Michelle Ehrhardt
Associate Tech Editor
Covering phones, computers, smartwatches, and more.
Table of Contents
Late last year, Amazon released its first color Kindle, the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition. I was a bit ambivalent on it once I got my hands on it for review: While I thought it was great for color content, it had some major issues when it came to black-and-white work. At the time, though, I only had my personal Kindle Paperwhite, from 2022, to compare it against. Now, I’ve gotten my hands on the most recent Kindle Paperwhite model, released alongside the Colorsoft Signature Edition. On the surface, it looks identical to the Colorsoft, but it makes it even clearer that Amazon’s color e-reader is only for a very specific type of reader.
Design
With the screens off, it would be hard to tell these Kindles apart. Their dimensions are just a hair off, coming in at 6.96 x 5.02 x 0.31 inches for the Paperwhite and 6.96 x 5.03 x 0.31 for the Colorsoft, and their weights follow the same pattern—7.4 ounces for the Paperwhite and 7.7 ounces for the Colorsoft. The average person is unlikely to notice the difference, and both devices are generally comfortable to hold over an extended period.
They’re also equally waterproof, with an IP rating of IPX8, but oddly enough, there is one key area where the Paperwhite's design pulls ahead: color. While the Colorsoft might be able to display color, its actual case only comes in black. The Paperwhite, ironically, has a few more color options, coming in black, green, and pink (or metallic variations of these if you get the Signature Edition). I have a metallic green model, and even though I usually keep my Kindles in a case, I dig the shade Amazon went with. My husband, an avowed Kindle hater, couldn’t even stop himself from complimenting it. If only for that reason alone, I’m going to give this point to the Paperwhite.
Winner: Kindle Paperwhite
Storage, battery, and Signature Editions
With nearly identical builds, the defining factor between the Colorsoft and the Paperwhite is going to be the display, but before I get to that, I want to touch on a few smaller details.
First, storage. While both my Kindle Paperwhite and Colorsoft came with 32GB of storage, there are now 16GB models of both available (that wasn't always the case for the Colorsoft). For both, how much storage you get depends on whether you get the “Signature Edition,” which comes with 32GB of storage, no ads on the lock screen, wireless charging, and a sensor for automatically adjusting the brightness. Those extra perks come at a cost, so downgrading from the Signature Edition to the standard one will not only downgrade you to 16GB of storage, but get rid of them.
If you do opt for the cheaper version, the Paperwhite will give you a larger discount than the Colorsoft, as its Signature Edition costs $40 more than the standard one, whereas the Colorsoft's Signature Edition costs $30 more. However, you'll have to pay $20 on top of the standard edition if you want it without ads, whereas both models of the Kindle Colorsoft are ad-free. Note that the Paperwhite is still generally cheaper than even the Colorsoft regardless of whether you go Signature or not, but it's worth knowing how Amazon is justifying its pricing differences.
Then there’s the battery. Kindles are known for being long-lasting—they don’t need continual power while their front light is off and they’re not connected to any networks. (Pro tip: You should be using airplane mode on your Kindle for an extended battery life.) That makes testing out their battery drain a bit difficult, as it takes some time to fully run them down, and that’s time I haven’t gotten with both devices yet.
Still, there is a difference here worth pointing out. Amazon says the Kindle Paperwhite has up to 12 weeks of battery life, while the Kindle Colorsoft is only supposed to have up to eight. That’s almost an extra month on the black-and-white model! Both will keep you set for a good while, but if you have to pick one, the Paperwhite seems to be the clear winner on this front, so much so that I'm willing to forgive its standard model coming with ads unless you pay the remove them. I’ll keep using these devices over the next few months and will update this article if I notice a difference between my experience and what Amazon is saying.
Winner: Kindle Paperwhite
The display
Here’s the real difference between the Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Colorsoft: the display. Both are 7 inches, an improvement on the 6.8-inch model on the previous generation, and both have warm light controls and can reach a maximum 94 nits of brightness. However, only the Colorsoft can display content in, well, color.
