Right after Amazon released the Kindle Colorsoft, people started reporting an issue with a weird yellow band at the bottom of the screen caused by the frontlight. Amazon acknowledged the problem and promised to fix it, but have they really done anything about it?
Amazon still has the “We Want You To Know” disclaimer on the product page for the Kindle Colorsoft that says a “small” number of customers have reported a yellow band along the bottom of the display, and that Amazon has “made the appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not experience this issue moving forward”.
But is Amazon really doing anything about the frontlight issue? I still see people getting new Colorsofts with the exact same problem as originally reported, and the same can be said for those that are getting replacements. If you sort by most recent reviews at Amazon, people are still reporting the same exact yellow band issue.
I have seen a few pictures of the Kindle Colorsoft posted online that don’t appear to have a yellow band at all, so it does seem possible to get a good one, but it still looks like the yellow band issue is pretty widespread.
Some of the 12th gen Kindle Paperwhites suffer from the same uneven frontlight, but it seems to be less common on the Paperwhite. The frontlight on mine is a little on the yellow side overall, but I like it that way and at least it’s an even color across the screen, unlike the Colorsoft that I sent back.
Does anyone out there have any positive news to report on this issue? Anyone get a Colorosoft recently without a yellow band? Did you get a replacement without the issue?
At some point I plan on buying a second Colorsoft to see for myself if Amazon has fixed the problem or not, but I’ll probably wait until it goes on sale for the first time.
I received my first replacement that didn’t have as noticeable a yellow discoloration, but then it had a ton of perforations visible in dark background mode (I still hope they’ll introduce a true Dark Mode for the Colorsoft UI elements like they have in their B&W models), which look like stuck pixels on an LCD. So I requested a second replacement, and while it still had a single light dot in dark mode, it was off in the margins and the rest of the display was nice and white and even – more neutral warmth than the Paperwhite, for sure – so I kept it.
Both replacements came shipped from an alternate source, with a unique SKU, and came with a little envelope with a cool Kindle sticker and an apology note saying that they’ve fixed the issue. From what I could tell online, the replacments that customer service is sending out via standard return/exchange still has the issue, as they’re likely just refurbishing those and passing them on to other customers, maybe hoping that they won’t notice or return?
I’m pretty happy with mine now, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone buy one and have to go through a warranty exchange just to get a corrected device. Maybe in time they’ll offer those to new buyers, but it’s hard to say whether that’s the case as of today.
With the negative reviews (I left one myself), I wouldn’t be surprised if they released another color device in 2025, like an Oasis Color or something, and phased-out the Colorsoft, or released a Colorsoft 2 sooner than later. It’s hard to compare with the Kobo Libra Colo(u)r which doesn’t have the yellowing issue at all, but then doesn’t have as even lighting (I think the Colorsoft lighting system is unique to the 2024 Paperwhite and Colorsoft). Looking at the two side-by-side, though, it’s hard to believe that they’re using the same underlying display.
The PW.5 that I traded for my PW SE 6 was refurbished. And I.am finding my new PW.so much better. Speed wise is very noticeably faster and the screen is fabulous compared to the PW 5. I am not noticing any issues with a .yellow strip. But my eye.sight isn’t great. As.for as the.Colorsoft I will.wait until the.words bugs are fixed. Maybe next generation.
I don’t use the.reverse screen mode. due .to my eye sight, I can’t see to read the.white.text.on a black background