When we reviewed the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition late last year, one of our biggest gripes was the e-reader’s initial starting price of $279.99. It’s a high price to pay for an ebook reader, particularly given its smaller 7-inch display and lack of stylus support, but those shortcomings are more forgivable now that the ebook reader is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for an all-time low of $224.99 ($55 off).
At its core, the Colorsoft is really just a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition with a color screen. It’s the first Kindle to utilize E Ink’s color screen technology, which provides more vibrancy than Kobo’s like-minded Libra Colour — even if the 300ppi resolution is halved in color mode. The resulting contrast and color make browsing and reading books (or comics!) more pleasant and engaging, but don’t expect the kind of glossy, high-res images you might get on a dedicated tablet with an OLED or LCD display.
That said, the Colorsoft benefits from all the upgrades you’ll find on Amazon’s newer Kindles, as well as a slew of recent software updates. It features an auto-adjusting front light, robust IPX8 waterproofing, and faster page-turning performance than prior models. You’ll also get up to two months of battery life and wireless charging, not to mention a healthy 32GB of storage and zero ads. It’s the e-reader to get if you want a color screen and want to stick with Amazon.
In fact, it’s the only one.
