Amazon Kindle Colorsoft review: the Kindle of your dreams in color

Kindle Colorsoft Signature: One-minute review

A Kindle in color makes so much sense, it's a wonder the Kindle Colorsoft took so long to arrive. But it's finally here, and it is a decidedly Kindle take on color e-readers. If you're shopping for a new Kindle and you've considered the Colorsoft for even a moment, you should buy it. Monochrome Kindles will feel like a step backward once you've seen this screen.

I loved reading graphic novels and comics on the Kindle Colorsoft, but even having a virtual bookshelf of my Kindle collection with full color covers was a treat. I wish Amazon gave me control over which cover edition is shown, especially for books with great design work like the Southern Reach series. Maybe in the future. For now, I just enjoy scrolling through my library and leaving a book’s cover on the lock screen while I'm in progress reading.

Scrolling is actually kind of amazing on the Kindle Colorsoft, and so is zooming. On E Ink tablets, this is usually a weakness that might have been fatal for comic reading. If the Colorsoft left mottled and ghosted pages like many color E Ink competitors, I wouldn't be so enthusiastic about this device. Instead, the Kindle Colorsoft feels like the fastest, smoothest e-reader I've ever used, whether reading in color or just black and white text.

The new Kindle Colorsoft is water resistant, just like the Kindle Paperwhite, so you can read it in the bath and Amazon even builds the Kindle strong enough to take a splash of salt water, if you promise to hose it off with fresh water when you're rinsing sand.

That doesn't mean the Colorsoft has what I'd consider a premium build. It feels tough, but it feels a bit cheap for a new Kindle that costs more than a hundred more than the older Paperwhite. I can't even say this is just a Paperwhite with a color display, because the brand new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is an even nicer looking device with its metallic paint finish. It feels more premium than this.

No matter, buy a nice case (there will be plenty to choose from, I'm sure) and ignore the plastic. The Kindle Colorsoft display is all that matters, and it's a delight. It's very bright, for a Kindle, and the color looks good enough for graphic art. I wouldn't invest in photography art books for the Kindle Colorsoft, but Manga looks perfect.

If you're due for a Kindle upgrade… actually, Amazon hasn't released a new Kindle since the Kindle Scribe launched two years ago, and there hasn't been a new e-reader Kindle for even longer. So, everyone is due for an upgrade.

There are other color e-readers that offer nicer hardware, with displays that aren't quite as advanced, but you may not notice the difference. The Kobo Libra Colour is a fantastic device. I personally have more books on Kindle, but if you use Kobo or your local library through Libby, the Kobo is worth a look.

Do you need color? If you aren't reading graphic novels, probably not, but what is this, 1983? Are we still choosing between color displays and monochrome? I like color, and now that there's a Kindle Colorsoft, it's the one I'd buy. It doesn't feel like a first-generation technology, or an early attempt. It's a Kindle in color, and it might be the best Kindle yet.

Kindle Colorsoft Signature review: price and availability

• $279.99 / £269.99 for 32GB of storage
• No Australia launch date yet

There’s no doubt the Kindle Colorsoft is expensive, a bit too expensive to say it’s the Kindle for everybody. Color on your Kindle is still a luxury, and I hope that price comes down with sales and bundles, but I wouldn’t expect any discounts soon.

The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition costs around $80 / £80 more than the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, and the only difference is color. Actually, the Paperwhite Signature is available in some very nice metallic colors.

The Colorsoft is $120 / £110 more than the base model Kindle Paperwhite, which doesn't come with wireless charging, but wireless charging is an odd luxury, anyway, on a Kindle.

Is it worth the additional cost? Adding color increases the price by 75% versus the Kindle Paperwhite. I can’t say it’s worth the premium, but it doesn’t feel too expensive for the luxury. I just wish the rest of the device felt more luxurious to justify the higher price. Some metallic paint would help.

While Kindle fans will jump on this one, Amazon may have a hard time winning folks over who aren’t committed to the Kindle library. The Kobo Libra Colour is only $219.99 / £219.99 / AU$359.95, and it has more features than the Kindle Colorsoft, including stylus support for note taking, as well as physical buttons to turn pages. Ironically, the Kobo device looks more like the old Amazon Kindle Oasis, a premium Kindle that was discontinued a couple years ago.

If your books are on Kindle and you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, the choice is much easier – get the Kindle Colorsoft and be happy. If your reading is flexible or you use the local library for e-books through Libby, you may read our review of the Kobo before you invest in the Kindle Colorsoft. Its performance won’t feel as quick and smooth as the latest Kindle, but performance isn’t a deal breaker when it comes to an e-reader.

