Amazon expanded its ereader lineup a few months back with the Kindle Colorsoft, its first model with a color display. However, at $280, it was certainly on the pricier end — especially compared with similar devices from competitors. That equation has changed a bit, at least for Amazon Prime members. They’re currently able to pick up the Kindle Colorsoft for $230.
That equates to a discount of 18 percent. It’s the first time that Amazon has reduced the price of the Colorsoft, though you do need to be a Prime member to take advantage of the deal.
Amazon
The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft just got its first discount, but you’ll need to be a Prime member to take advantage of the deal.
$230 at Amazon
There were some teething issues with the Colorsoft, with reports that some customers were seeing a yellow band at the bottom of their display. That issue emerged on our review unit as well. Amazon offered refunds or replacements for affected devices.
The company sent us a second review unit on which the yellow band wasn’t present. The display seemed warmer in general too, which makes it look more like physical book pages. We have removed the score from our review until we’ve been able to test the replacement unit for a longer period and made sure the yellow-band problem doesn’t reoccur.
Page turns are swift on the seven-inch display, which has a 300 pixel-per-inch (ppi) density for black-and-white material and 150 ppi for color content. The device has 32GB of built-in storage and it supports Audible audiobooks. The Kindle Colorsoft will run for up to eight weeks on a single charge and you can top up the battery wirelessly or via USB-C.
The ereader has an IPX8 rating. That means it can withstand immersion in up to two meters of freshwater for up to 60 minutes and 0.25 meters of seawater for three minutes, according to Amazon. So, you can take the Kindle Colorsoft to the pool or beach without worrying too much about it getting wet.
There’s a pinch-to-zoom feature that should be helpful for those who read graphic novels on the Colorsoft. The auto-adjusting front light is handy too. Another major positive is that, unlike other Kindle models, the Colorsoft doesn’t feature lock screen ads by default.
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