Amazon announced the Kindle Colorsoft in 2024, alongside a refresh of the Paperwhite and other Kindle models. I was there in the room and my first impressions of the Colorsoft were rather muted. It launched as a Signature Edition, which in Kindle speak means it has a higher capacity and wireless charging – both of which pushed the price up.
Amazon has now expanded its Colorsoft selection, introducing a 16GB Kindle Colorsoft. This, critically, loses the Signature Edition label and comes with a £239.99 price. That’s £30 cheaper than the first Colorsoft (which is 32GB and £269.99), while the rest of the package remains the same, except for that wireless charging.
Importantly, you get the same overall design and display, so the experience is going to be very much the same too, but cheaper. In a world where cash is king, a cheaper Kindle Colorsoft could convince more people to buy it.
IMAGE CREDIT: AMAZON
That’s not the end of the story, because when it comes to Amazon devices, people now know that discounts are common – and the Kindle Colorsoft has been as low as £219.99 in recent sales, but these discounts have been rare.
Why is this important? Because it suggests that the 16GB Colorsoft will dip under the £200 price when it hits the sales. Amazon could price the 32GB version cheaper than the 16GB, but it’s extremely unlikely – and dropping it to £199.99 on Black Friday in November seems like an obvious option.
I’d still choose the Kindle Paperwhite
But that takes me back to the slightly muted impressions of the Kindle Colorsoft when it launched. Colour is an interesting evolution in ebook technology, but there’s a couple of challenges that Amazon faces.
Firstly, rivals Kobo are offering colour devices much cheaper: the Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour both cost less than the Kindle – and the Libra even has buttons, and I do love buttons on an ebook reader.
Secondly, the delivery of colour pages isn’t as quick and crisp as the delivery of black and white pages. The colour E Ink technology is newer and hasn’t had the time to mature as far as the monochrome version has – and it shows when you’re using the device.
Finally – and this is subjective – I don’t read books that need colour. This is partly a format thing, because at 7 inches, I’m pretty much exclusively reading fiction and I’ve not seen a colour page in a fiction book since I was in primary school.
IMAGE CREDIT: AMAZON
The Kindle Colorsoft hasn’t really been the revolution for graphic novels that many expected, with most “comics” using a larger format that would be better suited to the Kindle Scribe. It’s hard to follow the cell-based visual narrative of a comic book on a smaller screen.
But that’s a purely personal thing: if you read a lot of biographies, guide books or other text books, you might be waiting for this cheaper Kindle Colorsoft to drop, to justify buying one.
The good news is that if you’re a parent waiting for a kids’ version, it’s finally here: the Kindle Colorsoft Kids comes with a cover, a 1-year subsciption to Amazon Kids+ and will cost you £259.99.
For me, I’m still wedded to the Kindle Paperwhite and the only thing that would change my mind would be if Kindle bought back buttons.