• Value score: 3 / 5

Kindle Colorsoft Signature review: Specs

Kindle Colorsoft Signature review: design

• Kind of cheap looking
• Only has a power button, no page turning buttons

Amazon hasn't given us a Kindle that feels truly premium for quite a while, and sadly the Colorsoft doesn't break that trend. It's more like the basic Kindle Paperwhite, with a matte plastic back that comes in one color - black. The Paperwhite Signature edition is availble in some nice metallic paints, but oddly this Colorsoft Signature edition only comes in black.

Ironic for Amazon’s first color Kindle? It doesn't matter, because most people buy a cover for the Kindle, and you can always get a sticker if the plastic doesn't suit.

Still, I'd love to see a Kindle Oasis comeback with this display. Not just for the Oasis’s premium build, but for the page turn buttons as well. The Kobo Libra gives you buttons, if you like turning pages that way instead of tapping the touch screen.

The Kindle Colorsoft has a power button and a USB-C port on the bottom for charging or connecting to a PC. It also offers wireless charging, and Amazon offers a charging stand with the perfect fit if you don't have one.

My Editor-At-Large Lance Ulanoff pointed out that the button on the bottom means it’s easy to rest this Kindle in a way that turns off the screen. It didn’t bother me before he mentioned it, but he’s absolutely right, and now I wish the power button was somewhere else.

• Design score: 3 / 5

Kindle Colorsoft Signature review: display

• Kaleido 3 E Ink display, customized by Amazon
• Looks like paper, great for comics

The Kindle Colorsoft uses a Kaleido 3 color display from E Ink, with tweaks and mods from Amazon. I love E Ink technology and find it endlessly fascinating, but it's very complex, so here's all you need to know.

The Kindle Colorsoft uses the same black and white E Ink technology as all of the other Kindle devices, with an added layer of color. The color is not part of the black and white layer, like you'll see on the reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet that launched a few months ago.

Instead, the color layer is independent, and the color pixels are much less dense. This helps the Kindle Colorsoft pan and zoom quickly, and if you've ever panned and zoomed on E Ink before, you're going to be amazed at how well the Colorsoft handles zooming. In full color, I could pinch and zoom on a character in a comic panel and it looked smooth, with no ghosts or artifacts popping up.

The page snapped quickly into a sharper look once I settled, and the refresh was super fast and nearly undetectable. There was no weird cycling through colors, as I've seen on other color E Ink devices.

A Kindle doesn't have a backlight, it's lit from the front and sides and the light is reflected into the page evenly. The Kindle Colorsoft was the brightest Kindle I've used, and it has a full set of both warm and cool LEDs for reading with less blue before bedtime.

Lighting the color layer can be tricky, but the Kindle Colorsoft lights the color and black pixels evenly, and color pages look fantastic. They look like paper, as they should, so don't expect a glossy magazine. Get an iPad if you want bright and saturated.

I hardly noticed a difference between the normal and vivid color modes on the Kindle Colorsoft, but I left the display on vivid for comic reading. As I finished my review, The Verge reported on an issue with slight yellowing at the bottom of the display. I noticed that this was happening on my screen, but the effect is so slight that I never would have seen it if I didn’t read The Verge’s report. I don’t expect perfect color fidelity from a Kindle, so it didn’t bother me one bit.

Amazon is fixing the issue, and if you have a Kindle Colorsoft with this problem, the company will replace it and let you hold the one you have while you wait, so you can keep reading.

• Display score: 5 / 5

Kindle Colorsoft Signature review: software

• Same Kindle software keeps things very simple
• Better performance improves the interface experience

Amazon pledges to keep things simple and distraction free with the Kindle, and the Kindle Colorsoft doesn't veer from this path, it just runs where previous Kindles have skipped along. The whole Kindle interface has been dramatically improved with faster processing and the new display. The old delays, flashing screen refreshes, and taps lost to the ether are no longer a problem.

I prefer Amazon’s simpler software over a more robust E Ink tablet, like an Onyx Boox Note Air 3. E Ink tablets are better when the interface keeps things simple. You can run Android apps on an Onyx device, but apps don’t look great, and Onyx makes you jump through hoops to get the E Ink display to behave in a satisfying way.

