My Kindle Colorsoft arrived last week, and the first thing I noticed during the setup process was a weird yellow strip of light along the bottom of the screen.
I usually don’t pay attention to reviews or other people’s comments when a new device gets released because I don’t want to be influenced by outside opinions, but I decided to look at the reviews on Amazon for the Colorsoft to see if it was a common problem, and it turns out there are a bunch of negative reviews, with lots of complaints about the same yellow bar of light that I’m seeing.
Apparently it’s a pretty big deal on reddit too, with all kinds of rumors floating around, many of which are likely the root of customer service reps not knowing what they’re talking about, but I didn’t want to venture down that rabbit hole.
The bottom line is there appears to be a widely spread issue with uneven frontlighting on the Kindle Colorsoft. It’s weird because the Kindle Paperwhite has the exact same design, with the same front layer and presumably the same frontlight setup, and my Paperwhite doesn’t have the yellow bar at all (it’s more like the entire screen is like that, but at least it’s uniform).
I uploaded a video on YouTube showing the yellow band, but it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t show up very well in pictures and videos, and the camera doesn’t focus well in lower lighting, but it’s still pretty obvious, especially in landscape mode.
The yellow bar is most visible when using the cool lighting at mid to high settings. Once you start adding some warm lighting the yellow strip becomes more subtle, and with a lot of warm lighting it pretty much disappears.
It’s so obvious on my unit that it almost seems intentional. I’ve seen a lot of frontlights with obvious gradients over the years, but none with such an isolated, even strip of yellow. It’s weird.
After doing some reading on the Colorsoft, I’m not as bothered by the yellow band as I thought I would be initially because I always prefer to keep the frontlight level low, but as someone who hates uneven frontlights, I can see why people are annoyed by it, especially on a device that costs $279.
Does your Kindle Colorsoft have this same yellow band along the bottom of the screen?
Update – 11/6/24
Amazon has acknowledged the frontlight issue. There’s now a note on the product for the Kindle Colorsoft that says the following:
We Want You To Know
A small number of customers have reported a yellow band along the bottom of the display. We take the quality of our products seriously—customers who notice this can reach out to our customer service team for a replacement or refund, and we’re making the appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not experience this issue moving forward.
Mine is much milder than that vast majority of photos I’ve seen; I’m honestly not sure if I would have even noticed if I wasn’t looking for it due to all the reddit posts. It’s mild enough that it’s not bothering me, so I’m planning to keep my Colorsoft. Definitely feel for everyone who got units with a really pronounced discoloration! Hopefully Amazon will make this right without the affected people having to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a device with a proper screen. It’s like the first gen Paperwhite and the Voyage all over again!
MIne is also mild enough to not bother sending it back. Satisfied customers don’t usually leave the reviews, so the current Kindle Colorsoft rating can be skewed towards negative ones.
After your video I am inclined to believe that it might be software related. the part where you state that it doesn’t appear in dark mode gives me the impression it might be a software issue than a hardware issue. Some people in Reddit are claiming they were told it was a software issue. Also, before the update their screen doesn’t have that yellow stripe.
Fingers crossed.
Mine also has this bug where switching between light and dark mode causes the front light to turn off even if the display says otherwise (I reported this).
Hopefully we’ll get a fix for both. My PW6 screen is so much more yellower than my old PW2 but I am on the fence on whether it is worth sending it back.
Other than the band the screen looks good-but-the band will be a big deal to some users. Amazon really doesn’t seem to have been doing a lot of test reviews before Okaying this model for release. Early reviews are really going to dampen sales. Curious to see how they willfix this.
I don’t think this is a Kindle Colorsoft specific problem.
My Kindle Paperwhite 6 (the latest one) screen also has this yellow band at the bottom.
Anyone else with the normal PW having this?
This doesn’t bother me that much but between the screen looking much more grey compared to old PW2, the battery seemingly going down more quicker and now this I do wonder if I should replace it and how it works. I bought it directly from Amazon and they’re usually great with this kind of stuff but I don’t wanna be without my Kindle for a few days or possibly weeks.
A bunch of Paperwhite 2024 users on Reddit have also reported the yellow banding. Maybe it’s because the PW and Colorsoft share the same warm LEDs or bottom light diffuser. It’s definitely a wider problem, unfortunately, albeit a minor one.
Mine is mild. I didn’t even notice it until people started mentioning it online. The uneven lighting on my first gen Paperwhite bothered me more the the yellow band, and I kept that for years until I traded it in for an upgraded model.
I like my Colorsoft overall. I can put up with the band. I’m afraid of a trade-in nightmare, swapping models only to run the risk of it being worse.