The New Kindle Colorsoft Is at Its Lowest Price Ever Right Now

I love Kindle e-readers since the first Kindle Paperwhite came out in 2012, but until recently, my dream of reading color comics on a Kindle was just that. But then, the Kindle Colorsoft finally came out last summer, and it’s now on sale for $169.99 (originally $249.99) during Amazon’s early Big Spring Sale. This is the biggest discount this device has received since its release, according to price-tracking tools. In fact, it’s only $10 more to upgrade from the Kindle Paperwhite to the color version.

You can also get it with three months of free Kindle Unlimited (it’ll auto-renew unless you cancel it), and if you’re a Prime Member, you can fill it up with some free e-books. Here’s what you can expect from the Colorsoft.

The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is exactly what it sounds like: It’s a Kindle e-reader with color. It’s essentially the same hardware and design as the Kindle Paperwhite, with the same dimensions, weight, and 16GB of storage. It also has the same features, like the adjustable warm light, the IPX8 waterproof rating, and the ad-free lock screen that either shows the cover for the book you’re reading, or a generic wallpaper. The battery life is shorter than the Paperwhite’s, with Amazon suggesting it can last up to eight weeks compared to 12 for the Paperwhite, but that’s still plenty for most people. That said, the tech that enables its color display may cause black and white content (like regular books) to look worse, according to our review. Therefore, unless you’re a dedicated comics reader, the Colorsoft may not be the best option for you.

The seven-inch Kaleido 3 display offers the industry standard 300 pixels per inch (ppi) for black-and-white content and 150ppi for color, but it employs a unique, Amazon-developed stack that improves the color quality. If you love reading comics, this is where the Colorsoft Signature Edition shines: Colors look like a printed newspaper, and there’s a feature that provides a close-up of each comic panel so you can enjoy the art without having to manually zoom in to each panel.