Amazon has put the Kindle ColorSoft e-reader on hold for the foreseeable future, and new devices will not be shipped until late December. However, if you want to purchase one immediately, Best Buy in the United States has them in stock. They are available in retail stores and online. Due to their scarcity, they are not marking up the price but are charging the same amount as Amazon, which sells them for $279.99.
The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft features a 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 colour e-paper display with a black-and-white resolution of 1264×1680 and a colour resolution of 150. A Kaleido 3 screen typically displays over 4,096 different colours. Amazon claims this new device has custom-formulated coatings between the display layers to enhance color, a light guide with micro-deflectors to minimize stray light, and an ultra-thin coating in the display stack to improve optical performance. They built the display on an oxide backplane for sharper contrast and better image quality.
The Kindle Colorsoft is entirely based on a touchscreen, with no physical buttons. Amazon stated that, in the foreseeable future, they will not have buttons on any Kindle. It has an auto-adjusting front-lit display to automatically change the brightness of the warm and cool lighting based on your environment. The peak brightness is 94 units, with 12 White and 13 Amber LEDs.
This Kindle Colorsoft employs a dual-core 2GHZ Mediatek processor with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage to house your digital content. Bluetooth 5.1 will allow you to pair wireless headphones or an external speaker to listen to Audible audiobooks purchased from Amazon, but Audible only works in select countries. The Kindle Colorsoft is rated IPX8 and can withstand immersion in up to 2 meters of fresh water for up to 60 minutes and 0.25 meters for 3 minutes in seawater. A USB C port will transfer and charge digital content to your device. It also supports quick charging with an optional dock. It is powered by a 2310 mAh battery, which should be good for about eight weeks of light reading.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.