In some ways, Amazon's incredible domination of the mainstream ereader market with its Kindles has created a problem for it - you just don't need to upgrade a Kindle very often. I bought a Paperwhite back in 2015 and through thick and thin there simply hasn't been a persuasive enough pitch to make me upgrade it.
New versions have come and gone, and our list of the best Kindles has changed regularly, with brighter displays and faster processing. Through it all, though, I've been able to get a pretty similar experience on nearly decade-old hardware. It still holds a charge for a few weeks, and I can read in the dark - what more could I actually want?
Well, Amazon just dropped a new Kindle that finally makes my old Paperwhite look dusty by comparison, and I can't help but want one almost immediately. The Kindle Colorsoft has its number one trick right there in the name - it's the first-ever full-colour Kindle, finally adding a feature that I was starting to think would never arrive.
E-ink displays have been getting more and more sophisticated over the last few years, but Amazon had long kept quiet about the possibility of a colour Kindle, and now that it's announced the Colorsoft, you can see why. It kept its powder dry, and now it's got a new product that anyone with a hankering for graphic novels (or just colourful highlights) will struggle to resist.
I'm not even a huge comics guru, but I love an occasional graphic novel. The problem is, even more than normal fiction paperbacks, their often massive heft makes them a storage nightmare. Being able to read one on the Colorsoft, without missing out on the artistic intention of its colours and shading, seems like a no-brainer.
That said, there are still questions I'm curious about, without having tried one. After all, most comics and graphic novels use a pretty chunky page size, which will make the Colorsoft's smaller 7-inch display a potential challenge for legibility. Plenty of carefully uploaded comics will get around this with on-page navigation, but I'm curious to see how easy that is to set up and use.
Amazon isn't shouting about it, but there are obviously two downsides to picking the Colorsoft over the upgraded and relaunched Paperwhite. For one, you'll be paying more - a lot more, in fact. The Colorsoft Signature Edition is on sale now for £269.99 or $279.99, pretty much £100 or $100 more than the standard Paperwhite.
You'll also take a hit on the battery life side, which isn't a huge surprise. Amazon says that the Colorsoft will last for eight weeks on a charge, while the Paperwhite is able to boast about a more impressive 12-week span. Still, eight weeks is still frankly enough to make charging no more than an occasional task.
They're otherwise pretty feature-matched, including waterproofing in both cases to an IPX8 rating, which means that both look like great devices. Still, that Paperwhite wouldn't make me upgrade, while the Colorsoft might just force me to - that's really the definition of an impressive product launch, in some ways.
Equally, though, it's also exciting to wonder what the future now holds for the Kindle lineup - surely the larger Scribe will eventually get a colour version, too, along with the premium Oasis. Black and white e-ink might be a relic in a few years' time, and that seems like a pretty exciting development to me.
