Amazon on Wednesday announced its first color Kindle e-reader, following years of efforts to bring a more immersive device to market.
Amazon had tried in previous years to develop color e-readers using eInk, the technology available in its standard Kindles that requires minimal battery power; however, it had failed to develop a model like the new Kindle Colorsoft, which was meticulously designed to deliver vivid, paper-like colors.
What technology does the new Kindle with color offer?
Along with other features already present in other models (including storage for thousands of books and access to more than 15 million titles worldwide), the new Kindle with color has a 7-inch screen and 32 GB of storage.
It also features a host of other notable innovations. These include custom-formulated coatings between the display layers to improve colour and a new nitride LED light guide that, combined with custom algorithms, improves colour and increases brightness. It also features an ultra-thin coating on the display assembly to improve optical performance.
Amazon says it built the Colorsoft display on an oxide substrate to achieve sharper contrast in both color and black-and-white content, as well as to enable faster page turns and better image quality.
Plus, on this model you can highlight text in yellow, orange, blue, or pink, and search for what you highlight by each color. If you want to get closer, just pinch the screen to zoom in without worrying about pixelation, and you can choose between standard or vibrant color styles.
The Kindle Colorsoft also offers a water-resistant design, wireless and USB-C charging, and an automatically adjusting front light. As for the battery, this model boasts up to eight weeks of life.
The Kindle Colorsoft is priced at $280, compared with similar devices from other manufacturers available on Amazon, which range from $149 to $330.
Amazon also introduced a Kindle model with AI
In addition to the Colorsoft, Amazon also introduced a new Kindle Paperwhite with a 7-inch display, two-tenths of an inch larger than the most recent generation.
The company also unveiled an updated Kindle Scribe, which lets users write on the screen with a special pen and convert it into more readable text. Users’ notes can then be summarized by artificial intelligence software that can turn pages of notes into bullet points, the company said.
Users will also soon be able to write notes in the side area and easily hide them. They will also be able to refine their notes in a handwritten font, so they are legible and maintain the appearance of handwriting.
Amazon remains the market leader in e-readers, with more than three-quarters of the market, by some measures. The devices are designed to last for years and the company has said it sells them at close to cost, making money when people buy books or other reading materials, according toReuters.
The Colorsoft will begin shipping to customers on October 30, while the new Scribe will be available until December 4.