Amazon has revealed five new Kindles, including its first full-color e-ink tablet. The Kindle Colorsoft is a brand-new addition to the lineup, and it’s a potential game changer for fans of comic books and graphic novels. You can already read digital comics on any Kindle reader, but unless it has black-and-white illustrations, you lose a key component of the story. If the Kindle Colorsoft works well, you will be able to read all of your favorite full-color comics, graphic novels, and manga as intended, with the inherit benefits of an e-ink display. It releases October 30 and is available to preorder now for $280.
The Kindle Colorsoft sounds even more appealing when you consider Amazon’s Comixology Unlimited subscription service. Comixology Unlimited offers over 45,000 comics, graphic novels, and manga for $10 per month (after a free 30-day trial). The catalog includes comics and graphic novels published by Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, and other leaders in the visual storytelling medium. Kindle Unlimited also has graphic novels and manga, but Amazon’s $12/month flagship reading subscription service has a much larger focus on novels.
The Kindle Colorsoft releases October 30 and is available to preorder now for $280. We’ve rounded up all five of the new Kindles below, including the updated Kindle Scribe with improved note-taking features, a faster version of the ever-popular Kindle Paperwhite in models geared for adults and kids, and an upgraded entry-level Kindle.
Quick look: Amazon’s All-New Kindles
Preorder NowKindle Colorsoft — $280 | Releases October 30Kindle Scribe — Starting at $400 | Releases December 4Available NowKindle Paperwhite — Starting at $160 | Available NowKindle Paperwhite Kids — Starting at $180Kindle — $110
Color e-ink has become a trend over the past year. Kobo, Amazon’s biggest competitor, released its own full-color e-ink reader in April. The Kobo Libra Colour has a 7-inch full-color display and 32GB of storage for $220. But switching between brands after years of use is tough, as Amazon and Kobo have unique digital storefronts and file formats. You can’t read Kindle ebooks on Kobo devices and vice-versa.
Most of the color e-ink tablets available now are more comparable to the Kindle Scribe as hybrid readers, note-taking, and productivity devices. For instance, Android e-ink tablet manufacturer Boox has released a few different full-color options, including the 7.8-inch Boox Tab Mini C for $400, the 10.3-inch Note Air 3 C, and the 10.3-inch Tab Ultra C Pro for productivity for $650.
And then there’s reMarkable, the manufacturer behind the most popular note-taking e-ink tablet not made by Amazon, released its own full-color tablet in September. The $629 reMarkable Paper Pro has an 11.8-inch display and is designed to replicate the experience of writing in a notebook.
Perhaps the next iteration of the Kindle Scribe will join the color e-ink party, too. For now, here’s what’s new with the Kindle Scribe and Amazon’s other black-and-white ereaders.
All of the new Kindles are eligible for Amazon’s 20%-off trade-in promotion.
