Amazon introduces radically new Kindles for the holiday season, including the 1st color e-ink Kindle
Major announcement and I’ll write more later!
Here’s the Kindle Colorsoft:
https://amzn.to/3Y8I1dN
This one is really a big deal! We’ve been talking about the possibility of a color Kindle for more than a decade, and it’s finally here.
The key thing here is that this is an E-Ink screen like the other Kindle EBRs (E-Book Readers). That’s very different from a backlit screen, like a tablet (the Amazon Fire, an iPad), phone, or computer. With a backlit screen, what you are looking at is between you and the light source: the light is shining at your eyes.
With a frontlit E-Ink screen, the light points at the screen. It’s the same way a booklight lights a paper book (p-book). I’ve said before that I find a frontlit EBR the most comfortable way to read, and that includes paper. It’s more relaxing than having a lamp next to the bed to read paper, for example.
While I haven’t seen it in person, it’s likely that the colors aren’t as bright as they would be on a Kindle Fire: they probably appear a bit more muted, although this should allow for a lot of subtle shades.
Many people, though, have wanted color on their Kindles (it doesn’t affect me in the same way as the average person, since I have some color vision deficiency). You might wonder why: isn’t the text in books just black on white?
In a strictly text novel, that would be largely true (not for the cover). However, a non-fiction book might use a color-keyed chart. People read comic books on Kindles, and magazines.
If that’s still going to look better on a tablet, why not just get one of those? The ColorSoft has a price point of $279.99 (there are a number of options, including covers & a wireless charging dock). You can get a Fire with the same 7″ screen for under $100 (under $50 in a big sale at time of writing).
Well, in addition to the comfort I mentioned, there’s the battery life. A Kindle, including this ColorSoft, may be able to last well over a month (depending on reading time and how bright you set the light, among other factors) on a single charge. That’s very convenient for, say, a camping trip.
There are a lot of other features that might appeal to people: being able to highlight pages in color may be useful for studying, for one.
Overall, I think this will be a successful product for Amazon. It’s not really a mass market item, but for many booklovers, it will be a welcome upgrade and a great gift.
Here’s the whole group of new ones:
https://amzn.to/4eJ5d9v
Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!
All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!
Bufo’s Alexa Skills
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com
I Love My Kindle 