When Amazon first launched the Kindle Colorsoft in 2024, things did not go well initially, and it looked like it was going to be a flop. It had a frontlight issue that Amazon ended up admitting was a fault, and the reviews were scathing.
For a long time after that the Kindle Colorsoft had a low rating on Amazon. It was in the 2.6-star range for a while after it came out, and then a few months later the rating slowly started to improve and it got up to 3.1-stars.
Now, a year and a half later, the Kindle Colorsoft SE has a 4.2-star rating and the 16GB Kindle Colorsoft that came out last year with the frontlight issue fixed from the get-go has an impressive 4.6-star rating. At this time last year the SE was still in the 3.6-star range so the rating has gone up a lot since then.
I’m surprised the rating is that high given the drawbacks with color E Ink screens in general. The Kindle Paperwhite is rated just slightly higher at 4.7-stars, and the basic Kindle has a 4.6-star rating too.
Considering the base Colorsoft costs $90 more than the base Paperwhite, and the SE Colorsoft costs $80 more than the SE Paperwhite, you’d think that would have more of a negative impact on reviews, but apparently people don’t mind spending more for a color screen.
The Kindle Colorsoft currently sits at #4 on Amazon’s best sellers list for Kindles, just behind the Paperwhite SE. The kids bundle is at #8, and the SE Colorsoft is at #9. The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is doing pretty well too at #6, and it has a 4.3-star rating, despite costing a small fortune.
It turns out people like the Kindle Colorsoft after all. I just hope that Amazon doesn’t start phasing out their black and white Kindles now like Kobo has done. A lot of people still prefer the higher contrast of BW E Ink screens, myself included. It’s nice to have color as an option for those that want it, but color screens shouldn’t replace BW screens until they can match the quality of BW screens.
Amazon can afford to have both bw and color units. Kobo and other smaller brands I feel can only afford one and the hot thing is color.
I have the Colorsoft SE edition & I’ve liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would. I still have my regular Paperwhite & enjoy that too, although for the most part I just use the Colorsoft. Page buttons would be nice but we know that’ll never happen again.