Among the new Kindles that Amazon has revealed for 2024 is their first color Kindle, called the Kindle Colorsoft.
It’s basically a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition with a color E Ink screen. It shares the same overall design as the new 12th gen Paperwhite, but it appears to use a Kaleido 3 color E Ink screen (Amazon doesn’t say what the screen technology is like other companies do, but the specs imply it’s a Kaleido 3 screen).
The Kindle Colorsoft has a 7″ color E Ink screen with a resolution of 300 ppi for black and white content and 150 ppi for color content. That’s the same as the Kobo Libra Colour that was released earlier this year. In addition to viewing color content, you’ll also be able to highlight in yellow, orange, blue, and pink, and search highlights by color.
Like the Paperwhite, it has a flush front screen and a frontlight with warm temperature control, and it’s also waterproof. It has the upgrades for the Signature Edition model, so it has wireless charging, an auto-brightness sensor, no lockscreen ads, and it has 32GB of storage.
One difference with the color model is battery life is rated at up to 8 weeks instead of 12 weeks like the Paperwhite, so battery life takes a bit of a hit for color. It’s also slightly heavier than the Paperwhite for some reason, but only by a few grams.
Here are some details about the screen from the press release:
“Everything about Kindle Colorsoft was meticulously designed to deliver rich, paper-like color. It 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, enhance color and increase brightness, all without washing out details. You can zoom in on images without worrying about pixelation; and if you prefer a certain color style, you can choose between standard or vibrant.”
If you’re new to color E Ink, I’d suggest reading this post: Color E Ink: 5 Things to Know Before Buying.
The new Kindle Colorsoft is up for pre-order on Amazon. The official release date is October 30th, 2024. There’s only one color choice (metallic black) and the price is $279.99.
Kindle Colorsoft 1st Gen Specs
- 7″ Color E Ink screen (Kaleido 3 most likely).
- 300 ppi BW; 150ppi color.
- Frontlight with warm temperature control.
- 32GB internal storage.
- Waterproof: IPX8 rated: tested to withstand immersion in 2 meters of fresh water for 60 minutes.
- WiFi: Supports 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz networks.
- Bluetooth for audiobooks and VoiceView screen reader.
- USB-C port, charging cable included.
- Battery Life Estimate: up to 8 weeks.
- Wireless charging (charger sold separately).
- Auto-brightness sensor.
- No lockscreen ads.
- Supported formats: Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, DOCX, DOC, HTML, EPUB, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion; Audible audio format (AAX).
- Dimensions: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm.
- Weight: 219 grams.
- Price: $279 at Amazon
Other New Kindles List
2024 Kindle
Kindle Paperwhite 12th Gen
Kindle Scribe 2
