Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition 32GB (newest model) – With color display, auto-adjusting front light, wireless charging, and long battery life - Metallic Black + 3 months of Kindle Unlimited (with auto-renewal)

Alright grab a cup of coffee or a cocktail and settle back as I spin my yarn. So, I'm a big fan of kindles. Since 2010 when we had this technology explosion, smartphones and tablets came on the scene and e-paper became an alternative to reading on LCD and OLED, I have been a "Kindle Aficionado.". I have gotten many, many kindles and sometimes paid more for them than I would have preferred, like 350-400 bucks. I usually can recoup about 100 bucks of that by selling them on later after I'm done as I take care of my devices. I got the first generation Paperwhite with the ever-so-slight visible backlight "issue" that people overeacted to. I remember when that got improved and the processor speed went up making it more usable. I remember when we got warm mode for the first time. I remember the first kindle with Auto Brightness. I remember "whispersync" when we could actually download things off wifi for free via 3G networks. I remember Kindle Voyage's glass screen and coffin-shaped back. I remember the original Oasis with the detachable and expensive "leatherette" cover. I remember the waterproof second generation Oasis. All of them were wonderful and all had pretty much steady improvements. All still usable, Still have a Voyage to this day because of it's glass screen quality, despite it not having enough space. Unlike phones, kindle devices last a long time, well past their internal technology sell by date. The kindle I replaced was relatively new for Kindles, but ancient in tech terms (2019, 6 years ago. Technology uses dog years so about 50 years old, lol). Still works flawlessly. Couple issues, one is no color and the other is no USB C (or wireless charging). So it's time, I traded one of my 2nd gen Oases in for this device and Although it's not a premium build as Kindles go, it's a color paperwhite - And probably the first of many color e-ink displays - it's features were an ABSOLUTE MUST for me. Color, wireless charging and USB C so I can start getting rid of all micro USB keyed cables in my house. These are all big deals. I skipped the scribe, it's cool but I'll wait for the eventual color version, color is that big of a deal. Now you're probably reading some of the pearl clutching reviews people have posted complaining about those things like yellow bottom border, lower resolution and less white "paper" - it's now more of a greyish color and it's a slight step back I will admit. But the fact I can see all my books in color - pretty decent color mind you - that alone is worth the cost of admission. I read comics and "graphic novels". and I'm reading the X-men series from the 80s on up atm and am loving it. Been doing it on an ipad pro, brand new and extremely expensive and fragile device also not worth what is charged for it (1100 bucks). I basically use it to browse the web occasionally and read comics. Now I can read them on my kindle colorsoft signature edition along with my books instead of not being able to. Also, books with 2 color printing like the Illustrated Silmarillion now have their colored titles show up which is refreshing and something I love about the print editions. These also have their color illustrations in color instead of a greyscale mess where before you'd try to work out what it was. It's a game changer. SImply put. For those who read books with "plates" (as long as the kindle edition supports it I assume) you now get them in color. Comics are almost like reading old yellowed comic books. It has a charm that makes it worthwhile. Now, is it as vibrant as an Ipad, no, it's not and there might be some use cases for still using your ipad first for art heavy books, but being able to see them in color with only an e-ink device is still huge, as before you wouldn't even be able to appreciate or make sense of them. You'd never open them, it was print only and no color in the print ever breaking up the monotony. The fact this is a thing of the past now ? That's fantastic and worth the tradeoffs. The trade offs - let's talk about them. They're only issues if you had bad expectations, wanted a tablet, or are OCD. That's my feelilng anyway. You get a greyer, "dirtier" background and a lower resolution of 150 DPI when images are on the screen. Sure, this is kind of noticable but not deal breakers by any means unless you're "pixel peeping" and letting your OCD get the best of you. If you are using warm mode the bottom of the screen can geta bit yellowish (I mean it's warm mode, the whole screen is getting more yellow) but it can be slightly un-uniform and I guess this freaks some folks out that want something perfect. I'm not one of them, but that's probably the reason for the returns and 3 stars I guess. It is what it is... those people will miss out on color e-ink. Also I'm sure