other two max out at 16GB. It’s also the only one in the trio to have an ambient light sensor to adjust brightness based on the ambient light around you.
Reading on the Colorsoft
While a little softer, I never really felt like it was a challenge to read ebooks on the Colorsoft. Flipping pages is snappy and skipping to other portions of the book through the table of contents is pretty seamless. Same with looking up a word, person, or thing using the X-ray feature, or highlighting passages.
In fact, you can highlight passages choosing from four different colours, giving you the opportunity to separate what kind of highlights you want to make. The problem is there’s no way to reference them based on the colour you choose, so if you do it, you’re keeping track on your own. The good news is you can always bookmark those pages and see the highlights right away.
As with other Kindles that offer it, you get both cool and warm lighting for the screen that you can also schedule to change automatically or at certain times. If you want Dark mode, that’s also an option. Adding colour doesn’t affect the display’s readability in direct sunlight, so it’s still just as visible as you’d expect a Kindle to be.
I appreciate being able to read comics and graphic novels with colour, simply because it’s how they’re supposed to look. It’s just that the watercolour look is different from the rich, vibrant hues tablets offer. That stands out even more because of the costs involved, where the Colorsoft comes at a premium compared to other Kindles and affordable tablets.
Finding more content
The Kindle store still offers the most ebooks to sample, purchase, and download, while Kindle Unlimited is the buffet-style subscription service offering a fraction of the store’s library. To add more compatible content, Colorsoft models support ePUB, PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, HTM, HTML, PNG, GIF, JPG, JPEG and BMP files.
Send to Kindle works just fine here, and you’ll find it by going to Settings->Your Account->Send-to-Kindle Email. You can also plug it in directly to a PC or Mac via USB-C and drag and drop the files in.
What about audiobooks?
All three Kindle Colorsoft variants support Bluetooth, so you can listen to audiobooks from Audible. While you don’t necessarily need an Audible subscription, it’s a lot easier to listen to them on the Kindle if you do. Otherwise, you have to buy the audiobook through Audible first. That’s been my experience with other Kindles and is exactly the same on the Colorsoft.
Battery life
Amazon rates battery life at up to eight weeks based on 30 minutes of reading every day, 50% brightness, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth turned off. The colour display has no bearing on how long the battery lasts, regardless of whether you choose Standard or Vivid. So, there are no real surprises as far as how long this device can go, especially since it applies equally to all three Colorsoft variants.
The Signature Edition supports Qi2 wireless charging, and Amazon offers a special charging dock for that. You can use any Qi wireless charger provided you align the eReader on it just right. I even tried MagSafe chargers. There’s no magnet on the back of the Colorsoft, but again, the right alignment gets it to charge.
Final thoughts
Amazon finally addresses the one key thing that’s been missing for some time: colour. The Colorsoft isn’t a radical shift in any direction otherwise, so upgrading to this eReader is really all about whether you’re simply bored looking at a monochrome screen. Functionally speaking, this is a lot like a Paperwhite, only with a colour panel. It’s just a pricey proposition given it’s the only major difference in usability and performance. If the few extras in the Signature Edition aren’t appealing, the regular Colorsoft will feel more or less the same. Then there’s the Colorsoft Kids if you want to go that route.
The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft is available now in either the regular, Signature Edition, or Kids versions.
