Amazon's first color Kindle has just started shipping and readers are already complaining

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A discolored yellow strip on the bottom of the Kindle Colorsoft screen isn't a good look

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Amazon's first ever color ereader has only just gone on sale and users who've received their early orders are already unhappy, with some returning the Kindle Colorsoft or exchanging it for a new one.

As first reported by The Verge, a strip of yellow is marring the bottom of the Kindle Colorsoft display for some users, leading to a rather dismal 2.6 star rating (at the time of writing) on the Amazon listing page in the US.

In fact, the discoloration isn't uniform for all users. As per the Reddit thread on this problem, some users are also seeing the discoloration along a vertical edge as well as along the bottom. Others aren't too bothered by the yellowing, but they have returned their device due to "a corner speckled with dead pixels".

Colorsoft has yellow tinge to bottom of display from r/kindle

Not everyone seems to be miffed by their purchase however – other Kindle Colorsoft customers seem really happy with their new ereader and the user reviews on Amazon are mixed.

kindle from r/kindle/comments/1ggrajr/my_color_soft_arrived_what_is_everyone_talking

It's as yet unclear whether the discoloration is due to a software or hardware problem but, as per a post on the original Reddit thread, Amazon says it's aware of the problem and is working on a fix. That could indicate it's just a software glitch, but if the lighting on the screen isn't even, it's likely more due to faulty hardware and a firmware update may not help.

We haven't yet received a review sample of the Kindle Colorsoft here at TechRadar, so we haven't experienced this for ourselves, and the short time we spent with the device at its media launch in October showed no such problem.

The Verge, however, says the "discoloration is more obvious in pictures than in real life" and their reviewer wouldn't have picked up on the problem if users weren't complaining about it as much.

A part of me is now a little glad that I won't get to see the Kindle Colorsoft in person until 2025 as that's when it releases in Australia (where I am based). By then Amazon would have fixed the issue and I'll probably receive what could actually end up being the best Kindle ereader ever made (we'll see). For the early adopters, though, it's a real shame that a popular device that costs around $300 is shipping with a flaw.

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Sharmishta Sarkar
Sharmishta Sarkar
Managing Editor (APAC)

While she's happiest with a camera in her hand, Sharmishta's main priority is being TechRadar's APAC Managing Editor, looking after the day-to-day functioning of the Australian, New Zealand and Singapore editions of the site, steering everything from news and reviews to ecommerce content like deals and coupon codes. While she loves reviewing cameras and lenses when she can, she's also an avid reader and has become quite the expert on ereaders and E Ink writing tablets, having appeared on Singaporean radio to talk about these underrated devices. Other than her duties at TechRadar, she's also the Managing Editor of the Australian edition of Digital Camera World, and writes for Tom's Guide and T3.