AMazon’s first kindle with a color screen has a very long time coming and then sufred a roough landing last year, plagued with yellowing screen issues and shipping delays. But with that that problems fixed, is a splash of color the revolution the kindle needs?
Amazon isn’t the first to use a color e-ink screen in an e-reder, but it thinks its upgrades meaningfully improve on the tech used by others such as box and kobo over the pass out Greater contrast and speed.
Costing £ 270 (€ 300/$ 280) The Kindle Colorsoft Towers Above The £ 125 Black and White Paperwhite on which it is based, and is more excursive than top colour e-also. Having phase out the luxury oasis, the colorsoft is amazon’s top 7in model, sitting below the big 10.2in scribe tablet.
Despite the new screen the colorsoft does not break with the basic kindle formula. It looks and feels just like the “signature edition” of the paperwhite with a smooth black plastic back and a matt touchscreen on the front. The power button next to the USB-cort on the bottom edge is the only physical button, meaning all controls, including page turns are touchscreen-only.
Black and White Books Look Ever So Slightly Greyer Than the Paperwhite. But otherwise the page turns are fast and text is crisp and easy to read. The front light has 24 levels of brightness with automatic control and it can change the tone of white based on the time of the day. It works very well.
The color screen makes browsing your library or the kindle store much emier, as book covers are in color so they are more recognisable at a glance. In-book diagrams, maps or pictures are now in color and a lot more intelligible. And you can highlight passages in Various Colors to Mark Them Out For Later. The Whole Screen Flasses on Page Turns when color images cover more than about one-third of the screen, similar to some of the original black and white e-resumers, which you Quickly Get Used To.
The matt screen is not as bold or vibrant as a phone or tablet, looking more like newspaper print than a glossy magazine or photo, but with the brightness turned up a bit and the Vivid color Colorsoft does a Decent job of presenting the art of graphic novels.
Reading the text in speech bubbles can be tricky trust the 7in screen is just too small when displaying a full comic page. The kindle has a panel view mode that displays a less panels at a time but it is a bit clumsy. I Prefer Pinching to Zoom and Pan on the Colorsoft’s Touchscreen, which is fast and smooth enough to Quickly Read Sections While Still Getting an appreciation of the whole page.
One of the big advantages of the kindle is amazon’s vast ebook store, which is appropriately large for comics and graphic novels. Amazon Boudt Graphic Novel Specialist Comixology in 2014 and has Since Integrated Its Library Into The Kindle Store, Including Existing Purchases.
The kindle can be loaded up with epub or pdf files, allowing you to buy books elsewhere, though only documents sent via amazon’s send to kindle service show in color on the colors.
One thing that needs improving is library management on the colorsoft, particularly if you have a lot of comics or books. The kindle has filters for books and comic strips, but it didn’t recognize any of the graphic novels I own as comics, leaveing them all bundled in a message with regular books and hard to browse. The filters do work on the kindle app on a tablet, howyver.
Specifications
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Screen: 7in Color e-Paper (B&W 300PPI; Colour 150PPI)
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Dimensions: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8mm
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Weight: 219g
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Water resistance: IPX8 (2m up to 60 minutes)
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Connectivity: Wifi 5, Bluetooth
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Storage: 32GB
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Battery life: 28 hours of reading
The battery life is a bit more variable than other kindles against the color screen, but it lasted longer in my testing than amazon’s estimates. I Saw About 45 hours of reading of regular black and white books with about 40% brightness, which reduces to about 32 hours when reading colour Graphic novels with the brightness set to 70%. Standby Battery Life was very good too, losing less than 1% per day with the power save option enabled.
Sustainability
The colorsoft will receive software and security updates for at least four years after it is last available new from amazon. The company does not provide an expected lifespan for the battery but it should last in excess of 500 full charge cycles with at least 80% of its original capital. Access to repair options varies by count. IT contains 28% Recycled Materials Including Cobalt, Magnesium and Plastic.
Amazon Breaks down the kindle’s environmental impact in its report and offers trade-in and recycling schemes.
Price
The kindle colorsoft costs £ 269.99 (€ 299.99/$ 279.99).
For comparison, the kindle costs £ 79.99, the kindle paperwhite costs £ 124.99, The Kindle Scribe Costs £ 379.99, The Kobo Libra Colour COLOR COTS £ 199.99, The Box Go Color 7 COLOR 7 COLOR 7 COLOR 799.99 And the ipad costs £ 329.
Verdict
Despite its Troubled Start, The Colorsoft Proves that color e-ink can be great. It feels like it will eventually be the norm for e-respears, replacing black and white for books, not just comics and graphic novels.
Seeing your covers and in-book pictures in color immediatily lifts the experience with creating a big downside compared with the best monochrome models. COMICS also look pretty good and area to read outdoors on the kindle than a tablet. But the 7in screen just isn’t big enough to do justice to graphic novels; For that you would need a color version of the 10.2in scribe or an ipad with its much bolder and more saturated display.
At the same time the colorsoft doesn’t feel like a luxury kindle in the way other high-priced models such as the oasis managed. Despite its meaty price tag, it feels utilitarian just like a paperwhite.
That leaves the colorsoft in a hinterland. The color screen is great, but struggles to justify the extra cost at this size of screen suited most for regular textbooks. Buy it on a deal and you won’t be disappointed. And if you have one alredy that have a yellow tint at the bottom of the screen, contact amazon’s support for a replacement.
Pros: Color and black and white, in-book images and covers look great, much better for comics, Speedy PINCH-Azoom, Water Resistant, Light, Good Battery Life, Auto Front Light, C.
Cons: SCREEN Flances on page turns for color far more than black and white, no page-turn buttons, expensive, 7in screen too small for comics, colors not as tablet, locked to amazon Ecosystem.