If you use Amazon and get your books from Kindle, the software is made for you specifically. If you sideload books or borrow from your library through an app like Libby, you may have to do a bit more work to get your reading fix, but once you figure it out, you’ll have a steady stream of titles.

Unfortunately, since you can’t run third-party apps on the Kindle Colorsoft, there’s no way I could find to read comics directly from the biggest publishers. If you subscribe to Marvel Unlimited or DC Universe Infinite, you won’t be able to read your favorite titles on the Kindle. Amazon offers Comixology instead, which has a much more limited Unlimited subscription offering. I’d rather see partnerships with the big name publishers.

There's a web browser, but it can’t load complicated web pages properly. Our own TechRadar.com home page was wildly distorted, though it was cool to see color photographs on a Kindle web page.

Amazon also lets you connect directly to Goodreads to report the book you’re currently reading and write reviews. Goodreads looks especially sharp on the Colorsoft display.

• User experience score: 5 / 5

Kindle Colorsoft Signature review: performance

• Surprisingly fast performance on E Ink
• Smooth zooming, whether color or black and white

It's a book. What sort of performance do you want? Actually, the Kindle Colorsoft is a delightful surprise when it comes to performance, just like the new Kindle Paperwhite. Amazon has improved the response time dramatically, and using the e ink display no longer feels like a slog.

In the past, I'd tap the screen and kind of wonder if my touch got through. On the new Kindle Colorsoft, the screen responds immediately. What's most impressive is watching the E Ink display zoom and pan around pages and images. This used to be a disaster, but now Amazon has its E Ink performance looking much more like a normal display.

It moves at a very slow refresh rate, so it isn't as smooth as your smartphone, but the ghosting and weird fuzzy bits that used to linger are gone.

Otherwise, performance was great in my time with the Kindle Colorsoft. It's a book, and now it turns pages faster than before. Amazon improved the performance of a book. That's kind of cool.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Kindle Colorsoft Signature review: battery

• Great battery life, but not limitless
• Avid readers will get a few days of battery life

Amazon says the Kindle Colorsoft battery will last eight weeks if you read a half hour every day, with the brightness level set just below the halfway mark. That's impressive, because it gives you not just 28 hours of screen time, but also a battery that won't drain itself dead if you aren't using it.

In my tests, I was able to do more than eight weeks of reading in an intense review week that included getting a bad cold and lying in bed for four days. I killed the battery on the Colorsoft in three days, and after Amazon clarified its battery claims, I'm sure the Kindle Colorsoft lasted more than 20 hours of actual reading time with the brightness set much higher than Amazon recommends.

The nice thing is the new color display will sip power just as slowly if you read all color or just black and white. I was reading comic books from Comixology Unlimited, including Planet Hulk and All-Star Superman. They have some good, iconic titles and a nice selection of independents, but comic nerds should do their own research before committing.

The Kindle Colorsoft doesn't charge super fast. I guess after eight weeks of power it assumes you'll be patient for a couple of hours. You can read while it charges, of course. There is wireless charging as well, and you can get a wireless charging stand to keep it topped up and looking pretty on the bedside table.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Kindle Colorsoft Signature?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Kobo Libra Colour
If you don’t rely on the Kindle library for your books, you might consider this less expensive Kobo alternative, which has a very similar color display and more features.
Read our in-depth Kobo Libra Color review

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2024)
If color is an expensive dream, the Kindle Paperwhite is an excellent e-reader with the same snappy performance and great battery life as the Kindle Colorsoft. We're testing the Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition now, so we'll have a review soon.
Read our hands-on look at the new Kindle Paperwhite

How I tested the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition

• Testing period - two weeks
• Subscribed to Kindle Unlimited and Comixology Unlimited
• Tested books, comics, audiobooks, and bathtub reading extensively

I used the Kindle Colorsoft for two weeks before I published my review. For the first week, I was under the weather and lying in bed, so I read for hours and hours at a time, mostly comics from Comixology and books from my Kindle library. I am an unlimited subscriber to Kindle and Comixology.

I read graphic novels in color and books in black and white on the Kindle. I read during the day and before bed, adjusting the color temperature to the time of day. I read in bed, on the couch, on the train, and in the bathtub. I dunked the Kindle Colorsoft and rinsed it under a running shower.

I tested the web browsing features by visiting TechRadar and reading articles at our own site. It wasn’t a great experience. I connected Bluetooth headphones, Pixel Buds Pro, and listened to Audible audiobooks. I used the Kindle Colorsoft without a case for the entirety of my review.

Read more about how we test

[First reviewed November 2024]