Amazon’s Colorsoft could be catnip for manga fans and passionate annotators who enjoy multi-color highlights. But what if you favor text-heavy books and don’t need the color that much? Then buy the updated Paperwhite, with its razor-sharp display.

Before going ahead with this Colorsoft review, let me mourn the passing of another “deluxe” reader, the Kindle Oasis. My 2017 model came with the right weight and size, good comfort lighting, waterproofing and a crisp seven-inch screen. And those page-turn buttons! No accidental swipes, no jumping to random sections. I’d hoped Amazon would snazz up the Oasis with a color screen and maybe even add native ePub and robust text-to-speech for non-blind users.

Instead, while marching on to the Colorsoft, Amazon has axed the Oasis, at least for stateside customers.

Meanwhile, more than a few readers have forsaken Amazon devices for Kobo’s Libra Colour, thanks partly to its page-turning buttons. “Kobo girlies” act as if their plastic slabs are the Beatles in 1964 and gush out their love.

Listening, Amazon? Why does your long-awaited Colorsoft lack physical buttons, an inexcusable flaw for a premium device priced at $280—a full $60 above the Libra Colour without the Libra’s stylus. I suspect you could have absorbed the costs. Kobo did.

Screen glitches

Furthermore, the Colorsoft’s display has a yellow band affecting some units. Amazon is working on a fix, but you can see why some users are disappointed.

Also, due to the inherent limitations of the color tech in use, the Colorsoft’s hues are softer and less saturated than LCD or OLED displays, though it’s slightly less muted than Kobo’s Libra Colour. Its black-and-white text mode comes close to the Paperwhite in quality. With monochrome reading in mind, I ultimately returned my Libra due to its lower contrast, but the Colorsoft held up far better in this regard, even if I am still sending it back and relying on a Paperwhite instead.

In a related vein, I had to boost the brightness nearly to max, which drained battery life quickly. The battery on the 2024 Kindle Paperwhite officially can last up to 12 weeks, but the Colorsoft only manages around eight weeks due to the color filter, with results varying based on brightness settings.

On the plus side

–The Colorsoft offers improved speed for page turning, navigating a book, browsing, annotating, and wandering around the Kindle store. Its browser is still underpowered but no longer quite so “experimental”—it’s functional.

–The annotation feature lets users highlight in multiple colors—pink, blue, orange, and yellow. Imagine marking quotes in one shade, plot points in another. This will resonate with readers who prioritize organized reading over pure contrast.

–And if manga is your thing, the Colorsoft’s seven-inch screen suits it well enough, assuming your eyes can handle smaller text in the balloons. But for vivid color graphics, traditional tablets like iPads still provide better visuals.

–The Colorsoft is waterproof, like the Paperwhite and Oasis.

–It has wireless charging.

–Keep in mind this is just a first-generation color reader from Amazon. I’m 100 percent certain the tech from there and elsewhere will get much better, and I can even see schools and libraries purchasing many thousands of color readers to lend out to manga fans and others. The color may especially draw in children. It can happen if Amazon and others drive down the costs and increase the ruggedness and improve the tech in general. Remember, ereaders don’t come with the usual distractions of cell phones. This is a very child-friendly technology, and I’m certainly cheering for Amazon and the others to succeed. I see colorful manga as a gateway to traditional reading in many cases, especially if parents, teachers and librarians guide them. I feel the same about text to speech in E Ink Kindles. May that come, too!

The verdict

Once Amazon fixes the glitches, the Colorsoft could be a niche hit among manga fans, meticulous annotators, and readers who value illustration-heavy genres. However, as noted, pure text readers might want to skip the color and opt for the Paperwhite. And, of course, readers who miss the page-turn buttons on the Oasis will keep waiting or maybe start browsing the Kobo site.

So that’s my take. Is the lack of page-turning buttons a downer for you, too? Or does the color outweigh the flaws?

A statement from Amazon on the yellow band: “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.”