The Kindle Colorsoft: Good for manga and highlighting–but buttons, please!

Amazon’s Colorsoft could be catnip for manga fans and passionate annotators who enjoy multi-color highlights. But what if you favor text-heavy books and don’t need the color that much? Then buy the updated Paperwhite, with its razor-sharp display. Before going ahead with this Colorsoft review, let me mourn the passing of another “deluxe” reader, the Kindle Oasis. My 2017 model came with the right weight and size, good comfort lighting, waterproofing and a crisp seven-inch screen. And those page-turn buttons! No accidental swipes, no jumping to random sections. I’d hoped Amazon would snazz up the Oasis with a color screen and maybe even add native ePub and robust text-to-speech for non-blind users. Instead, while marching on to the Colorsoft, Amazon has axed the Oasis, at least for stateside customers. Meanwhile, more than a few readers have forsaken Amazon devices for Kobo’s Libra Colour, thanks partly to its page-turning buttons. “Kobo girlies” act as if their plastic slabs are the Beatles in 1964 and gush out their love. Listening, Amazon? Why does your long-awaited Colorsoft lack physical buttons, an inexcusable flaw for a premium device priced at $280-a full $60 above the Libra Colour without the Libra’s stylus. I suspect you could have absorbed the costs. Kobo did. Screen glitches Furthermore, the Colorsoft’s display has a yellow band affecting some units. Amazon is working on a fix, but you can see why some users are disappointed. Also, due to the inherent limitations of the color tech in use, the Colorsoft’s hues are softer and less saturated than LCD or OLED displays, though it’s slightly less muted than Kobo’s Libra Colour. Its black-and-white text mode comes close to the Paperwhite in quality. With monochrome reading in mind, I ultimately returned my Libra due to its lower contrast, but the Colorsoft held up far better in this regard, even if I am still sending it back and relying on a Paperwhite instead. In a related vein, I had to boost the brightness nearly to max, which drained battery life quickly. The battery on the 2024 Kindle Paperwhite officially can last up to 12 weeks, but the Colorsoft only manages around eight weeks due to the color filter, with results varying based on brightness settings. On the plus side -The Colorsoft offers improved speed for page turning, navigating a book, browsing, annotating, and wandering around the Kindle store. Its browser is still underpowered but no longer quite so “experimental”-it’s functional. -The annotation feature lets users highlight in multiple colors-pink, blue, orange, and yellow. Imagine marking quotes in one shade, plot points in another. This will resonate with readers who prioritize organized reading over pure contrast. -And if manga is your thing, the Colorsoft’s seven-inch screen suits it well enough, assuming your eyes can handle smaller text in the balloons. But for vivid color graphics, traditional tablets like iPads still provide better visuals. -The Colorsoft is waterproof, like the Paperwhite and Oasis. -It has wireless charging. -Keep in mind this is just a first-generation color...

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