Amazon’s First Color Kindle Launch Isn’t Going Well
Amazon’s first color Kindle just started shipping to customers last Wednesday, and the company already appears to be canceling or delaying shipments. Despite promises that the new Kindle’s custom design and materials will give it improved colors over its competitors, at the time of writing it has a 2.7-star rating on Amazon , with users complaining about grainy text and a yellow stripe that seems to stick to screen. bottom of the display .
In the photographs, the strip is located at the very bottom of the device and looks like a spot. It appears when displaying both color and black-and-white content, although it may appear more pronounced in photos than in person, according to The Verge . Interestingly, some commenters say they only started seeing the stripe after a software update , while others only notice it when using edge lighting .
An Amazon spokesperson told Lifehacker sister site PCMag that the company is “aware of a small number of reports from customers who are seeing a yellow bar at the bottom of the display,” although Good e-Reader reports that Amazon has told them the problem may be resolved. by physically turning off the device and waiting a few minutes before turning it back on.
For some customers who prefer exchanges and returns , this is not enough. Other customers report that Amazon has approached them with a trade-in offer .
Amazon has yet to make a comprehensive statement on the situation, although a number of solutions appear to be in the works. Several customers have reported that Amazon is working on a software update to resolve the issue, while many others say their deliveries have been pushed back to mid-November at the earliest . I’ve reached out to Amazon for confirmation and will update this post when I hear back.
Because color e-readers work by placing color filters between your content and you, it’s not uncommon for them to have some degree of grain or discoloration (even in black-and-white content), as I noted in my Kobo review. Libra color . However, the constant yellow bar that appears all the time is far from what Amazon promised when it announced Colorsoft. I’m currently waiting for my own review unit to arrive and will update this post if I notice a yellow streak on my unit.