Amazon Kindle Colorsoft evaluation: shade isn’t fairly sufficient of an improve

4 years after the first shade e-readers launched, Amazon has lastly launched a Kindle with a shade display.

The $279.99 Kindle Colorsoft options the identical shade E Ink expertise utilized in e-readers just like the Kobo Libra Color however custom-made with a brand new show stack, brighter LEDs, and particular coatings. Colours seem extra saturated and a bit of extra vibrant on the Colorsoft’s seven-inch display than they do on the Libra Color, whereas display refreshes are sooner and distinction is notably higher, making black traces and borders in comics look darker than they do on different shade e-readers. The upgrades additionally make searching Amazon’s retailer extra partaking, with ebook covers that higher seize your consideration.

Regardless of a difficulty with display discoloration affecting some gadgets, the Kindle Colorsoft has the most effective shade display of any e-reader I’ve examined. However its value has me wishing for extra upgrades, like a bigger display and stylus assist. The colour display doesn’t add sufficient to the Kindle expertise by itself to justify the additional price.

If you’re studying in black and white, web page turns nonetheless really feel instantaneous, like they do on my Eleventh-gen Kindle Paperwhite Signature Version. They’re a bit of slower when displaying bigger shade pictures like comics, because the Colorsoft performs a full-screen refresh each time you flip the web page to maximise picture high quality. (Amazon says a full refresh solely occurs with “pictures above a sure dimension,” however it occurs even on pages with smaller shade pictures.) The Colorsoft’s refresh feels a bit sooner than different shade e-readers, although, and isn’t actually a distraction. It’s additionally a lot sooner than the Outstanding Paper Professional, which makes use of a special shade E Ink show expertise.

The Colorsoft’s pace enhancements are most obvious with regards to zooming and panning a web page, comparable to enlarging a panel or textual content in a comic book. The e-reader briefly switches to a lower-quality picture when you’re shifting across the web page, earlier than re-rendering every thing at top quality once you’re carried out. It’s a trick all e-readers use, and the Colorsoft does it extra responsively than different shade choices. It’s nonetheless a small step behind the efficiency of black-and-white e-readers and nowhere close to as quick and fluid as a pill with an LCD or OLED display, however the Colorsoft by no means feels prefer it’s struggling to maintain up.

Highlighting passages additionally advantages from the brand new shade capabilities. The Colorsoft allows you to select between 4 totally different spotlight colours — pink, yellow, blue, and orange — and filter them by shade. However Amazon ought to have taken this function a step additional. There’s no option to label the highlighter colours, so it’s solely as much as you to keep in mind that you employ blue to avoid wasting inspirational quotes, for instance. The spotlight colours are carried over to the Kindle cell app, and whereas highlighted passages are organized by shade when exported as a spreadsheet or PDF, you’ll be able to’t restrict the export to only a single shade.

On an e-reader as costly because the Colorsoft, I might have additionally preferred the choice to focus on with a stylus like you’ll be able to on the Kindle Scribe, as a substitute of getting to faucet on the display, look ahead to on-screen controls to pop up, after which drag the spotlight field over the textual content. The dearth of stylus assist makes the Colorsoft really feel a step behind the extra inexpensive Kobo Libra Color.

One factor I didn’t count on to understand concerning the Colorsoft’s display is the lack of customization. Rivals like Boox provide you with intensive management over refresh modes, brightness, vividness, and distinction. I discover it overwhelming and far desire Amazon already optimizing the Colorsoft’s display for me.

The one possibility obtainable on the Colorsoft is switching between customary and vivid shade modes — the latter of which boosts the depth of colours in less-saturated imagery. The distinction between the 2 is adequately subtle that I have a tendency to go away vivid mode on on a regular basis, however I did discover the impact whereas studying the primary quantity of Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s Final Spider-Man: Married with Kids. The pink in Spider-Man’s swimsuit had extra visible affect in vivid mode, whereas the Inexperienced Goblin’s armor regarded extra grey than inexperienced in customary. I simply want Amazon hadn’t buried the choices in a menu that blocks a big portion of the show, making it arduous to do a fast before-and-after visible comparability.

Though Amazon’s upgrades genuinely enhance the Colorsoft’s display, they don’t clear up all the issues with E Ink’s Kaleido expertise. It’s nonetheless restricted to 4,096 colours, which leaves shade content material trying desaturated and flat in comparison with gadgets with LCD and OLED screens, which might show thousands and thousands of colours. If the iPad is like flipping by way of the shiny, vibrant pictures in a print copy of Nationwide Geographic, the Colorsoft is extra just like the washed-out shade pictures on the entrance web page of a newspaper.

Textual content and black-and-white imagery are displayed at 300ppi on the Colorsoft, however that decision is halved in shade mode. I had no problem studying Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, however the wonderful print in speech bubbles in Spider-Man and Marvel’s Fortnite x Marvel: Zero Warfare crossover was tough to learn with out continuously zooming in and panning round. Coloration E Ink screens normally even have barely much less distinction than black-and-white shows on account of the additional RGB filter layer that Kaleido depends on to show shade. With display lighting turned off, the Colorsoft’s show seems to be a bit darker than a black-and-white e-reader just like the Kobo Clara BW or the Paperwhite. The distinction is delicate, although, and straightforward to compensate for by maintaining the Colorsoft’s gentle on, even open air.

Shortly after the Kindle Colorsoft began delivery, some customers reported seeing a yellow discolored strip throughout the underside of the e-reader’s show. My evaluation unit additionally reveals the problem, however to a lesser diploma than others are seeing, based mostly on pictures shared on Reddit. The discoloration on the Colorsoft I examined is so delicate that I’m undecided I might have seen it had others not talked about it. My iPhone’s digicam picks it up higher than my eyes do.