And it’s probably the best color I’ve seen on an e-reader yet. While it’s still not as bright or vivid as what you’d get on an LED tablet, it generally preserves details and has little in the way of artifacting, which I can’t say for competitors like the Kobo Libra Colour. It’s great for comics, and it is nice to see book covers in my library in full color. Plus, it allows for color-coordinated highlighting. Using the color does cut the resolution in half, from 300 ppi to 150 ppi, but on a screen this small, you’re unlikely to notice.
You would think this would give the Colorsoft an automatic win here, but it’s not so simple. Yes, the Colorsoft can also still display content in black-and-white, at a full 300 ppi, but it’s not the same black-and-white that you’d get on a Paperwhite.
That’s because of how color e-readers work. All Colorsoft content, whether it’s black-and-white or not, has to pass through a special filter before it gets to your eyes. This is what allows the color in content that uses it, and there’s really no way to make a color e-reader without one of these filters yet. Unfortunately, that can have an effect on your black-and-white reading.
Get ready to meet the rainbow effect. At its best, it’s a shimmer that adds some texture to your page at the cost of contrast. It’s not too bad, and my husband actually kind of likes it, since it looks a bit like the grain you might get on real paper. But at its worst, it can introduce full rainbows to your black-and-white content. I haven’t noticed that worst-case scenario in too many of my novels, but take a look at this page from Berserk.
If you read a lot of manga or other illustrated black-and-white work on your Kindle, the Colorsoft is probably a no-go for you—it’s where the rainbow effect is likely to bother you most. It’s less noticeable with text-heavy content, but still, not my preferred experience. Your mileage may vary, but I’d only recommend the Colorsoft to people who want to read a lot of comic books, or maybe textbooks or children's books, on their Kindle. For the type of content you would more traditionally use a Kindle for, like novels, shelling out extra for the Colorsoft can actually give you a worse time overall.
Winner: Kindle Paperwhite
Price
Finally, pricing. I already hinted at this one a bit when talking about storage, but didn't give you the whole picture yet. Now's where I make the reveal: While you can get the standard Paperwhite starting for as low as $160, the Kindle Colorsoft starts at $250, and the Signature Edition will cost you $280. That's a lot to pay for color, as both devices are overall pretty similar otherwise.
Still, while this makes the Paperwhite more approachable, it’s important to make sure you’re getting the configuration you want. On the $160 Paperwhite, you’ll get 16GB of storage, ads on the lock screen, no wireless charging, and no automatic brightness. For $180, you can get those same specs without lock screen ads, and for $200, you’ll upgrade to the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which has 32GB of storage, no lock screen ads, wireless charging, and a sensor for automatically adjusting brightness. The differences between the $250 and $280 Kindle Colorsoft are pretty much identical to the non-Signature and Signature Paperwhites, except that both versions of the Colorsoft don't have ads.
Still, I’m going to give this category to the Paperwhite just for how much cheaper the base model is.
Winner: Kindle Paperwhite
And the Winner Is...
For what most people use a Kindle for, the Kindle Paperwhite is still the better bet. It’s cheaper, has the same design as the Colorsoft, and can be upgraded to match it in every category except for being able to display color content.
And, frankly, I’m not looking to read color content on a Kindle right now. I’m an avid comics reader, but the Kindle’s screen is just too small compared to a real-life comic, and without access to the Marvel or DC apps, actually getting comics on the device is a pain. There’s other color content, sure, but without an easy way to read comics from the big two, a color Kindle is just a novelty to me.
Even so, color could be a nice-to-have if you can afford it, except that the Colorsoft’s color filter will make your black-and-white reading experience worse, thanks to that dreaded rainbow effect.
All in all, that makes the Colorsoft a good choice for only a very specific type of reader: someone who has a large digital comics library on Kindle and doesn’t care about muted colors compared to a tablet, reading on a small screen, or dealing with subpar text in novels. I’m sure that person exists, but I haven’t met them yet.
