Amazon Launches First Kindle With Color Display

Amazon today refreshed its popular Kindle e-reader lineup, introducing the first Kindle that has a color display. The $280 Kindle Colorsoft has a 7-inch high-contrast display that Amazon says offers “paper-like color.”

While Amazon has released tablets with traditional LCD displays that support color, the Colorsoft is E Ink like Amazon’s other Kindle tablets, but with new technology that allows for color. Amazon is using LED pixels and a new oxide backplane for color without impacting resolution or increasing latency when turning pages.

There have been rumors that Apple has tested electronic paper display (EPD) technology for future devices, including color EPD, which is similar to what Amazon has just rolled out. Back in 2022, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple tested E-Ink’s Electronic Paper Display for future foldable tablet applications, and he said that color EPD could perhaps become a mainstream solution for the cover screen of a foldable iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Color e-ink is still newer technology, but there are other products like the Remarkable Paper Pro that use it.

Amazon says that the Kindle Colorsoft is its brightest Kindle yet, and the display is able to adjust the front light for any lighting condition. It continues to have a 300 pixel-per-inch resolution for black and white, with a 150 pixel-per-inch resolution for color.

Amazon today also unveiled an updated $400 Kindle Scribe that supports notetaking with a white-bordered display and a screen that has a paper-like texture. It comes with a Premium Pen that feels like an actual pen, complete with a soft-tipped eraser for erasing. AI integration allows for summaries and bullet point lists of notes taken, and notes can be refined to have a more readable font.

Other new additions include the latest Kindle Paperwhite, which Amazon says is its fastest to date with 25 percent faster page turns, and a new matcha color for the entry-level Kindle. The Kindle Colorsoft will ship on October 30, while the Kindle Scribe will ship on December 4. Other Kindles are available now.