Amazon Finally Launches A Kindle With Color

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You can judge Amazon’s latest Kindle by its cover. The Colorsoft brings a splash of delight to the typically monochrome world of digital books—it’s the tech giant’s first-ever color e-reader.

Priced at US$279.99, this new device features a seven-inch display with a crisp 300 pixels per inch resolution, designed to add vibrancy to the reading experience with a vivid, paper-like display that makes colors pop without straining the eyes. The Kindle Colorsoft also brings sharp visuals and fast performance, thanks to an oxide backplane and custom waveforms for improved contrast.

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With its light-guide system, powered by nitride LEDs and custom algorithms, the Colorsoft adjusts brightness and enhances colors, allowing readers to enjoy book covers, travel guides, comics, or cookbooks as they’re intended. In addition, the e-reader supports wireless charging and is waterproof, ready for a cozy read by the pool.

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“Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition packs a suite of innovations that make every hue and shade pop,” explains Amazon in a blog post. “Those include custom formulated coatings between the display layers to enhance the color, a light guide with micro-deflectors to minimize stray light, and an ultra-thin coating in the display stack to improve optical performance. We built the display on an oxide backplane for sharper contrast, faster page turns, and better image quality.”

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An added perk is that users can now highlight text in a variety of colors—yellow, orange, blue, or pink—and even search by highlight color.

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The Kindle Colorsoft offers up to eight weeks of battery life, an auto-adjusting front light, and USB-C charging in addition to wireless charging. Pre-orders are open now, with shipping set to begin on October 30.

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Besides the Colorsoft, Amazon has announced other updates to its Kindle lineup. These include the new Kindle Scribe, an AI-powered e-reader with a focus on note-taking, priced at US$399. The Scribe comes with a Premium Pen stylus and a feature called Active Canvas, allowing users to write directly on e-books, with text reflowing around their notes. Updated versions of the Kindle Paperwhite and the entry-level Kindle round out the new releases, offering more choices for readers.

[via NBC News, Reuters, About Amazon, images via Amazon]