they'll improve these very minor limitations over time. Similar thing happened with the OG paperwhite and itnever stopped me reading on it, I eventually replaced it and got a better display and more speed. Let's face it. Your average kindle you could expect to keep for 2 or 3 years until a new model comes out and then sell it for a few bob on ebay, provided you didn't lose it or damage it in that time. Or you could keep it for 10 years until it was totally obsolete and nobody wanted it and have to toss it as it fails as all electronics do these days as nobody repairs em anymore. I know what I've been doing with mine, flipping them back and getting the latest and greatest. Technology will always improve and I look forward to future kindles with improvements, but know this much... I'm not going back to black and white only. Even if it's a little cleaner and whiter. Also I have some older kindles still so If I want that experience I can have it. Some people may not be able to make this trade off and that's fine - you can keep to your paperwhite. The speed of this device is also quite good, yes it has to do page refresh more often on color but old kindles had that issue too and had worse "dirt" that accumulated, I think people today are a bit spoiled. One area I would like to see is 64 GB, with color file sizes are more, and 32 GB is not a lot. 64 GB and 128 GB ought to be the norm, come on, it's 2025, and NAND flash is cheaper than ever and getting cheaper constantly. I remember when kindles had 2 GB on them. 2 GB ! lol. All in all, I'm all in. And i'm excited where the future of color e-ink is going.

I purchased the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft so I could have color images and graphics on many textbooks in my collection, as well as the ability to highlight in different colors, a feature I used a lot on my Android Kindle app but couldn't with my 2021 Paperwhite. The book covers are nice in color, too, bringing a level of dimension to my library that I enjoy a lot. I am giving this five stars as it satisfies my main objectives: The color is good, color highlighting excellent, and the speed of page turns and library browsing is excellent (noticeably faster than my 2021 Paperwhite). The only thing missing is a satisfying "dark mode," as it only affects the book pages and not the whole interface as with the Paperwhite. Perhaps this will change in a future update, but it isn't a big issue for me and the white text on a black background is still excellent for night reading, especially with the amber glow turned to the max. Color highlighting in this mode is also excellent. I do have some caveats, however: The battery drains a lot quicker than the Paperwhite, and the 32GB storage fills up a lot quicker. Also, the "Vivid" color setting seems to switch back to "Standard" sporadically, even if it still says "Vivid" is selected (this might be happening after I select a Restart). These are not serious issues as I just need to charge more frequently and will refrain from downloading my whole library as space fills up, and a reset to "Vivid" handles the color issue until a software fix is available (assuming this isn't just my imagination). In addition, the price is very high for what it offers, so unless color is very important to someone (to view comics, highlighting in color, etc.), the new 2024 Paperwhite might be the better option. UPDATE: An unfortunate issue a lot of reviews have mentioned is a yellow band at the bottom of the screen. At first, I didn't think my Colorsoft had this issue, but now I see a very faint band at the bottom of the screen when reading with black text on a white background. To be fair, I might not have noticed this without the issue being pointed out, and it is a lot less noticeable than some photos I've seen (I have the warmth setting set to 10 normally, which might camouflage the band a little). It looks to me like an issue of the calibration of the LEDs as it doesn't appear when the backlight is off. It is also undetectable with images and using the white test on a black background. Still, it is there, and I am requesting a replacement for when the issue is resolved. I'm keeping my review 5-stars because Amazon has been very responsive regarding this yellow banding issue. Contacting customer service via a chat was a simple process and a replacement request was quickly queued up (replacements, alas, aren't available yet while the underlying issue is being investigated and resolved), and I can keep using my current Colorsoft in the meantime (while noticeable, the yellow band isn't distracting while I read). One of the reasons I keep coming to Amazon is their fantastic customer service, and this is a good example of them doing what they can for an unfortunate situation. UPDATE #2: I received my replacement Kindle Colorsoft and the yellow banding issue is resolved. Again, I feel the customer service response to this issue was excellent and it is a primary reason I continue to use Amazon.