It has finally happened. Amazon officially released a whole new lineup of Kindles today, including the first Kindle with a color E Ink screen called the Kindle Colorsoft.
They also released a new Kindle Scribe with a redesigned display, and a new basic Kindle, along with a new Kindle Paperwhite and a new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition.
The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is basically a Kindle Paperwhite with a 7″ color E Ink screen, and it looks like it’s using a Kaleido 3 screen like other color ereaders, not a Gallery 3 screen, so the color resolution is 150 ppi and the black and white resolution is 300 ppi. The official release date is October 30th, and it sells for $279.99.
The new Kindle Scribe still has a 10.2″ 300 ppi black and white display, but it has a new design with uniform borders. They also upgraded the premium pen and it looks like they’ve done away with the basic pen. They also added some new AI tools, and you can write directly on ebooks now and it will realign the words to wrap around your writing. It starts at $399 and the release date is December 4th.
The new Kindle Paperwhite is basically what we expected. It’s mostly the same as before, but it has a 7″ screen now, with higher contrast, and they say that page turns are 25% faster. It’s available now and starts at $159.99. There are three different color options, black, jade, and raspberry. There’s also a new Signature Edition model for $199.99. It adds wireless charging, an auto-brightness sensor, it has no lockscreen ads, and it has 32GB of internal storage.
There’s a new basic Kindle available as well, and it’s what we expected from the earlier leak. It’s mostly the same as the 2022 model, except it has a brighter frontlight, and the screen has better contrast and faster page turns. There’s also a new matcha green color. It’s shipping now and starts at $109.99.
It’s nice to see Amazon has restocked their Kindle shelves again, especially since they’ve been all sold out of most Kindles for several weeks now. We knew two new models were incoming based on FCC paperwork, but nobody predicted this many new Kindles all at once. I’m surprised they actually released a color model, but it’s a bit disappointing it’s doesn’t have an upgraded Gallery 3 screen like the color Kindle rumors suggested.
I’ll be posting more details about these new Kindles this week, along with some reviews, so check back soon!
Update: Here are links to pages with more details and all known specs for each new Kindle model:
Kindle Colorsoft
Kindle Paperwhite 12th Gen
Kindle Scribe 2
2024 Kindle
Well that release was underwhelming. I was hoping for the Scribe in colour and maybe a less locked in device. Sadly this is just confirming my decision to move away from owning a Kindle and into the world of devices like Onyx and Bigme. I want colour and I want to ability to annotate. Also I want to use my library ebooks which I cannot do in the UK. Safe to say I am not rushing to purchase a colour Kindle..
…and you can write directly on ebooks now and it will realign the words to wrap around your writing… I hope this will be available for older Scribe as well.
It’ll most likely get added via a software update.
8 inch (or bigger) color Oasis, and I would have been on board, but 7 inches and the tired old Paperwhite design is a pass for me.
Exactly.
If the Kindle Colorsoft is $280 and the Kobo Libra Color is $220, that’s a pretty big price difference! And plus the Kobo has page turn buttons and a power button that’s placed in a sane location.
The Softcolour crap costs as much as Oasis but looks like a cheap plastic toy again and lacks buttons. Plus its way much more expensive then their competition. Hard pass. The new Kindle lineup is awful.
Sorry, that wasn’t meant to be reply to your post.
Yeah, totally agreed. The Kobo Libra Color also has a stylus, doesn’t it? Like, the business decisions around the Colorsoft are bonkers to me. Especially because Kobo has a lot more recognition now.
And no option for international shipping that I can find 🙄
It’s probably just too soon. International versions will probably show up on the Amazon website before long.