TL;DR
- Amazon updated its Kindle Colorsoft FAQs with a candid disclaimer.
- The company says that black-and-white Kindles, like the Paperwhite, offer crisper text.
- Colorsoft screens still suit comics and PDFs, but trade sharpness for color.
Color E-Ink might be all the rage these days thanks to the Kindle Colorsoft lineup, but even Amazon is admitting there’s a trade-off. The company has updated its product FAQs to note that while its Colorsoft screens deliver a “high-quality reading and writing experience,” the black-and-white Kindles, such as the Paperwhite and Scribe, still offer slightly crisper text.
As spotted by Good e-Reader, Amazon added near-identical wording to the FAQ pages for both the new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and the cheaper 16GB Colorsoft model. The company explains that the color layer responsible for bringing illustrations to life also changes the screen’s texture and brightness. If you’re after the sharpest black-and-white reading experience, Amazon suggests checking out its monochrome Kindles instead.
Don’t want to miss the best from Android Authority?
It would be easy to poke fun at Amazon for this, but it’s a refreshingly candid disclaimer for anyone expecting the Colorsoft to replace their Paperwhite. Like most color e-readers on the market, the Colorsoft uses E Ink Kaleido 3 display tech, which halves the resolution to 150ppi in color mode. That’s fine for comics, magazines, and PDFs, but text lovers will notice the difference compared to the 300ppi grayscale panels used in traditional Kindles.
While Amazon is being unusually upfront about this limitation, competitors like Kobo and Onyx Boox use the same Kaleido 3 panels but don’t spell out the contrast difference in their marketing. Amazon, it seems, would rather you buy the right Kindle for your needs — even if that means skipping its newest one.
Thank you for being part of our community. Read our Comment Policy before posting.
