Amazon Quietly Removed Its Warning About Color E-Ink.
The Kindle Colorsoft is the most expensive e-reader on Amazon (technically, the Kindle Scribe is more of an e-note reader ), but that doesn’t automatically make it the best Kindle. Furthermore, if you primarily use your Kindle for novels or even black-and-white manga, rather than color comics or picture books, the Colorsoft will be significantly inferior . While I’ve long praised color e-readers, don’t take my word for it: Amazon used to warn buyers about this, but has since removed it.
Back in February, according to a page preserved by the Internet Archive , Amazon’s FAQ for the Colorsoft Kindle included the following frank comment regarding the device’s shortcomings:
The Colorsoft display is different from the Paperwhite display. The Kindle Colorsoft is designed to provide a high-quality reading experience in both color and black and white. You may notice a difference in texture or brightness compared to the Kindle Paperwhite display. This is due to a color filter layer that makes reading color books on the Kindle Colorsoft more comfortable for the eyes. If you’re looking for sharper black and white images, consider the Kindle Paperwhite, which offers the fastest page turns and the highest contrast ratio of any 2024 Kindle device.
While this explanation wasn’t directly disparaging of the company’s color products, it was notable for its acknowledgement that the Kindle Paperwhite, despite its lower price, produces sharper black-and-white images. (Why? Because the Colorsoft color filter, which is present whether it’s actively displayed or not, reduces contrast and can add unwanted texture and shine to text, even when reading black-and-white content.)
Apparently, someone at Amazon decided it was time for a change, at the expense of potential customers. Over the weekend, the company again updated its Colorsoft FAQ, and it now reads as follows :
The Colorsoft display differs from the Paperwhite display in that it includes a fully optimized display stack to ensure high-quality color reproduction. The black-and-white image resolution (300 ppi) is the same on all devices.
This is much less obvious. While not an outright lie, the new disclaimer glosses over the device’s shortcomings, instead simply acknowledging that Colorsoft delivers “high quality” color reproduction while making an irrelevant remark about black-and-white image resolution. This is a false innuendo: Colorsoft’s contrast and artifact issues persist despite black-and-white image resolution being comparable to the Paperwhite, as seen in the image below.
It’s an understandable move from a marketing perspective, but it’s also a disappointing omission of a rare moment of honesty from a major brand, while highlighting the deep concerns surrounding color e-ink. (I’ve reached out to Amazon for comment and will update this article if I hear back.)
Color electronic ink is not yet ready for market.
Frankly, I don’t think most adults need color e-ink. Unless you’re a comic book aficionado, you probably read on your Kindle in black and white. And if that’s the case, you’ll get a better experience by paying less for a device without the color filter. I understand why Amazon is so cautious about this.
But with charts and prices like the one above, it’s not exactly intuitive, and that’s why I so appreciate the clarifications provided on the old FAQ page, especially because they were willing to guide users looking for a specific experience to the best product for them, even at the expense of Amazon’s profits.
The new description seems deliberately crafted to create the impression that the Paperwhite and Colorsoft are roughly on par in terms of black-and-white content, even though Colorsoft also supports color content, which is completely untrue. In fact, this is always the first misconception I dispel when writing about this product category, and I’m disappointed that Amazon is changing its advertising campaign to promote it. While color e-ink is appealing to a niche audience, gimmicks and obfuscation are not the best way to sell it.