It’s nonetheless not clear what’s inflicting the issue — some speculate it’s an problem with an adhesive used to fabricate the display — however Amazon has acknowledged it and says it’s working to repair the problem and to make sure that new gadgets received’t have the discoloration. The corporate can also be providing refunds or replacements to those that have an affected Colorsoft, however Amazon’s product web page reveals an anticipated delay of three to 5 weeks. I like to recommend ready till Amazon confirms it has mounted the problem before you purchase one your self.

Amazon claims the Kindle Colorsoft can be utilized for round eight weeks on a cost (4 fewer than it claims for the Twelfth-gen Paperwhite), however that’s when studying for simply half-hour a day with the display brightness set to only above half and wi-fi options disabled. In actuality, you’re going to be charging it extra ceaselessly than that. I discover the colours on an e-reader’s show to be extra pronounced with a brighter display, so in my testing, I had the Colorsoft’s display lighting set to 75 p.c. After an hour of studying a comic book requiring full-screen refreshes with each web page flip, the battery misplaced 5 p.c of its cost. I estimate I’d get about three weeks out of the Colorsoft’s battery between expenses — longer with a mixture of shade and black-and-white content material.

As with the most recent Paperwhite Signature Version, the Colorsoft contains wi-fi charging along with its USB-C port. However with out magnets, correctly aligning a wi-fi charging puck is irritating and never well worth the effort. You’ll solely be charging it about as soon as a month, so plugging it in for just a few hours isn’t an enormous inconvenience.

There are quite a lot of shade e-readers now, however when it comes to availability, person expertise, and display dimension, the Colorsoft’s main competitors is the Kobo Libra Color.

With out lighting changes, the Colorsoft’s display seems to be cooler and extra impartial than the Libra Color’s, which skews barely heat. However the distinction is negligible when you flip up the Colorsoft’s heat slider and the Libra Color’s pure gentle slider. The Colorsoft’s improved distinction additionally offers its display a darker general tone, with colours that look extra pure and vivid. On the Libra Color, imagery is hotter and brighter, which reveals extra particulars in darker areas of a picture. I desire the Colorsoft’s vibrancy and concentrate on shade accuracy, however I wouldn’t describe the Libra Color’s method as inferior. It’s a matter of desire.

The Kindle Colorsoft additionally feels barely sooner than the Libra Color when turning pages, however the distinction is usually negligible until you’re zooming and panning pictures. The Kindle feels extra aware of finger gestures and only a bit snappier when switching between the low- and high-quality variations of the pictures.

Whereas sideloaded content material seems to be pretty much as good on the Colorsoft as content material bought from Amazon, I needed to depend on Amazon’s on-line Ship to Kindle service to protect the colour content material of PDFs. Copying them to the e-reader from a MacBook Professional over USB-C (by way of the Android File Switch app or Amazon’s not too long ago up to date app) resulted within the PDFs displaying up on the Colorsoft in black and white, and others have skilled the identical. I didn’t have that problem when sideloading to the Kobo Libra Color, so if you happen to don’t supply your ebooks from Amazon, you’ll have to be taught to reside with just a few additional steps to get them on the e-reader correctly.

General, I believe the Colorsoft’s display is healthier than Kobo’s, however there are another features of the Libra Color’s design that I desire. Amazon’s focus after discontinuing the Kindle Oasis could also be “touch-forward,” however mine isn’t. I’m nonetheless an enormous fan of bodily web page flip buttons, and I desire the asymmetrical design of the Libra Color, with its bigger grip that makes it a lot simpler to carry in a single hand. On multiple event, I’ve by chance triggered a web page activate the Kindle Colorsoft when adjusting my grip. I additionally discover the Libra Color’s sleep / energy button, which is positioned on the again of the e-reader, more durable to hit by mistake. The Colorsoft’s button is positioned on its backside edge subsequent to the USB-C port, and I’ve unintentionally woken it up just a few instances whereas making an attempt to plug in a charging cable with out trying.

And whereas the again of the Colorsoft has a easy, barely rubbery end, I really feel like I’ve a greater grip on the Libra Color, due to the etched texture on its rear panel.

If you need a compact shade e-reader with entry to a strong book retailer that can make comedian books and manga look good with out requiring a deep dive into display settings, the Kindle Colorsoft has the most effective shade E Ink display you may get. It’s additionally the perfect possibility if you happen to’re firmly entrenched in Amazon’s ecosystem.

In the event you’re not as involved with shade accuracy or don’t wish to be caught in Amazon’s world, the Kobo Libra Color is a less expensive different at $219.99 that also seems to be good and performs very properly. It skips options like wi-fi charging however offers you the choice of utilizing a stylus ($69.99) for simpler highlights and fundamental note-taking, and it has web page flip buttons. Amazon’s bookstore is extra complete than Kobo’s, however I discovered it a lot simpler to sideload content material from different sources onto the Libra Color, together with ePUB information and shade PDFs, which confirmed up with precise shade when copied over utilizing USB-C.

As for whether or not that is the suitable Kindle to purchase: the Colorsoft is principally the wonderful Kindle Paperwhite Signature Version with a shade display, however for $80 greater than the Signature Version and $120 greater than the usual Paperwhite. That’s quite a bit to spend on a shade display. Including options like stylus assist, fundamental note-taking capabilities, or perhaps a barely bigger display to raised accommodate content material like comedian books — , like a Kindle Scribe — would have made the Colorsoft simpler to justify.

Whereas I’m glad to see that Amazon tried to enhance the present technology of shade E Ink expertise, it’s nonetheless a bit disappointing, with washed-out colours and decrease resolutions. In the event you’re already a contented Kindle person, think about the Twelfth-gen Paperwhite as a substitute. A shade display simply isn’t vital improve.

Pictures by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge