Novels would possibly simply be the Kindle Colorsoft’s greatest weak spot

Earlier this week, Amazon made a small however essential change to its Kindle FAQ web page (as noticed by Good E-Reader), all-but-confirming what many E-Reader fans have identified for a while: Studying on coloration units would not fairly hit the identical because it does in black and white. The up to date textual content on the FAQ web page says, partially,

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is designed to offer a high-quality studying and writing expertise in each coloration and black and white. You could discover that the feel or brightness of the show seems completely different than the Kindle Scribe show. That’s due to the colour filter layer that creates the straightforward on the eyes coloration studying expertise on Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. In case you are searching for a barely crisper black and white studying expertise, you might need to try Kindle Scribe.

Although many on the web had been fast to say that that is Amazon admitting that its commonplace Colorsoft mannequin and its upcoming Scribe Colorsoft aren’t as much as the duty of standard text-based studying and writing, I do not suppose that is precisely what’s taking place right here, and a fast understanding of how E Ink expertise for coloration fashions would possibly assist clarify why text-only novels look completely different while you transfer from a normal or Paperwhite Kindle to a Colorsoft mannequin.

• Storage

  32GB

  Model

  Kindle

  Display Dimension

  7-inch Colorsoft Show (300ppi BW, 150ppi coloration)

  Connections

  USB-C

  Dimension

  5 x 7 x 0.3-inches

  Weight

  7.7oz (219g)

  Amazon’s first-ever Kindle e-reader with a 7-inch coloration E Ink show, good for studying magazines, comedian books or graphic novels.

  
  

• 

  Storage

  16GB

  Battery

  As much as 12 weeks

  Ports

  USB-C

  Show sort

  Amazon’s 7-inch Paperwhite show expertise with built-in mild, 300 ppi, optimized font expertise, 16-level grey scale.

  Connectivity

  Helps 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz networks

  Measurements

  7 x 5 x 0.3-inch

  The most recent era of the Kindle Paperwhite is available in an ultra-thin design with a glare-free display screen that is bigger than its predecessors. With as much as 12 weeks of battery life, waterproof security, and free cloud storage, this e-reader can go wherever you do and take your entire library there as properly. 

  
  

Filtering in coloration

There’s one thing in between you and your textual content

The expertise that powers nearly all fashionable coloration E Ink shows known as Kaleido 3, which makes use of an RGB Shade Filter Array to current colours on the display screen. This coloration filter sits on prime of the black E Ink and mixes pink, inexperienced, and blue with the underlying black and white to create a complete of 4,096 colours. The expertise, whereas it would not produce colours as vibrant as one thing you’d see on an iPad, works very properly for individuals who learn coloration content material like comics or manga, and the impact of the colour filter on prime of the black and white seems just like that of an old-school newspaper’s Sunday coloration web page.

Whereas this expertise helps carry coloration content material to life on an E Ink show, it does put further distance between the viewers’ eyes and the textual content on the display screen. This impact is especially notable in E Ink Tablets just like the Boox Note Max and Tab 4C which emphasize their writing capabilities. Having the extra coloration filter between your stylus and the display screen can produce small delays and a unique writing really feel, which might result in those that use these units for drafting, drawing or taking detailed notes to want black and white over coloration.

And whereas the writing downsides of Kaleido expertise are one thing I’ve written about before, this replace from Kindle does accurately level out one thing that I’ve kind of ignored in my time with each coloration and black and white tablets: textual content sharpness.

Is the Kindle Colorsoft actually worse than the usual Kindle for studying?

It is all about your utilization and luxury

As you would possibly count on, including a filter on prime of an present E Ink show does hamper how clearly you’ll be able to see textual content on a display screen. Although it’s one thing my eyes adjusted to slightly rapidly, if that is one thing that would hamper your enjoyment of studying a purely text-based novel, it’s price contemplating in case you are on the fence about selecting a Colorsoft mannequin of Kindle, or actually any color-enhanced E Ink gadget over one with a black and white show.

As a result of I learn a mixture of comics, manga, and novels, I typically preserve my Colorsoft as my “predominant” Kindle gadget. I am unable to say that the discount in textual content sharpness has ever actually hampered my enjoyment of a text-based novel on the gadget, however as with something, your mileage could range. In my review of the Kindle ColorsoftI stated that if you happen to solely learn novels, this gadget in all probability is not for you, and I feel that is in all probability true for actually any color-enhanced E Ink pill. Not solely do black and white E Ink tablets have further textual content sharpness, however they’re typically a lot inexpensive as properly.

I do not suppose that studying novels on the Kindle Colorsoft (or any coloration E Reader for that matter) is essentially a foul expertise, but when studying textual content is your one and solely objective, I feel the Kindle Paperwhite and even simply the standard Kindle is likely to be your greatest guess if you happen to’re searching for a brand new E Reader, as you are assured to get the most effective studying expertise out there, with the one concession actually being color cover screensavers. And if you happen to ask me, that single function is not price paying an extra $100 (or extra) for within the first place.