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The Colorsoft Kindle has arrived with great fanfare – and you can read my full review review of the first ever color Kindle to get a detailed idea of ​​how I found it to use. Do it though and you’ll notice that there are many comparisons to the Kindle Paperwhite in there – the 2024 version which I also just reviewed.

Indeed, Amazon has made it impossible not to compare the two models, thanks to very similar designs but quite divergent prices. If you’re wondering whether the Kindle Colorsoft or Paperwhite is the best choice for you, read on to learn more about their exact differences – because it’s not just a difference between black and white and color – and what is the best choice. best Kindle overall for you.

Kindle Colorsoft vs Kindle Paperwhite: price

Before I launch into spec comparisons, it’s worth zooming in on the prices Amazon has set for its new Kindle range, as they are more than interesting. The Colorsoft Kindle arrives at £269.99/$279.99 (it won’t arrive in Australia until 2025, with pricing to be confirmed). This immediately makes it one of the most premium Kindles in the range, with a price fairly close to the Kindle Oasiswhich offers buttons and a different design.

The 2024 version of the Paperwhite, meanwhile, costs £159.99 / $159.99 for the standard edition (with ads on the lock screen). It’s £169.99/$179.99 ad-free, or finally £189.99/$199.99 for the Signature Edition, which adds wireless charging and automatic brightness adjustment. For clarity, each Colorsoft Kindle is technically also a Signature Edition, so both of these features are included.

This makes price comparison a bit difficult – if you take the Paperwhite Signature Edition as the closest comparison, it costs £80/$80 less. If, as I would be tempted to do, you think the standard Paperwhite is the more attractive option for most people, you’re looking at a difference of £100/$100.

Kindle Colorsoft vs. Kindle Paperwhite: Design

If you were to turn off their screens (which can’t really happen due to how E ink works, but as a thought experiment) and put them side by side, it would be almost impossible for you to tell the Colorsoft and Paperwhite apart. Their designs and dimensions are almost identical, down to the millimeter:

That said, the Paperwhite offers the choice of three color options for the back of the e-reader: black, green or pink. It’s all pretty nice to look at, but in the case of the Colorsoft, your only option is black. This might disappoint you, but since many people put their Kindle in a case anyway, it probably doesn’t matter much. Another small sign, the Colorsoft Amazon logo, on the back of the tablet, is iridescent in a nod to its color screen, absent on the Paperwhite.

Both tablets also have the same screen size, a 7-inch panel with chunky bezels for your grip to rest on while you hold it. There’s no lip here, with just one flat pane of glass, but it’s quite soft to the touch thanks to an anti-reflective coating, also present on both models, to reduce glare. Each tablet has a USB-C port on the bottom for charging, as well as a power button to wake and put the device to sleep.

There is a tiny difference in weight, although, I think, it’s not a difference that most people will ever notice. The Kindle Paperwhite weighs 211g, while the Colorsoft is a feather heavier at 219g. Either way, both are extremely portable and easy to throw in a bag for travel or commuting. They are also both waterproof to the same level, so a drop in the tub will be ignored by either thanks to a IP rating of IPX8.

Kindle Colorsoft vs. Kindle Paperwhite: Display

Of course, this all revolves around the one obvious and huge difference between these two Kindles: the color. The Colorsoft is the first Kindle to include a color E-ink display, and you can tell it as soon as you look at it, because even its lock screens are colored.

The Colorsoft’s color screen works just like you’re used to if you’ve used a normal Kindle, so you still use the same swipes and taps to move around its interface. You’ll see the screen refresh a little slower than with black and white content, to keep up. The new Paperwhite is technically a bit faster at turning pages than the Colorsoft, but not by much.

It is also worth explaining that Colorsoft detects when you are viewing color content like a comic book and activates its color at that time. So if you are just reading a regular book, it will be in black and white mode. There’s also a difference in clarity here: black and white mode has a pixel density of 300 dpi (the same as the Paperwhite), but it’s halved to 150 ppi for color, resulting in less sharpness.

The Colorsoft offers two color modes, one adding no adjustments and the other (Vivid mode) adding some saturation to make things pop a little more.

This color display is a game-changer, allowing you to enjoy comics, illustrations, and travel books in color on your Kindle without as many compromises. That said, it’s still nowhere near as bright as one of the the best tabletsand you’ll sometimes notice that comic panels don’t exactly pop off the page as they otherwise would.

Both the Paperwhite and Colorsoft have the ability to manually control the brightness of your screen, as well as its warmth, making it easy to get the feel that’s right for you. The Signature Edition of the Paperwhite, meanwhile, adds the auto brightness that comes standard on the Colorsoft.

One area where the Paperwhite has an advantage is contrast. It just has slightly better contrast, which makes the text a little clearer and easier to read – and that’s something you can notice once you get the hang of it.

Kindle Colorsoft vs Kindle Paperwhite: Features and Battery

As I mentioned when explaining their pricing, every Colorsoft Kindle comes with wireless charging included as standard, while you have to pay for the Paperwhite Signature Edition to get the same thing. Whether this matters is up for debate: this isn’t the sort of device you charge very often, so I found a cable more convenient than nighttime wireless charging, as with one of the the best phones.

Other than that and the auto-brightness, the two e-readers perform almost identically when reading text. Their page turning speed is so close that it’s imperceptibly different, and if you choose the Colorsoft because you read comics from time to time, you’re very unlikely to complain about its slightly less stellar contrast ( but still excellent).

However, there is another area where things diverge significantly: battery life. To be clear, both have excellent performance, but despite a technically larger internal battery, the Colorsoft has a noticeably shorter lifespan between charges. According to Amazon, it can last eight weeks, while the Paperwhite can manage 12 weeks.

If you’re reading novels at low brightness, these numbers will prove very accurate, but the important caveat here is that in my testing, I needed very high brightness to enjoy comics on Colorsoft. This means the battery drained more quickly and might be something to note if you’re thinking of getting into graphic novels.

Kindle Colorsoft vs Kindle Paperwhite: Which is better?

Trying to connect all these comparisons may seem complicated, but my thoughts are actually quite clear. While the Kindle ColorSoft convinced me that Amazon would make great color Kindle versions in the coming years, it’s not the best option for most people right now.

THE Kindle PaperwhiteThe 2024 refresh makes it the best it’s ever been, with improved contrast that really makes a difference in the sharpness of text (I noticed this, after upgrading from my generations-old version). It’s the same size, and for the vast majority of reading needs, so it’s slightly better than the more expensive Colorsoft.

So the latest Paperwhite is the better choice and a money-saving option, unless you’re in that niche of people who definitely want a Kindle, but also want to read comics on it, even if that is only occasionally. This should be a pretty easy choice for most people, but it’s worth knowing that those who opt for the Colorsoft will still get a great Kindle, in my opinion.